Divers Don't Breathe Oxygen, Wear Flippers or Goggles

A Labeled Enriched Air Nitrox Cylinder

When I first got scuba certified, I was a little put off by the instructors always correcting my terminology. "It is called a mask not goggles" he would say or "it is an air tank, not an oxygen tank" she might tell me or "fins are for people, flippers are for dolphins." Why be so picky? It wasn't until I became a dive professional that I understood why these seemingly minor issues are important for safety of the diver and others. 

Take the googles issue for example. The reason we must refer to it as a mask and not goggles is one of safety. Swim googles are often worn while swimming, but only a scuba mask is suitable for diving to depths beyond a swimming pool. A scuba mask covers both the the eyes and nose, which allows the diver to equalize the air space in the mask to ambient pressure. If a diver were to dive with swim goggles s/he could do some serious damage to his/her eyes as the pressure increases to 2-5 times the pressure experienced at the surface. If the googles were to flood with water it could lead to panic situation and possibly a fatality because there is no way to clear the water from goggles. It must be be made clear to a beginning diver that goggles and dive masks are different, and goggles can never be substituted for a proper mask.

As for calling your dive cylinder an "oxygen tank", this is to prevent another potentially fatal mistake among new recreational divers. You see, recreational divers often do have oxygen cylinders around for emergency first aid use since the primary first aid treatment for injured divers is 100% oxygen. Technical divers sometimes use 100% oxygen as a decompression gas. The problem is that 100% oxygen has a maximum operating depth of just 20 feet. So if a recreational diver, new to the sport were to go diving with an "oxygen tank" and exceed 20 feet of depth that person could succumb to oxygen toxicity, suffer convulsions, and drown. For this reason it is important to call the cylinder an air cylinder which it usually is. One might also call it a breathing gas cylinder if diving an enriched air nitrox mix (air enriched with additional oxygen). By using proper terminology, the rare possibility of a fatal mistake is minimized.

As for fins vs. flippers, that one is just semantics, but I still prefer fins to flippers.

Can you think of other scuba terms that people get bent out of shape about? Share in the comments.

Shallow Dives Are NOT Safer

Ascend slowly from every dive, especially the last 15 feet.

Recently, I have heard a few folks make comments like, "The water isn't that deep, so the diver will be fine" or maybe you have heard a diver say, "It is only a swimming pool, what could happen?"

These comments are frightening because they show a serious misunderstanding of the most basic concept of scuba diving safety. This is a failure of the diver the understand the risks in diving!

Let's go back to your beginning scuba course. Recall it starts with a lesson on Boyle's Law and lung over-expansion injuries. You must learn and prove mastery of this concept with a quiz before you can ever get into a pool. Often the analogy of a balloon popping as air expands on ascent is used to explain what happens inside the lungs if you hold your breath or if mucous or lung tissue traps air in the lung while ascending. Unfortunately delicate lung tissue is not as strong as a balloon and alveoli can be torn in as little as 3 feet of water. Rupture of lung tissue can allow air to enter the blood stream, which is potentially fatal! The greatest changes in volume occur at the top of the water column in the few feet near the surface so this is where most lung over expansion injuries actually occur. You are told to never hold your breath, never dive with a cold or congested lungs, and always ascend slowly from every dive, but there is always some risk of lung over-expansion. Shallow water in no way lowers the risk. Shallow water such as a pool does lower the risk of decompression sickness, which is why some divers mistakenly think shallow water is safer. It simply is not. I have seen many new divers, dutifully complete their safety stop and then bolt from 15 feet to the surface. This is a risk both for decompression sickness and gas embolism!

Over time some divers get complacent and forget this basic information. Don't let this happen to you. Continue your education. Keep learning beyond the basic scuba course, which is meant to inform you, but not overwhelm you. Be an active Divers Alert Network member and read the great dive safety information the organization provides. Learn beyond the basics. Seek out books on diving. Entry level courses are entry level. There is much more to learn. Treat every dive seriously, regardless of the depth. Ascend slowly from every dive, especially the last 15 feet. Breathe continuously and don't dive if you have congested lungs.

Transform Yourself- Transform Your Ocean!

Do you really need to rinse out your BCD? Yes or BS?

Salt crystals inside a neglected BCD Bladder.

As you can see the answer to this is one is definite yes! Salt does build up inside BCDs and forms sharp "blades".  Over time these can cut the bladder.  For the same reason always leave some air in the BCD and never stack stuff on top of a BCD.

Salt crystals from a neglected BCD.

To rinse a BCD properly you press the deflate button while filling the BCD partially with freshwater from a hose or spigot. Then inflate the BCD manually. Next you swish the BCD around vigorously making sure water reaches every part of the bladder. Next you must dump water through the dump valves including the inflator mechanism itself. To rinse the inflator hose, turn the BCD upside down and squeeze it between your legs to force water out the inflator hose. Repeat this several times.

To make things a little easier there are special hoses with an inflator hose fitting on one end and a garden hose fitting on the other. Just connect to a garden hose and to the inflator. Press the inflate button water while running water into the BCD. The fitting is designed for air, so it takes several minutes this way, but water does not go all over you. Once the BCD has water in it, rinse it as described above.

What do you think?

Does it pay well to be a scuba instructor?

People sometimes ask, "Does it pay well to be a scuba instructor?"

Being a scuba instructor means constantly learning new things, working with all kinds of different people, watching as the "light bulbs" suddenly come on, being underwater with amazing animals, helping people understand how fragile the aquatic world is and inspiring them to protect it, and so much more. 

It can mean a life of extreme fulfillment and adventure, but like all teaching careers, it is one of difficulty, complexity, and financial poverty.

So if by "pay well", you mean money, then the answer is most often NO, but if you measure life by a different measuring stick and know exactly what you are getting yourself into then it pays immeasurably!

*Caution- for some people being an instructor pays absolutely no money at all! Some dive shops will not pay instructors any cold hard cash, instead giving them more scuba certifications, paying their liability insurance, offering free or discounted gear, discounted travel in exchange for leading dive excursions, and sometimes even "free" air! Basically the instructor becomes a pawn in doing the work of the shop in a sort of pyramid scheme, bringing in his/her friends to the "club". They eagerly represent the shop and bring in new customers until eventually they realize they are putting in far more than they get out. Watch out for this arrangement. Be sure you actually get paid a real living wage with benefits for your hard work or at least understand the game in advance.

Don't feed the sharks!

Excuse me you forgot the mouthpiece on my regulator?

The Humble Scuba Mouthpiece.

It has come to my attention that some dive stores are selling mouthpieces every time a diver borrows or rents a regulator! They cite "health and safety" reasons, "ick factor", or some other scare tactic to sell a new mouthpiece perhaps even upsell you to a special $30 moldable mouthpiece. 

If this happens to you run! What they are doing is ripping you off. The regulator mouthpiece is just one component of the regulator. The regulator itself is an empty container that the diver breathes in and out of, coughs into, spits into, perhaps even vomits into that chamber. So if you are renting or borrowing gear, it all needs to be cleaned and sanitized, not just the mouthpiece. Do you eat with forks from a restaurant? Do you trust that they have been sanitized or do you demand a brand new fork every time you eat?

Now I am happy to sell a new $5.00 mouthpiece to anybody that wants one and I will pocket a few dollars for my trouble, but if I nickel and dime people, eventually they will no longer trust me. 

Remember, the recreational dive industry is a slick business and the sales tactics can be subtle. Watch out for scare tactics and don't feed the sharks! 

Where to Log Dives

A dive log is useful for "proving" your diving skill and experience.  It might be the difference between going to a stellar dive site a mediocre dive site.  Logging dives is also important if you are pursuing advanced certification or professional ratings. 

I was shocked when nobody looked at my logbook, when I became a scuba instructor. Probably a 

standards violation, but it got me wondering how often anybody ever really looked at my logbook?  The answer- almost never.  Usually people just go on your word.

I remember being a new diver and writing page after page in my logbook, I would connect my Citizen Aqualand dive watch to my computer, download my dive profile, print it out, and add it to my paper logbook. I bought special "adventure log" pages, which gave me more room to write stuff. I wrote every fish, coral and invertebrate I saw. When I started doing scientific dives, I wrote extensively in a separate Wetnotes journal.  Often my logs said "see pics." Over time I slowly began to write less and then most often I skipped logging dives at all.

Nowadays logging dives is a complicated problem. There are so many different choices for logging dives.  There are websites, digital logs, apps, apps that connect to your dive computer, apps the connect to your phone, old fashioned paper logs of all kinds, and free log pages you print out online.  Trouble is none of these integrate and none has emerged as a leader, which means I have dives logged on my computer, on paper, on ScubaEarth and the back of napkins.  While I expect the need to prove one's dive experience will not go away, I am not so sure what will happen to the dive log. As an instructor I can't ask a student diver to pay an extra $20 for a paper dive log that required the killing of trees to produce, was trucked across country, and can be ruined as soon as water, the stuff we dive in, touches it, but I sure wish there was another universal viable solution.

How will this play out?

Which Scuba Weights Are Best?

Not all scuba weights are created equally.

Scuba weights have evolved over the years, but like all scuba equipment, there are gimmicks to avoid.

There are soft bean bag weights which constantly form lead dust which then leaches toxic lead all over your boat and equipment.  These can never be threaded onto a standard weight belt.  Lead shot weights are difficult to get in and out when used with most weight integrated BCD pouches or cartridges because they bunch up.  Some pools will not allow lead shot weights at all because of the potential for lead contamination and lead shot ending up in the pool drains. For these reasons I avoid soft bean bag weights of any kind. Sell them on eBay right away in a well taped USPS flat rate box. 

Uncoated block weights are the way to go in my opinion, because they take up less space than rubber coated weights, work well in weight integrated BCDs, but also can be threaded onto a weight belt or harness whenever needed. If you need to do a quick free dive to clear a boat prop or swim with a whale shark, you don't want to waste time finding the right weights or belt. You may have noticed these are what you find in professional dive operations the world over.

Not all block weights are created equally, however. None of the weights on the bottom row (above) can be threaded onto a weight belt.  They have been dropped so the slot is too narrow, or were molded poorly to begin with.  You don't have to spend a lot, but do yourself a favor and buy the nicely molded weights in the middle, they have nice big wide slots to accomodate even an old frayed weight belt, are nicely moulded on both sides, have comfortable rounded edges, are well marked on both sides, and are usually made from sturdy modern alloys.  

I do not recommend molding your own weights even if you get the lead for free. You will work hard, sweat a lot, expose yourself to toxic lead solid and fumes, and after your hard work, the product will be inferior.  It is tough to remove all the slag that forms even with the proper flux, and getting the weight correct can be difficult.

What's your opinion on weights?