Diving is a challenging sport but probably the most rewarding. From the moment you hit the water adrenalin races through your body for the journey ahead. So lets start our journey into scuba diving.

This all sounds like a whole lot of fun, which it is but there is a lot more to it. I will try to inform you on the magic of scuba diving and everything to do with it.

The journey starts on the shore where you have to put together your scuba unit. I will briefly outline how this is done. The tank in strapped on the back of the BCD (buoyancy control device). Then the first stage is screwed on to the tank valves (the first stage consists of primary regulator, spare regulator, gauges and inflator hose for the BCD). The inflator hose is secured to the BCD and you have assembled your scuba unit.

You put on your wetsuit and weight belt, take your fins & mask and head down to the water. Here you will either get on a boat or do a shore dive. With shore dives you put on your fins and mask in the water and then swim to the dive site (no more than about 100m). Or you put all your gear on a boat that will take you to your dive site. When you get to the dive site on a boat you put on your fins, snorkel & tank and backward roll into the water. Once in the water you head to the anchor line and wait for your buddy.

Whatever dive your doing once at a line to descend down you and your buddy descend together and meet at the bottom. At the bottom you take a compass bearing and head off to do your dive. During the dive instead of using your hands to move around use your legs to go forward and your lungs to control your buoyancy. Every time you take a breath the air in your lungs will make you more buoyant thus making you rise a bit. If you want to turn you use your body and turn it the way you want to go.

While on the dive going SLOW is the most important action to having a great dive. Don’t focus at what’s coming up next in a dive but rather what’s around you now. If you don’t look in the crevasses and rocks you won’t see half the marine life you could have. Please be careful of the marine life because it is why you dive and but accidentally killing it, it won’t be there for others.

After having a dive and your back at the anchor line, deflate all the air out of your BCD and start pulling or swimming up the anchor line. When you get to five meters it is advised you take a five-minute safety stop if your dive has been long or deeper than 18 meters (to avoid decompression ilness) but I strongly recommend this saftey stop on all dives. This is more than the recommended time but I think it’s important to be safe at all times during diving.

Once back in the boat its time to have a chat about what you saw while the boat takes you back or swim back to shore if you were on a shore dive. Once back at shore take of your wetsuit and then take apart your scuba unit. Make sure you then wash it off at home to give it a longer life.