Category: Scuba Tech Philippines Articles
DIY Sidemount Wreck Diving Helmet I noticed, with some surprise, the high cost of cave sidemount wreck diving helmets currently being sold on the scuba market. Light Monkey sell an excellent diving helmet, but the cost (certainly here in the Philippines) was prohibitive for me. I promote a policy of frugal investment on rugged and reliable dive [...]
Line Laying for Wreck Diving Penetrations – Video Tutorials Wreck diving courses include line laying practice for wreck diving penetration, however many wreck instructors have minimal personal experience in the finer points of guideline deployment and use. Proper guideline techniques were refined and perfected in the discipline of cave diving exploration. Those techniques were adopted [...]
How To Evaluate A Wreck Diving Course by Andy Davis, PADI/TecRec/ANDI Sidemount Technical Wreck Instructor In this article I will be looking at what differentiates basic wreck diving courses – the good, the bad and the ugly. In particular, I want to examine specific wreck penetration issues, so that the reader may find some guidance [...]
Scuba Diving Skills – How to Judge Your Ascent Rate Without a Dive Computer Novice divers often express frustration about how to best conduct safe and controlled ascents from their scuba dives. In particular, I see many new divers questioning the best technique for judging their ascent speed. The common use of dive computers [...]
Scuba Diving Safety Protocols: Buddy Separation Losing your buddy is an easy way to ruining a good dive. Being alone underwater can cause many divers apprehension. It often also ends in an aborted dive – which sucks when you’ve spent your hard earned money, time and effort in going scuba diving. Buddy separation can be [...]
The Value of Progressive Scuba Training – ‘Putting Another Dollar In’. When I talk with divers and read the online scuba forums I see a lot of scepticism about progressive scuba training courses. Novice divers often question the value of courses X, Y or Z. Many intermediate and advanced divers will profess to having wasted [...]
Recreational Scuba Depth Limits for Deep Diving Question: I was taught that “recreational divers plan all dives to be no stop dives” and also that most agencies consider 40m /130 feet as the maximum depth for recreational deep diving. That seems inconsistent when my dive computer allows me to dive below 40m/130 feet and still [...]
Technical versus Recreational Scuba Diving: Why is there a need for Rules, Boundaries and Limitations? There is currently a strong debate about the need to differentiate between recreational and technical scuba diving. Some people believe that ‘diving is diving’ and question the need to draw a distinct boundary between recreational and technical diving pursuits. In [...]
Ten Tips to Attain a Better Horizontal Hover – Scuba Diving Techniques by Andy Davis, Scuba Tech Philippines Scuba diving techniques to improve your comfort and capability underwater. In this article, I list ten simple techniques that will allow you to develop a better horizontal hover whilst scuba diving. 1. Get Your Weighting Right Fine-tune & [...]
Technical Diving Skills – Valve Shutdown Drill Explained This article, posted at Dive DIR, provides a very clear explanation of valve shutdown drills for isolated manifold doubles/twinset cylinders. Great reading, if you are thinking about technical diving or just doing recreational scuba dives with doubles cylinders. http://www.divedir.com/Drills-and-Skills/vdrillexplained.html A sample: Tuesday, 02 November 2010 17:39 This [...]
Technical Diving Skills – Reaching Your Valves This article, posted at DiveDIR, gives great advice on how to reach your valves when conducting valve shutdown procedures. It’s the most comprehensive analysis of this key skill attribute that I’ve read to date. They call it the ‘ultimate guide’… it really is! Direct Link: http://www.divedir.com/Drills-and-Skills/valve-drills-the-ultimate-guide.html Sample: Reaching Your [...]
Scuba Equipment Guide: How to critically evaluate and purchase the perfect Buoyancy Control Device (BCD) for your needs! Shopping for a scuba buoyancy control device (BCD) is like completing a jigsaw. There is a huge variety of products and options available for the diver to chose from. The diver needs certain functions, but may also want certain [...]
Are You Ready For Solo Diving? by Andy Davis, Consultant Technical Diving Instructor, Scuba Tech Philippines The issue of solo diving often comes up in conversation amongst divers and the activity is increasingly being seen as a more ‘mainstream’ pursuit, now supported through formalized training courses and qualification by most of the primary scuba training [...]
Using Your Hands Whilst Scuba Diving Many novice divers wish to improve their air consumption during dives and increase their relaxation and fluidity underwater. A major obstacle to these goals is using your hands for control and/or propulsion I think that most novice divers have an instinctive tendancy to try and ‘swim’ underwater. Who can [...]
Scuba Diving Tips: Choosing and Using A Redundant Air Source by Andy Davis, PADI TecRec, ANDI, BSAC and SSI Instructor Pony cylinders are a popular choice amongst divers who seek a redundant form of air supply as a contingency for Out-Of-Air (OOA) emergencies when scuba diving. There is a lot of debate about when, or [...]
When Some Scuba courses are more Equal than Others There’s some big discrepancies in course pricing for seemingly ‘identical’ scuba courses. Cheaper courses, that result in the same certification and adhere to the same minimum agency standards should all be equal…. shouldn’t they? Why shouldn’t a prospective student simply shop around for the cheapest deal [...]
Instinctive Drowning Response – Vital Knowledge for Scuba Divers and Swimmers All divers should be aware of Instinctive Drowning Response. Those scuba instructors (and agencies!) responsible for teaching rescue diver courses should make a priority to update their syllabus and materials in recognition of the ‘real-world’ signs of a drowning victim. Several headlines that I [...]
Stress Management in Scuba Training – What can be done about the Panic Reaction? I’m not a psychologist, but I have noticed some trends when it comes to diver reaction to scuba diving incident stress, and how those trends can be, to a greater or lesser degree, influenced by the effectiveness of scuba training. The [...]
How to Dive with ‘Insta-Buddies’ by Andy Davis, PADI TecRec, ANDI, SSI & BSAC instructor. The term ‘insta-buddy‘ is popularly used within the scuba community to define a diver of unknown skill, capability and mindset – that you are paired with on a dive boat. Typically, this term is used to describe the worst case [...]
QUESTION: I am a recreational diver and I dive mostly with my husband. Our relationship issues (bickering) caused me stress. Is this a factor I should consider when scuba diving? I know of at least one diving fatality that could otherwise have been avoided if intra-relationship dispute and/or the associated stress wasn’t a factor. It’s [...]
Pony Cylinders and Redundant Air Sources for Wreck Diving Recreational wreck divers often question whether they need to carry a redundant source of air when conducting specialist wreck diving activities. Most agencies and instructors will generally recommend the use of redundant air sources to be a prudent measure for wreck divers. However, the use [...]
What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)? ANDI International Hyperbaric Research Center 74 Woodcleft Ave, Freeport NY 11520 516-546-2026 Article reproduced courtesy of Bruce Konefe Hyperbaric is simply referencing a condition that is above standard atmospheric pressure. Instead of breathing the normal 21% oxygen, the therapy involves breathing 100% oxygen in a chamber that is moderately [...]
The Physics of Diving – Scuba Gas Laws A concise explanation of the critical scuba gas laws for divers by Andy Davis PADI TecRec, ANDI, BSAC and SSI Instructor Scuba diving is all about getting gas into your body while you are underwater. What complicates scuba diving is the way gasses behaves at depth, under [...]
