Importance of Having The Proper Knowledge on Diving

Divers were always there, throughout the history.

Diving was never just a sport for pleasure. Sometimes, it was a way of living, a part of tradition of a culture, or a useful tool for scientific purposes.

For some people, it is the way of their life. Bajau tribe in Philippines is born on the sea, and living in there. For them, underwater is the life itself, the source food, joy. They believe, the origins of the life come from there.

 

In the many other parts of the world, underwater has always been an opportunity for the people to find food, discover new places and secrets buried under this transparent earth.

As spear fishermen do. They dive with one breath, and chase after their target as long as they go. Or archeological divers, they go down and extract the history buried down below the sand.

In present days, diving is used also in the professional sector.

Technical divers:

Technical divers go down for underwater repairs in oil platforms, or hull cleaning / propeller checking purposes of the vessels, expeditions for underwater cities, caves, and investigations of wreckages collided or had a breakdown and sung items on the sea

That is why, technical divers are capable of going deep down below the sportive limits, for specific purposes. For most of the divers, the limits are themselves. They go down with necessary air supply, which are specific for deep diving, with mixed gases and reduced elements dangerous after some period of exposure and storage on the body.

Whole technical diving operation needs utmost care with special calculations because, as much as we stay under heavy water pressure, storing of nitrogen in human body system increases in every breath.

This accumulation under water pressure, changes our body functions and responses, even on very simple tasks. Since technical divers go down to use their brain and hands in coordination, they should be fully capable of using them properly.

That is why, only having perfect and high quality equipment will not save you, if you don’t have physically and mentally enough power.

After 20 meters, every dive is considered as “deep” dive. This means, after these limits, the body starts giving response to water pressure, lungs will start shrinking after some time, the blood will start accumulating more nitrogen, under gradually increasing water pressure. As a result, mental status starts giving response to these changes in the physiology.

“Panicked Man” in Diving:

In some cases, the brain starts finding these changes as an attack to the body and tries to get rid of this situation immediately or it just gives up everything and drag the diver into empty feelings ,which can cause you either want to go up to surface immediately, maybe go down more. Sometimes you might want to remove your tools sustaining your life support. There are cases, people are in such a state, they want to remove the regulator and start talking underwater.

We will “go down deep with this diseases” in another article.

Let’s skip to a bitter story, and learn what can happen, when you don’t have enough knowledge on your actions.

Sponge Divers of Kalymnos :

Kalymnos Island is one of the rocky and barren Islands in Dodecanese, where you can’t make any cultivation for vital elements. In the years when tourism was not a matter of income, they had to find a way to create a door for their income. On this purpose, they realized an underwater miracle, natural sponges.

They started harvesting as free divers with a heavy rock connected to their neck. Only with one breath, they were collecting as much as they can and going up to the surface. Of course, it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t just a matter of holding your breath as much as it got, like how present free divers do now. They had to go deep, in some cases, exceeding under 60 meters, staying approximately 5-6 minutes and showing body effort to look for sponges and harvest them.

It was a multi-tasking job, within the years they were the experts of it.

It is understandable that, going down with one breath and stay only 5-6 minutes maximum was not profitable. So they wanted to find a “solution” for that.

Supplying continues air…

For this, in the end of 19th century, they invented “skafandro” which allowed you to go down with a pipe supplying air as long as you were underwater.

Results were horrific…

Lack of knowledge on decompression disease and its affects, they initiated this plan right away. However, right after they started using it, this terrible idea showed its formidable face. Divers were staying such a long time under long meters of water pressure, accumulating nitrogen on their blood, like a virus to come out when they touch the surface again. When the time came to go out, they were pulled out by their connecting line so fast, on the way back, they were stroked by the enhancing nitrogen bubbles on their blood.

In the begining, those divers were going deep down as a healthy person but returning back to boat, mostly hanging on the line dead, or seriously injured with permanent damages on their brains or their spines which causing them continue with their lives as a disabled or paralyzed human being.

Until the decompression tables were introduced, they couldn’t understand the reasons why, and divers were treated by the people as cursed or infected by the sea.

Even after decompression tables were introduced explaining the dangers of nitrogen accumulation and how to prevent it, they didn’t want to implement them. Because, the ways of prevention techniques weren’t promoting the time spent underwater.

According to the tables, they had to proceed to the surface stage by stage, waiting for your body to clean the nitrogen in every atmospheric pressure changes.

Although they avoided using the tables quite a long time, in the end they accepted the situation and decided to stop this brutal practice.

With this story, we have to come to realize that, we need to furnish ourselves with the best knowledge and learn our certification requirements properly.

We have to be trained and aware of the dangers of this sport, so we can prevent them and get the utmost pleasure out of it.

Why Should You Dive?

            Many people want to dive but only few people have this courage to follow this desire. Mostly, many concerns about safety, phobias, non-suitable economical conditions stop people pursuing their dreams.

            Usually travellers consider whole world only consist of things from above the surface where you can see with naked eyes. However, in the other %80 of this blue sphere, there is amazing and astonishing side of our known world, which we can discover endlessly behind the diving mask. Water creates its own environment, and it is way different than air does.

It is totally safe,

            Never get stuck with stereotypes about diving. Ask someone who actually dives. All of them will always say same thing; “It is the safest sport in the world!”

            Like hammerhead sharks, their look is the scariest one but they are the calmest ones among many animals. You would know this fact better if you were a diver. So, this is another reason why you should never believe in things, without experiencing that, at first hand.

            Of course, unless you follow the rules as it suppose to be without extending them by your own heard… There are very simple facts and rules to keep in mind. As long as you follow them strictly, every training and equipment with you will be your safeguards during your experience underwater.

-Swimming in an aquarium with ravishing colors,

            Just consider the colors you have met in world and get read to see more underwater. All around the world, there are thousands of dive sites and each of them better than the other. Some places, colorful fishes and reefs with corals are more, then the water density around, which makes the dive site like a carnival. Sometimes only thing you should do is hit the fins and watch the beauty flows around you. Of course, different colors are not the only thing you will face. Some of them will be chatoyant or transparent, which makes you lose your mind because you can’t believe if this kind of creature can be alive!

            Shapes of their body, quantity of their legs, eyes, tentacles and harmony between them will impress you and it will definitely change the way to see the world you have been living so long.

-Feeling like you are in space,

            Since you were born, probably you haven’t experience how it feels not being exposed to gravity, ever. Well, you can go to some expensive simulators or you can try to be an astronaut and NASA will give you this experience eventually. Whereas, you can leave yourself to the blue sea and you can conquer the gravity with your equipment. You will learn how to control the air with you like an Airbender. Believe me, coolest thing ever!

-Silence,

            How many of us are able to find the perfect silence in the city atmosphere? Sometimes, you just want to be alone, just to relax, keep your precious brain away from all those tiring and unnecessary voice disturbing you on your work, in your house, sometimes even between your friends. This very hard thing to find is not that hard just after couple of centimeters below the surface. Such a silence that even your thoughts can start being very noisy after some point. You can let things slide and enjoy the underwater therapy on your consciousness. Let the blue miracle distract you for a while, away from everything, like changing the dimension…

-Alone but together,

            It is a matter of being a member of a team of trust. Your diving buddy is also your extra air tank, if you have cramp in your body, she/he will be the one who’s going to be with you and help you. If you get lost, they are the ones who will find you. Consider there is another a pair of eyes looking after you.

            On the big teams with group of buddies with a leader in front and securities behind, you always feel safe. Divers are one of the most attentive sportsmen who have high sense of responsibility both on themselves and on their friends. Because they know that, as much as they take care of themselves, they make a contribution to sustain the group harmony and they always watch over not only their buddies but other buddies in the group. Divers always think bigger, away from selfishness.

-Healthy,

            For every sportive activity, physical fitness is essential to be able to continue doing that sport perfectly. At the beginning, you are required to align your buoyancy similar to the zero gravity environments, which eliminates the pressure on your spine and your joints. This process reduces chronic back and joint pains. Beside of this, every time you hit the fins, your muscles and tendons stretch effectively, because there is no body weight pressure stresses them. On the other hand, edema in your body drains under water pressure and cleans your body and relives pressure on your organs and joints. Of course, very important, this process makes you lose a lot of water. So, you have to put necessary water for your kidneys back by drinking good quantity of water.

-Exploring new spaces

            No matter how much you dive in one point, dive sites are changing and evolving environments for each season and also within the time. Each time you dive, you will discover new things and find new diversity to witness. That is why, you will never get bored even if you dive at the same point frequently.

Complete travels, under and above the water.

            During your travels, you will have chance to see whole beauties of that place, surrounded by both air and clear waters… Many waterside countries have diving points available. And in case of natural beauties, some of them have the ones even better than they have in the shore side. Leaving that country without seeing its underwater affluences might be a huge loss in your experience.

Lifetime passion

            Because it includes sport, socializing and travel, after some time, you can find yourself planning your life schedule for your new diving trips, saving money for LiveAboard diving trip weeks. From the equipment which divers use, to the biological awareness, which you will develop in your world of interest, diving world will improve your life and you will feel the transformation it in your blood.

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