19 Facts About Scuba diving

Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply.

Scuba diving divers carry their own source of breathing gas, usually compressed air, affording them greater independence and movement than surface-supplied divers, and more time underwater than free divers.

Open circuit scuba systems discharge the breathing gas into the environment as it is exhaled, and consist of one or more diving cylinders containing breathing gas at high pressure which is supplied to the diver through a diving regulator.

Scuba divers are trained in the procedures and skills appropriate to their level of certification by diving instructors affiliated to the diver certification organisations which issue these certifications.

Traditionally this was done by using a depth gauge and a Scuba diving watch, but electronic dive computers are now in general use, as they are programmed to do real-time modelling of decompression requirements for the dive, and automatically allow for surface interval.

Buddy and team diving procedures are intended to ensure that a recreational scuba diver who gets into difficulty underwater is in the presence of a similarly equipped person who will understand the problem and can render assistance.

Commercial diving using scuba is generally restricted for reasons of occupational health and safety.

Surface supplied Scuba diving allows better control of the operation and eliminates or significantly reduces the risks of loss of breathing gas supply and losing the diver.

Lastly, there are professional divers involved with underwater environments, such as underwater photographers or underwater videographers, who document the underwater world, or scientific Scuba diving, including marine biology, geology, hydrology, oceanography and underwater archaeology.

Choice between scuba and surface-supplied diving equipment is based on both legal and logistical constraints.

Safety of underwater Scuba diving depends on four factors: the environment, the equipment, behaviour of the individual diver and performance of the dive team.

Scuba diving equipment allows the diver to operate underwater for limited periods, and the reliable function of some of the equipment is critical to even short-term survival.

For those pursuing other activities while Scuba diving, there are additional hazards of task loading, of the dive task and of special equipment associated with the task.

Many Scuba diving fatalities are the result of a cascade of incidents overwhelming the diver, who should be able to manage any single reasonably foreseeable incident.

Risk of dying during recreational, scientific or commercial diving is small, and on scuba, deaths are usually associated with poor gas management, poor buoyancy control, equipment misuse, entrapment, rough water conditions and pre-existing health problems.

About a quarter of Scuba diving fatalities are associated with cardiac events, mostly in older divers.

Decompression sickness and arterial gas embolism in recreational Scuba diving have been associated with specific demographic, environmental, and Scuba diving behavioural factors.

Scuba diving training is normally provided by a qualified instructor who is a member of one or more diver certification agencies or is registered with a government agency.

Some knowledge of physiology and the physics of Scuba diving is considered necessary by most diver certification agencies, as the Scuba diving environment is alien and relatively hostile to humans.