Facts About Scuba Diving

Want to experience the underwater world? Learn Scuba diving and go ahead, dive deep into the waters and change your life forever.

SCUBA is an abbreviation for self-contained underwater-breathing apparatus and scuba diving is one of the most delightful and enticing hobbies one can have. It is extremely popular abroad and is becoming so in India where the islands of Lakshadweep (in the Indian Ocean) and Andaman (in the Bay of Bengal) offer some of the best diving sites in the world. Using a cylinder of compressed gas to breathe (usually air, but sometimes other gases), scuba divers can stay underwater much longer than would be possible by just holding their breath - for hours or even days!

From time immemorial man has had the urge to explore. However, exploration of the ocean depths was limited by lack of equipment. Free diving with no equipment was practiced by pearl fishers and spear fishers. But the pleasures of the underwater world were denied to the vast majority till SCUBA equipment developed in its present form. With the assistance of equipment such as scuba masks, breathing regulators, buoyancy devices, fins, and gauges scuba divers can explore the underwater world.

Modern scuba diving is very safe and easy to learn. Today’s scuba diving owes its development to the French diver Jacques Cousteau who, along with Emile Gagnan, first developed the apparatus in1943. This enabled compressed air to be carried down in a tank and freed one from the use of cumbersome diving suits and breathing lines. For the first time it enabled a diver to be freed of air supplied from the surface.

Imagine yourself in a most spectacular virgin coral reef, embraced by a turquoise lagoon, an original Garden of Eden. Most popular as a recreational sport, scuba diving has also been extremely useful in oceanography; study of marine life and in underwater exploration. One need not be an expert swimmer. The only prerequisites are good physical and mental health, basic swimming skills and the urge for adventure. Before choosing your dive school, do check out whether it is affiliated to any reputed international organization. Also check out experiences of divers who have been to these schools and dive locations.

For some it's the beauty of the reef and the marine life that inhabits it, for others it's the thrill of discovery deep inside a wreck or cave - everyone has a different reason for scuba diving, but most would agree that it's for the sheer enjoyment of experiencing the underwater world, a world so far removed from ours that it will truly amaze you. Whether you want to relax while photographing brightly colored tropical fish, be thrilled by the power and grace of a school of sharks, or make a living working underwater, scuba diving has it all.

Types of Scuba Diving
There are many types of scuba diving which means there's always something new to do and see.

Recreational
Most divers are recreational divers and this is the form of diving that is devoted to having fun. Some divers love looking at fish and coral, but there are also many specialized areas of scuba diving. After Open Water certification you can complete courses in all sorts of specialties including, but not limited to: night diving, wreck diving, deep diving, navigation, fish identification, underwater naturalism, photography, videographer, cave diving, ice diving, altitude diving, and rescue diving.

Technical
Some recreational divers want to explore the marine world even further than recreational diving equipment and training allows. Technical diving encompasses areas such as extreme deep diving, advanced wreck diving, and advanced cave diving. Technical diving is for very experienced recreational divers and requires specialized training and equipment.

Commercial
Commercial diver’s scuba dive for a living. They build underwater structures such as oil platforms, carry out underwater maintenance, conduct surveys, create maps, participate in salvage operations, and work in many other diving related occupations.

Military
Military diving is similar to commercial diving but also involves such tasks as underwater surveillance, mine clearing, and military research. Military divers and scientists have historically been responsible for most advances in dive equipment and dive medicine.

Scuba Diving helps in rejuvenating your body, refreshes mind and awakens your spirit. Diving is a sport that is practiced recreationally all around the world and can even be a profession.