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Scuba Diving Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Here's some scuba diving mistakes and regrets we can all learn from. Make sure you’re not doing these things when out and about in the water

Even the most experienced scuba divers have regrets because they weren’t always so good at what they do. Once upon a time, they were novices just like you and had to learn the ways of the water in their own time. Luckily the internet has provided us with many guides and tips that we can follow to ensure a smooth transition into the world of scuba diving. This being said, you will still today find many scuba divers who have regrets about their time diving. If given the chance, they’d go back in time and make sure they never made such silly mistakes in the first place.

Now, thanks to this article, they don’t have to worry about making them ever again and neither do you. Here is our list of common scuba diving regrets that you need to be aware of.

Equipment

We’ve all been sold a dream at one stage in our lives, and the same goes for when it comes to purchasing scuba diving equipment as well. Just because it has fancy words in the product description doesn’t always mean it’s going to be practical. It can happen to the best of divers, they see the newest and shiniest dive gear and they turn into magpies. The best thing you can do is to read about the product, look for reviews on it and decide whether it’s going to benefit your diving experience.

Have a talk with yourself and decide the type of diver you want to be. Do you want to use gear that is useful and essential? Or do you want to jump on the fads and mod cons that come with big price tags? The choice is all yours.

Charge Your Gear

Right this second, stop what you’re doing and put that dive torch or camera on a nice long charge. You do not want to get ready for your next dive to jump in the water only to find out that all your charge has been depleted and your dive is dead in the water. Batteries are tricky things. The first quarter seems to last for ages. But anything below half a battery can just disappear in a flash.

Cold water diving is worse for this situation happening. Batteries like it when it’s warm. So when you grab your gear out of your kit back and check the battery, it can appear to be fine. But then plunge it into cold water, and boom, you suddenly have no juice left. Just because an item only uses 20% of the battery on the first hour-long dive doesn’t mean that it will last the second dive.

Download Space

It’s important to remember to keep an eye on footage for memory cards and log data on your dive computer. If you’re shooting a lot of footage in high definition, your memory card is going to fill up real quick. So, between dives, download the pictures and videos onto a laptop or external hard drive so you can format the memory card.

The same goes for your dive computer and logbook. Fill out your logbook as soon as you can after your dive because you will forget things, and your dive computer will forget things too. Dive computers have limited memory, and when it fills up, it overwrites the oldest dives. Most computers have a fair amount of memory now, but if your plan is to log your dives all at the end of the trip you may lose some data.

Weight Check

When you first learn to dive, instructors will often give you more lead than you actually need. This might get you in the habit of doing this when you dive on your own, but it’s better to do a fresh weight check after your first few dives. This is because the amount of lead you actually need will probably go down as you become a better diver.

Do a weight check before you dive, and then you can make the decision for yourself.

Too Much Training

Often a springboard into diving might be through diving courses. It can become quite addictive climbing your way up that training ladder and making it as a professional diver. If this is the case, many of your dives will be training students. It will be a rare occasion that you actually dive for fun.

Obviously, if you want to go down the professional route, then do it. But remember to take some time for yourself and go diving to enjoy it, without having to plan the dive for others and constantly think if they’re ok. And if you’re a professional, try to work a system that ensures that you go diving for yourself every so often. Taking part in training courses is great to sharpen your skills but, actually, just diving is far better. Diving in a controlled environment where everything goes to plan is great, but you’ll learn a lot more on fun dives.

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Well, we hope you learned something from these scuba diving regrets. Hopefully, you’ll be sure not to recreate them in the future. If reading this got you in the mood for some diving, then be sure to head over to Simply Scuba to get some of the latest diving gear.

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