Have you ever wondered what it would be like to swim with the fish and explore the underwater jungle that covers two-thirds of the earth's surface? I have always been interested in water activities; swimming, diving and skiing, and I felt that scuba was for me. My first dive took place while on a family vacation. I came across a dive shop offering introductory dives, which immediately caught my interest. After much convincing (my parents), with my solemn assurance that I would be careful, I was allowed to participate in a dive. I was ready, or so I thought. The slim basics such as breathing were explained and I was literally tossed in. Sounds easy enough, right!, well WRONG!!. From the moment I hit the water, my experience was much less than fun. I quickly sank to the bottom into a new world, with unfamiliar dangers. I really wasn't ready for this experience. I was disorientated, causing me to panic, which shortened the length of my dive, not to mention my air supply. Let's just say I would not do that again. To start exploring the underwater world, one must first master a few skills. Certification is the first step of learning to dive. From qualified professionals one must learn how to use the equipment, safety precautions, and the best places to dive. This paper is designed to help give a general understanding of the sport and the importance that physics plays in it. Self- contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, or SCUBA for short, is a hell of a lot of fun. However, there is considerably more to Diving than just putting on a wetsuit and strapping some compressed air onto ones back. As I quickly learned, diving safely requires quite a bit more in terms of time, effort, and preparation. When one goes underwater, a diver is introduced to a new and unfamiliar world, where many dangers exist, but can be avoided with proper lessons and understanding. With this knowledge the water is ours to discover. The Evolution of Scuba Diving Divers have penetrated the oceans through the centuries for the purpose of acquiring food, searching for treasure, carrying out military operations, performing scientific research and exploration, and enjoying the aquatic environment. Bachrach (1982) identified the following five principal periods in the history of diving which are currently in use. Free (or breath-hold) diving, bell diving,... ... middle of paper ... ...tary, research, business, or recreation, hundreds of thousands of people are heading for the depths, to experience the unknown. My advice for a new diver is to do it right. Get the proper certification and make each dive a safe one. When a diver is fully trained, and in good mental and physical condition, safe diving can be one of the most enjoyable of experiences. The true beauty of the underwater world, coupled with the marvelous almost-weightlessness of floating with neutral buoyancy is an indescribable experience. Bibliography: Ascher, Scott M. Scuba Handbook for Humans. Iowa : Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. 1975. Cramer, John L. Ph.D. Skin and Scuba Diving: Scientific Principles and Techniques. N.Y.: Bergwall Productions, Inc. 1975. Ketels, Henry & McDowell, Jack. Safe Skin and Scuba Diving, adventure in the underwater world. Canada : Little, Brown and Company (Canada) Ltd. 1975. Koelzer, William. Scuba Diving, How to get started. Pennsylvania :Chilton Book Company. 1976. Resneck, John Jr. Scuba, Safe and Simple. New Jersey : Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1975. Tillman, Albert A. Skin and Scuba Diving. Iowa : Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers. 1966.
The First five weeks the student’s learn life saving, knot tying, underwater knot tying, basic first aid, and surf passages in small inflatable boats. Along with this is a 50-yard underwater swim, which must be completed and the students are often revived when they pass out. Also throughout out the whole six months of BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition School), the Seal Teams go through many torturous events and lessons. One of these being surf torture. This is where the entire class must wade into the surf zone to their waistline, then sit down with arms linked. Just to let you know the water in Coronado, California never gets above sixty-eight degrees during the summer and fifty-eight degrees during the winter. There the men with linked arms will sit there for hours at a time, soon the cold sucks out all of their body warmth and the whole class is shivering in unison as the waves crash over there heads.
I smiled to myself and decided that I would go join in. With that, I took a huge deep breath and jumped into the salty water. The water was cool and refreshing; I felt it slide through my hair making it sway in the water. I swam deeper and deeper into the deep blue water. Sunlight streamed through it, lighting up the water around me turning it to gold. I kicked harder and I felt my muscles surge with strength and I pushed further. My lunges began to burn for the need of oxygen, but I refused to go up. I repeatedly told myself just a little bit longer. Until I was unable to proceed anymore without more air in my lungs, I swam to the top of the water taking a huge breaths, filling my lungs with air. I could then taste the salty water as it ran down my face and dripped over my lips. Just then I thought, I will never forget this moment, this place, or the experiences I felt while visiting
Scuba diving itself can be challenging at times. Imagine having a difficult task, like welding, to perform at the same time as scuba diving. This is a task that can cost you your life if not done correctly and as safely as possible.
All kinds of forces can be associated with scuba diving. For instance, when a diver kicks his fins to move, he is applying a force on the water behind him. In turn, the water is applying a force back on him, causing him to move. Pressure is a force that pushes on a diver's lungs, air tank, and everything else in the water.
I am adventurous. No I don't sky dive, wrestle crocodiles, or swim with sharks, but when asked by a group of friends to go cliff diving last summer, my best response was, “Sounds like fun!” I had never been afraid of heights yet have never experienced the thrill of cliff diving. All I could ask myself was, “What could go wrong?”
Divers cannot put the equipment on and immediately dive in. Before diving there are a series of procedures the diver and their partners must do before going down. In addition, the further down the diver dives the more pressure pressing down on the diver which lessens the amount of oxygen in the scuba tank. Therefore, the further down the diver dives the less time the diver can spend on the bottom. But now, by far the largest group of divers is “Recreational Divers”. These dives are practiced at depths of less than 130 feet, from these depths, divers can make a straight ascent to the surface. Diving beyond this limit requires advanced training. Also, when diving the diver must take into account the amount of time spent descending and ascending in the water. If the diver descends too quickly the pressure can deflate their lungs and cause problems. Similarly, if they ascend too quickly nitrogen bubbles can form under the diver’s skin causing bends or decompression sickness. This sickness can be extremely harmful and possibly fatal. Lastly, a dive watch or computer is needed to calculate the amount of oxygen left in their tank and the depth. Dive computers help the divers be aware of their conditions and keep them
After two years of recreational diving I have learned some of the ins and outs of the dive community. Diving has become such an enjoyable experience for me that I have decided to make a career change and work towards my dream of being a commercial diver. Before making such a life altering decision, it is important to understand the differences between the two in order to further understand the depth of my decision. In this essay, I will compare portions of recreational diving to its equivalent in technical diving. I will discuss equipment, locations and careers associated with each to assist in better understanding their differences.
Immediately, I angled my position and went for a dead sprint toward the water. I jumped off the cliff. I never felt anything like it; the trajectory had me flying through the air for longer than I expected. A surge of adrenaline pulsed through my body, bringing a new sense of life to me. The scorching heat went away as gravity pulled my body toward the water, bringing me a pleasant breeze through my fall. Then, I finally hit the water. I didn’t stick a solid landing, as I went head first into the water. I panicked and opened my eyes under the murky water, only to see nothing but dirt and sediments float around me. I kept sinking and saw a monstrous fish swim right in front of my face. At that very moment, my body went into overdrive, and I managed to project myself back up to the surface.
“People have been diving ever since primitive man was forced to collect food from the sea,” says HawaiiScubaDiving.com (“History of Scuba Diving”, HawaiiScubaDiving.com Internet). Man has always been curious about the underwater world and has sought to explore it. This drove man to come up with new ways to extend his reach into the underwater world and to make the trip less difficult. Over time underwater exploration has been made easier due to man’s passion for exploring a fascinating new underwater world. Inventions such as regulators, self-contained breathing apparatuses, oxygen tanks, neoprene suits, and many more technologies have been used to make underwater exploration as easy and efficient as possible. Scuba diving has evolved into a wide range of advanced technology for the average person to explore a whole new underwater world.
As we walked to our car, we realized just how much the day had taken out of us physically. We were both bruised and sore from our practice jumps into the gravel pit and very tired. But, at the same time, our souls felt warm and satisfied at discovering that we could overcome our fears and experience the joy and freedom of skydiving.
The study of physics and fluid dynamics in swimming has been a field of increasing interest for study in the past few decades among swimming coaches and enthusiasts. Despite the long history of research, the understanding of how to move the human body effectively through the water is still in its infancy. Competitive swimmers and their coaches of all levels are constantly striving for ways to improve their stroke technique and overall performance. The research and performances of today's swimmers are continuously disproving the beliefs of the past. Like in all sports, a better understanding of physics is enabling the world class swimmers to accomplish times never before thought possible. This was displayed on the grandest of scales in the 2000 Olympics when Ian Thorpe, Inge De Bruijn, Pieter Van Den Hoogenband and a number of other swimmers broke a total of twelve world records and numerous Olympic and national records.
...omething goes wrong. It sounds pretty harsh right? Well this is because if a diver ascends too quickly to the top, they risk rupturing their lungs due to the water pressure as they go up. Well, another thing is if the person stays underwater but cannot fix the problem, then what happens? It causes an even greater problem. Either way they are risking themselves becoming injured. At any point in time during the dive, the person is susceptible to any form of danger.
When I was a university student about two years ago, I enrolled in a scuba diving course. My scuba diving teacher had a big surprise: I didn’t know how to swim. In fact, I had a big fear of water. When I was a child, my parents tried to help me, so they made me take many swimming courses. Although I tried hard, I did not learn to swim. When I enrolled in the scuba diving course, I was still afraid of water. Every day when I entered the swimming pool, I battled with my fear. Fortunately, my courage won every time. Finally, one day while I was practising my dive, I realized that I did very well. So, finally, after six months of hard work, I completed the course. It is true that I was always the worst of the group, but in my own evaluation,
With all the mystic surrounding the sport of scuba diving many people would never dream about taking a class to get certified, and those people don't know what they are missing. Those people that would never consider diving most likely have only seen the dangers and risks of diving, but they have never really looked into the safety precaution and quality of the instruction needed to go diving. I hope that anyone who
Snorkeling is one of the most common underwater activities now base on most people can go snorkeling which has lesser requirements than other underwater activities. The equipment of snorkeling are only a diving tube, a set of flippers and a mask. The people of people snorkeling was that people tried to collect some