Diving Tips


	Under Sea Adventurers Dive Club

Divings Tips for Beginners

Ray McAllister

Here are a few hard won tips that will make diving easier and safer for you. Most of them are from personal experience during 47 years of SCUBA diving.

The main reason you dive is to see the beautiful things underwater! Yet many divers look thru a constant fog on their faceplate, seeing very little clearly. Clean your faceplate before you think of going in the water. If it is new, use toothpaste, detergent, etc., until a thin sheet of water forms on the inside of the glass when you wet it, without beading up. Pay special attention to the outside edges of the glass, too. Why buy a wide angle faceplate if you are only going to keep the center of the lens clear. Once you have your mask glass clean, keep oil, grease and dirt off it, clean it good with saliva before EVERY dive. You do not need bottled defogger. You always have saliva with you, and it contains enzymes which break down oils and greases in the mouth, a sort of predigestion, which is what you want to do to the lipids on the glass. It has worked perfectly for me for 47 years. Urine is also a good defogger, but only once has anyone asked me to pee in their faceplate! And it worked!
Stay aware of your buddy. Keep your buddy in sight and if you do get lost, retrace your track until you find them. If you do not find them immediately, have a signal, like four taps on your tank, repeated several times, meaning "Come to the surface and look for me!" When it is answered, go carefully to the surface and locate the buddy, get together and go down again. I've had several times when I was damn glad to have a buddy near.
In Florida east coast waters, in rivers, and in some other areas, strong currents are the rule. When you roll over the side, do not take your own sweet time to adjust your mask, your BC, etc. In a strong current you will end up far behind the boat, requiring a long pull to the stern, hopefully via a trailing line, and then a swim for the anchor line. Instead, be slightly uncomfortable for long enough to get on the anchor line or a descending line, and then adjust everything before going on with the dive. That way you don't end up all alone, way behind the boat, and use up much of your air or spoil a dive.
If currents are strong, and it is easy to watch foam, bubbles, or floating Sargassum weed going by to tell you how strong it is, prepare a "chicken line". Tie a line to the anchor line a few feet UNDER the surface. The best way is to tie it above water, then let out another 10 or so feet of line, to get it down under the dangerous bow. Fasten the bitter end to the after cleat, with a small belly in the line so one can roll over clutching it, then pull down to the anchor line without fighting the current or being hit by the bow of the boat (next tip).
The bow of a boat can be a lethal weapon. As seas go under the boat, the bow moves the most. It rises and falls very rapidly and very hard. Getting too close to the bow is courting a serious accident or death. I make it a standard rule to swim 6 feet or so away from the bow, with my body turned so my left shoulder is closest to the hull, with my head arched away from the hull and with my left arm raised and bent, to take the shock if I get too close. Two acquaintances of mine are dead because of skull fractures caused by coming up under a boat bow, alone, and unseen by the rest of the divers. Even in a calm sea, a boat wake can start the bucking and do you in.
Don't ever put equipment on the rail, gunwale, diving platform, etc. A little roll and it's over the side. Often a diver brushes it with wet jacket or other equipment and over it goes. Put it inside in a bucket, or along the sides of the hull away from scuppers and openings. Murphy says, "If it can get knocked overboard it will; and quicker if it is new and valuable gear." A good deal of my gear has been found on the bottom, including masks, snorkels, cameras, knives, weight belts, a speargun, etc. How much of it flipped over when nobody knew it?
Touch nothing on the bottom which you do not recognize! I once knew a man who was pulling himself along the reef, and he grabbed a scorpion fish, which looked just like a rock to the newcomer. He got very painful stings and had to go to the hospital for treatment for the pain. Let an experienced diver show you the things to leave along. Wear gloves if possible, contrary to what is taught in dive classes now.
Generally keep your mask and fins on (and your mouthpiece in your mouth if you have air) while coming aboard. That way, if you slip back in you are still in control, with the mask to keep water out of your nose, and fins to propel you against the current. If you hand your tank in or tie it off to a trailing line, release the mouthpiece as the last thing. Never give up the mouthpiece for a snorkle while you have air in your tank. As long as the regulator works you are in control. Most dive courses teach you to knock the mask down around the neck, instead of putting it up on the forehead, where it can get knocked off and lost. I keep mine on my face!
Anytime you take off your tank and BC after a dive, put enough air in their BC so it floats if it gets accidentally released.
If you can devise a place to carry your snorkle besides tied to your mask, you will save a lot of trouble with the snorkle pulling on the mask, and breaking the seal, or hitting you on the side of the head. For many years I have carried mine tucked behind my leg knife sheath, and I've lost only one snorkle that way, and that over twenty years ago.
Leotards and pantyhose are reported to give good protection from both cold and stingers. I cannot vouch for this because my masculinity is not quite secure enough for me to be seen in public in pantyhose, but the women swear it is true. My diveskins are an old pair of blue jeans. I'm not fashionable, but I have money for dive trips instead of the latest fashionable gear.
If you are underweighted and fighting to stay on bottom, pick up a rock and carry it, either in your hand or in your catch bag. It sure beats swimming head-down thruout the dive and will save a great deal of air, making the dive longer and more enjoyable. Try and pick a rock with as little growth on it as possible, so as not to kill bottom critters.
By the same token, when you set your anchor, take a second to be sure the chain (or the anchor rode) does not saw thru a sponge, sweep across a seawhip, or beat a coral to death. What you kill today we will not be able to enjoy tomorrow. If there is a reef buoy nearby, use it.
Do not use bottom growth to pull yourself along the reef, or to hang onto. Seafans, seawhips, corals, sponges etc., are all animals, attached to the reef, often by fairly flimsy grips. Once loose from the bottom they die in fairly short order, rolled around by big waves or covered with sediment, or by starvation if lying on the bottom where little water goes thru the fans, for example since the water carries the tiny plankton critters which they eat.
Note the direction of the current, if any, before you go into the water. Also the direction of travel of the waves because the bottom surge is toward and away from the shore, often at a small angle with the shore. Note the location of the sun in the sky, the orientation of ripple marks, and any other directional clues which will help you return to the boat without a compass. While underwater, note landmarks; rope on the bottom, odd shaped reef masses, distinctive sponges, abandoned lobster pots, white sand runs, usually east - west trending, which will tell you where you are as you return to the boat. Remember that these things will look different from the other side so look back and see how they will appear when you return.

There are hundreds more such tips which make diving easier, and which become second nature to the experienced diver. Tell me some of yours, care of the USA Dive Lines and we’ll give you credit in a future article. Meanwhile dive carefully and safely, under a red and white DIVERS DOWN flag.