Scuba Diving (Part 2)

Well, after learning the entry point now its time to talk about (or rather write about) what we do underwater...

Basically, we learn how to dive and control our buoyancy. But we are also taught wat to do in case some unfortunate events take place in the water. For example:

When someone accidentally kick your mask away from your face. First thing is to not panic....your buddy will most probably help you look for your mask and return it to you. Therefore, we were made to take out our masks underwater and hold it in our hand...but let me tell you, once you take off the mask you will start to panic..even tho its very shallow in the pool once the cold water hit your face,a sense of dread will follow. Therefore, we learned how to keep calm and breathe normall inhaling and exhaling through your mouth...afterall you still have your regulator. ut without the mask your nose is exposed to the stream of bubbles coming out from you through exhalation. For the first few times some of us managed to breathe without our mask while others choke when the bubbles accidentally enter the nose. Our instructor made us hold our mask in our hands for roughly 30sec. Then we wore back our masks which of course were filled with water. but before that we already learned how to clear our masks underwater.

Next is what happens when someone kicks the regulator our from your mouth and away from you? Well, this trick to recover the regulator is rather simple....there are two ways to do it but the more common one is to tilt our body to the right,swing out right hand to the back and then to the front again. The regulator will be retrieved.

What happens if you run out of air when you are 12m or more underwater? This is where your buddy comes in handy. Signal your buddy and give him the out-of-air signal which is like a gesture made with your hand slicing your throat. Your buddy will give his consent with an OK hand signal. You will move to his right where an alternate air source or sometimes known as the octopus. Take it and breathe from it. this means you will be sharing air with your buddy. Then by linking your hands, reach for the surface and ascend slowly. There are others methods to use if you run out of air but all depends on the condition whether it is an emergency or not.

So roughly these are what happens of accidents like that happen underwater. Other than that what we also learnt are the hand signals and how to dive correctly so that you can minimise energy usage and not harm wild aquatic life. Kinda cool lar learning scuba diving...hehe especially when you go with friends.