On Wednesdays, we wear pink.....

Because girls dive too...

ScubaPro Seawing Nova Fins

Billabong Wetsuit

Suunto D4i Dive Computer

Why fitness matters when scuba diving

For me, keeping in shape and having good physical fitness is imperative as a diver. I hear of too many sad stories where divers have had serious or fatal accidents which could have been avoided had they been in a better physical condition. 

Some of my surfer friends argue that scuba diving isn't very physically demanding, especially compared to something like surfing. Being both a diver and a surfer, I disagree. 

As a scuba diving instructor I am responsible for the lives of other divers as well as my own, and those of you who have ever been caught in a strong current with split fins on will know how quickly you can become exhausted, so being in shape is really important.

Every person must complete a dive medical prior to diving to ensure they don't have any pre-existing medical conditions that could cause a problem when diving, some of which can be linked to fitness. I have had to tow exhausted divers on several occasions, because their physical state wasn't adequate for the demands of the dive so it was just as well mine was.

So when people question why keeping fit is so important to me I suppose it is primarily because I want to be in the best shape I can be to do my job as well as I can and secondly to give myself and others the best chance of surviving should I be in a life-threatening situation.

Keep in shape divers, you never know when you might need those muscles. 

Smoking and scuba diving

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I used to be a smoker. When I realised just how seriously it was damaging my body and impacting on both my free diving and scuba diving I quit: cold turkey.

Since that day my outlook and opinions about smoking have drastically altered. I would now describe myself as very much anti-smoking and remorseful that I ever smoked at all.

Other than the fact smoking can be fatal, and you’re essentially paying for something that will eventually kill you or seriously deteriorate your health, I don’t smoke because I’m a scuba diver. Of all the recreational activities scuba diving is probably the least compatible with smoking.

DAN researchers reviewed 4,350 cases of decompression sickness that were reported over an eight-year period, comparing the severity of symptoms among non-smokers, light smokers and heavy smokers. They found that heavy smokers were more likely to have severe symptoms compared to non-smokers, and both heavy and light smokers were more likely to have severe and moderate symptoms than non-smokers, who tended to have milder cases of DCS. In short, if you're a smoker and you get bent, you're more likely to have a serious neurological event than a mild case of joint pain or skin mottling.

Cigarette smoking causes both a temporary narrowing of the blood vessels, and permanent vessel stiffening and narrowing, which sends your blood pressure soaring. It also causes blood clotting, making it even harder for circulation to flow through your constricted vessels. Finally, cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide, which binds to your red blood cells 200 times faster than oxygen, filling the space that should be occupied by the oxygen your body desperately needs and is already struggling to get through your bottlenecked arteries. Submerge this overburdened heart into cold, deep water and you've set the stage for a heart attack.

“The science of scuba diving is built around gas exchange, and smoking greatly interferes with this exchange," says Caruso. Most notably, cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide, which as mentioned earlier, binds to your red blood cells so they're less effective at carrying oxygen to your body's tissues. The carbon monoxide levels of heavy smokers can be as high as 10 percent, meaning 10 percent of your oxygen is displaced by carbon monoxide, compared to just 2 percent among non-smokers. Without healthy gas exchange, you're at increased risk for narcosis, decompression problems and a throbbing diver's headache.

If these cold hard facts aren’t enough to make you reconsider smoking and diving, it may interest you to know that since I quit smoking my free diving static breath hold nearly doubled and my air consumption scuba diving also greatly improved.

However, if you do smoke, and can't wait until you're off the boat to light up, I'll spare you the medical lecture. But please be considerate and follow the basic rules of etiquette. According to the Ocean Conservancy, cigarette butts top the Dirty Dozen list of the most common forms of marine debris. During the 2006 International Coastal Cleanup, volunteers collected 1,901,519 of them. It isn’t just yourself you’re damaging, but the ocean we all love so much. 

You wouldn't drink and drive. Don't smoke and dive.

Underwater camera care

Most divers have used an underwater camera at some point in their diving career and more and more divers are investing in their own underwater cameras now. 

However, a common problem I have encountered whilst working as an instructor is the dreaded flooded camera. There is nothing worse than starting a dive only to discover that your camera is no longer functioning as it is full of water and you're missing being able to photograph that whale shark that you've waited for years to see.

There is a simple preventative solution to camera flooding and damage, and that is proper camera care and maintenance. Whether you have a GoPro or a standard digital camera in housing it is important to maintain the condition of the O-rings and seals.

I found this video useful in demonstrating how to properly care for your camera.

A harsh reminder...

Today I unfortunately witnessed a diver being brought out of the water, unresponsive and not breathing and being given CPR and de-fibbed until an ambulance arrived. I don't know he is doing now, but I really hope he is okay.

It was a harsh reminder that scuba diving is a dangerous sport and we take a risk every time we dive. However, as long as you respect the limits and follow safety procedures  you greatly minimise the risk of ever getting into trouble.

Stay safe divers.

I want to dive with Great Whites and Alligators

I want to dive with Great Whites and Alligators, some call me crazy, I prefer ambitious. 

It is not the element of danger that attracts me to want to dive with these Apex predators, it is more a fascination and unprecedented respect for these magnificent creatures that have roamed our planet for millions of years.

Me holding a baby alligator in Florida

Shark water

If you're passionate about sharks and their conservation, please take a few moments to click on the link below and watch a short video about sharks.

Click here

Save our sharks

If sharks were the cruel, menacing man eaters that the media makes them out to be then I would have probably been eaten years ago. However, I believe that sharks know we are not prey and I intend to prove that with the most feared animal on the planet, the great white shark.

Swimming with sharks I felt vulnerable, clumsy and small. They have an aura of invincibility, but with these top predators in the ocean nothing is as it seems.

Great white shark

Sharks are in serious trouble. Every single second of every single day around 3 sharks are killed by us. We are destroying their homes, polluting their seas and catching them by the million. And there is one practice that could empty our oceans of sharks for good... Fishing. Unfortunately this has become a much more common way that humans now interact with sharks, and it's not just their meat they’re caught for, but their fins. The fins are used for shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy and status symbol; although the fins do not even add to the taste they are just used to enhance the texture.

 In the time is has taken you to read this over 2,000 sharks will have been killed, all for the sake of a soup. If this carries on in the next 4 years as many as 20 species of sharks could go extinct. Every year 70-100 million sharks are taken from the oceans purely for their fins.

The natural world is all about balance. Sharks are top of the marine food chain and like all apex predators they're especially important. We don't know what the impact would be If we lost them but the effects could be catastrophic. Without a healthy ocean, the world as we know it would cease to function and the horror of a world without sharks is a very real one.

Over 500 million years sharks have evolved to become complex, sophisticated and utterly magnificent. To lose them in the age of man would be truly unthinkable. We need to tame our fear and learn to love sharks. 

Tiger Shark 

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday to my time in the Maldives. The video link below shows what my daily life was like working in the Baa Atoll there as a scuba diving instructor.

My life in the Maldives

Dave Shaw's Final Dive

Dave Shaw was an experienced Tec diver who set a record for the deepest dive to 270m. This short documentary tells of his last diving expedition to retrieve the body of another diver and what caused it to be the last dive he would ever do.

To Boldly Go

RIP Dave Shaw

Narced no more?

Nitrogen narcosis is something that has affected most divers at some point or another, particularly those who enjoy deep diving. Although this may be a thing of the past as they seem to have found a cure for nitrogen narcosis.

Click here to read the article