What Is Scuba Diving

In short, SCUBA diving is underwater diving using equipment that allows the diver to breathe independently. In other words, the diver can breathe and move freely underwater without being dependent on a gas (air) supply from the surface.

SCUBA is actually an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. This is what differentiates scuba diving from freediving (breath-hold diving) or snorkeling — the presence of a system that allows you to breathe underwater.

How It Works – Diving Equipment

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Without going into too much detail, a recreational diver’s equipment consists of:

• A gas cylinder (air or gas mix)
• Regulators
• BCD (buoyancy control device)
• Weights
• Exposure suit (wetsuit or drysuit)
• Mask, fins and other accessories

The purpose of the regulators is to reduce the pressure from the cylinder (which can reach up to 300 bar in some cases) down to ambient pressure (the pressure of the surrounding water). This allows us to breathe normally.

To better understand why regulators are necessary, think about car tires: the normal pressure inside a car tire is between 2 and 3 bar. It would already be difficult — if not impossible — to breathe directly from that source. Now imagine a pressure up to 100 times higher.

The BCD (buoyancy control device) has two main purposes. First, it helps us achieve neutral buoyancy underwater. Second, it holds and secures the cylinder to the diver.

A quick note on buoyancy: during about 95% of a dive (except when floating on the surface or beginning the descent), our goal is to achieve neutral buoyancy — meaning we can stay at a relatively fixed point in the water column without ascending or descending.

The BCD allows us to do this by adding air from the cylinder into a sealed air bladder (imagine inflating a balloon). By adding or releasing air, the diver can precisely control buoyancy.

Weights usually come in the form of lead blocks (ideally coated) that can be worn on a traditional weight belt or integrated into the BCD (the more common modern setup).

Their purpose is to counteract the positive buoyancy created mainly by the exposure suit. Whether we’re talking about a wetsuit or a drysuit, both contain air in one form or another to provide thermal insulation. Think of styrofoam floating on water — it floats, right? To descend and achieve neutral buoyancy, we need weight to offset that effect.

The exposure suit primarily protects us from the cold, but also from accidental contact with objects (for example, a wreck with rusty edges). During training, divers learn not to touch anything — especially marine life, which can be easily damaged.

There are generally three types of suits: wetsuits, semi-dry suits, and drysuits. Wetsuits and semi-dry suits are typically made of neoprene, while drysuits can be made from compressed neoprene or various laminated membrane materials.

If you’ve ever tried opening your eyes underwater, you probably noticed you can’t see very clearly. That’s why divers use a diving mask — essentially the same type used for snorkeling or freediving.

Last but not least, divers use fins to move efficiently underwater. Similar to snorkeling fins, scuba fins are usually more rigid and powerful, allowing for better speed and control.

How It Feels to Dive

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One of the first questions I get from people considering trying diving is:

“Doesn’t the water pressure feel overwhelming?”

Not really.

With a few important exceptions (which are essential to understand when diving), the human body is mostly made of water — and water is incompressible. Aside from air-filled spaces (middle ear, sinuses, lungs, etc.), the body doesn’t actually feel the pressure, whether we’re at 3 meters or 30 meters.

The main sensation — and one of the reasons diving is so appreciated — is freedom.

Diving is one of the easiest ways to experience weightlessness. It genuinely feels like flying.

It’s also usually very quiet underwater. Most of the time, the only sound you hear is the bubbles you exhale. However, because sound travels faster and farther through water, in some places around the world you can hear marine mammals communicating — dolphins, or if you’re very lucky, even certain whale species.

Many people — rightly so — compare diving to meditation.

As a bonus, even if you brought your phone with you (yes, it’s possible), you wouldn’t have signal.

Who Can Try Diving

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Lots of people.

The main requirements to try diving (with us):

• Correctly completing a medical questionnaire and, depending on your answers, providing medical clearance for diving
• Minimum age of 18, or 14 with parental consent
• Somewhat controversial, but in our view essential: you need to know how to swim. Not competitively — but you should be able to swim at least 200 meters continuously without touching the bottom.

Why? Simple. Where do most dives start? Bingo — from a boat. In the very unlikely event that you end up in the water without equipment, we want to know you can comfortably swim.

You can find more details on our FAQ page, and if you don’t find the answer you’re looking for, the easiest option is to write to us or schedule a free intro call.

Why Do People Get Hooked

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This could easily be an entire separate post, but I’ll keep it short:

• You see things the vast majority of people will never see. There are dive sites (complex ones, admittedly) where fewer people have been than have walked on the moon.
• It’s the most relaxing activity I know. When I said it feels similar to meditation, I wasn’t joking.
• You can experience history firsthand. Wrecks — from ancient ones to WWII ships and even more recent vessels — are among the very few places where you can see locations and artifacts frozen in time.
• Last but not least, you meet people you otherwise would never cross paths with. It’s almost effortless networking.

If you’re now convinced, you can find details about the Open Water SCUBA Diver course (the first certification level).

If you’re almost convinced, you can try diving in the pool with a SCUBA Discovery experience.

And if you still have questions, feel free to reach out — you’ll hear from us quickly.