10 Things Every Scuba Diver needs to know

Regardless of a your experience, skill, confidence and level of qualification, there are certain things that every diver should remember.

This is important not only for the safety of divers, but for the conservation of our underwater environment as well.

Being underwater and surrounded by the most amazing fauna and sea life can create certain temptations. You will see the most incredible variety of colours and shapes, reefs and coral, as well as fascinating creatures, however, you should never touch anything no matter how tempting.

What some people don’t realise is that many of the things you see underwater are delicate living beings. Touching them may cause irreversible damage and even lead to them dying, such as coral for example. Another reason not to touch anything is that some of these beings are likely to react in order to protect themselves, like stinging or biting, which can cause serious injury.

See our complete list here:

10 things a diver should know:

1. Don’t touch: Even if it feels tempting to touch the turtle’s back or the corals. Don’t. You have no idea how big damage you can cause You should read more about becoming a more sustainable diver.

2. Buoyancy skills: This is one of the most important skills a diver can master. Breathe in to go up, out to go down. Only use the BCD to compensate for depth changes. If you want to master your buoyancy all you have to do is practice and practice on very dive. Here are a few buoyancy tips to help you on the way.

3. Watch your fins: If you don’t have control of your fins, you have no idea what they are breaking or who you are kicking in the face. If you hit something: Stop, look and if necessary take a stroke with the hands. It’s all about your finning techniques and knowing where you are in the water. Spend some time training your possession and finning techniques. Preferably on a sandy bottom.

4. Watch your air: Stating the obvious. Still remember to monitor your air, as often as you can. Managing your air is never a waste of time, in the long run, you’ll get more dive time.

5. Never exceed your limits: Even if there is the best reason to go that deep or do that dive. Don’t ever exceed what you feel you can dive, or what you are trained to dive. The only thing that can really result from this is DCI. This is extreme, I know, but is it really worth risking, just to get a bit deeper. And if it’s that cool down there, why not get the proper training for that depth?

7. Don’t follow peer pressure: This goes with point 5, don’t dive if you are not confident it’s the right dive plan for YOU. Don’t let anyone else say what is right for you. Always hold the right to call a dive.
8. Keep blowing bubbles: It’s the most important rule in scuba diving, so by now you should already know it. There are plenty of other ways to extend your dive time, so don’t waste time holding your breath. It doesn’t give you more dive time and it can be very dangerous.
9. Dive gear: take care of your dive gear, and your gear will take care of you. Don’t slack on the dive equipment maintains. If it has been a while since your last equipment checkup, here’s a great guide to getting your dive gear ready for the first dive.

9. Listen to the briefing: There’s nothing worse than a diver who didn’t pay attention to the dive guides briefing, and ends up getting lost or spoiling the dive, because he didn’t know what to do. So just pay attention.

10. Don’t touch: Yes we covered this already, but I don’t mind repeating. Don’t touching anything underwater. Take only pictures leave only bubbles. It’s really that important that I had to mention it twice. If all divers keep touching just one thing a dive, we’ll end up having nothing left.

What did we miss?

What is your top 10 list of important scuba knowledge? Did we miss any points? Tell us your best scuba advice in the comments below. All the other divers want to know as well.