| We have all heard the terms “Skin Diving” and | | | | individual divers breathing rate, and the size of the |
| “Scuba Diving”, and know that they are | | | | cylinder the diver can spend up to one hour |
| something to do with underwater diving. More | | | | underwater. The relationship of depth and time for |
| specifically “skin-diving” a ‘highly competitive | | | | scuba divers is most important. This is due the |
| sport’ is “free diving” using no equipment to | | | | absorption of Nitrogen into the blood stream and tissue |
| breath. The divers use a single breath of air to | | | | cause by breathing compressed air under pressure. |
| descend to depths of over 100m competing with other | | | | The deeper the dive the more pressure is exerted on |
| diver to reach the greatest possible depth. With | | | | the air that we breath causing the nitrogen part to be |
| extensive training and yoga a professional skin divers | | | | absorbed in the form of a liquid into the blood stream |
| body reacts like that of ‘whales and dolphins’ | | | | and tissue. This nitrogen reforms into a gas as the |
| during a skin dive. The heart rate slows down and the | | | | diver ascends to the surface after a dive. If there is |
| oxygen from that one lung full of air is concentrated in | | | | too much nitrogen absorbed during the dive, it cannot |
| the heart and in the brain. A skin diver is in danger of | | | | all be reformed into a gas and breathed out while |
| becoming unconscious as he nears the surface after | | | | ascending, leaving some in the body in the form of a |
| a skin dive due to the very low concentration of | | | | gas (a bubble). This nitrogen gas bubble can become |
| oxygen in the brain as he reaches shallow water. This | | | | lodged in a joint, heart, brain, or spine etc., causing |
| is called “shallow water blackout”. | | | | decompression sickness (The Bends). The deeper the |
| Scuba diving on the other hand is a non-competitive | | | | dive the less time we can spend underwater. It is a |
| sport now practiced all over the world by not only the | | | | depth time relationship and dive tables or dive |
| young athletic, but by couples and families too. Divers | | | | computers are used to calculate the amount of time a |
| descend underwater using breathing equipment call | | | | diver may spend on each dive. (Learn more by doing a |
| “scuba gear”. The word scuba means “Self | | | | PADI Open water Diver Course) |
| Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus”. That | | | | Scuba divers are able to enjoy and explore all the |
| is the diver is self contained and not attached by a | | | | wonders that the world’s oceans have to offer. |
| hose to an air supply on the surface. He is free to | | | | People of all ages, shapes and sizes enjoy this |
| move around weightless underwater, (like a fish) | | | | non-competitive sport. It is a way of life for many |
| breathing air from a cylinder on his back. The air in the | | | | people. Good training by a certified instructor, being in |
| cylinder is compressed to 200 – 220 atmospheres, | | | | good health and water-fit are the only requirement. |
| in other words a lot of air into a small space. | | | | So get yourself prepared to discover a whole new |
| Depending on the depth and time of the dive, and the | | | | world and a new way of life. |