Once you slip beneath the waves 

 you're out of your element. In- 

 stead of being surrounded by oceans of 

 air, you're immersed in a sea of water. 

 Your lifeline of air is pumped from a 

 tank strapped to your back. Your life 

 depends on you. 



John G. Stewart says scuba diving is 

 as safe as any other sport if you receive 

 the proper training, observe the 

 correct safety procedures and know 

 your physical limitations. 



Before giving the sport a plunge, 

 enroll in a good certification program, 

 Stewart says. The National Associa- 

 tion of Underwater Instructors 

 (NAUI), The Professional Association 

 of Diving Instructors (PADI), the 

 YMCA, the National Association of 

 Skin Diving Schools (NASDA), and 

 others offer instructional certification 

 programs. 



Check with your local dive shop, 

 YMCA or college or university to see 

 which certification programs are of- 

 fered in your area. The various 

 programs require students to meet vir- 

 tually the same certification stan- 

 dards. 



Stewart says students entering his 

 course should be good swimmers. 

 In addition to having completed a skin 

 diving course (which is different from 

 scuba diving because it requires only a 

 mask, snorkel and fins), students must 

 be able to swim 400 yards, swim un- 

 derwater 20 yards, tow a passive vic- 

 tim 50 yards, tread water 15 minutes 

 and retrieve an object from the bottom 

 of the pool, he says. 



Courses require classroom teaching 

 and pool and open-water experience. 

 Upon completion, students receive a 

 certification card that will allow them 

 to purchase air, rent equipment and 

 charter dive boats. Although no state 

 or federal law requires certification, 

 dive shop owners and boat captains 

 regulate the sport themselves to ensure 

 safety and negate their liability in case 

 of an accident. 



Stewart advises beginning scuba 

 enthusiasts to limit their initial dives 

 to 60 feet or less. At deeper depths, 

 divers must contend with the 

 possibility of nitrogen narcosis (the 

 narcotic effect that overcomes divers 



DIVING SAFETY 



An ounce of precaution 



at deep depths, impairing their judg- 

 ment) and decompression sickness. 

 Commonly called "the bends," decom- 

 pression sickness occurs when a diver 

 surfaces too quickly from a long or 

 deep dive, not allowing enough time to 

 adequately release nitrogen through 

 normal respiration. Bubbles of gas are 

 released in the tissue and bloodstream, 

 causing pain. The cure? Recompres- 

 sion at a hyperbaric chamber. 



"Besides, I tell them at shallower 

 depths, you have more light penetra- 

 tion and better colors," he says. "You 

 can make longer dives, and you don't 

 have to worry about nitrogen narcosis 

 or decompression sickness." 



Bob Eastep says the charter dive 

 boats in Carteret County will 

 refuse to take divers to wrecks or reefs 

 over 80 feet deep until they have made 

 five shallow-water dives. "We had peo- 

 ple making their first dives on the U- 

 352 (the wreck of a German submarine 

 that sits about 120 feet below the 

 ocean surface)," he says. "That wreck 

 is entirely too deep for a beginning 

 diver." 



Stewart says diving accidents are 

 caused when divers don't realize their 

 limitations. "Drowning is the leading 

 cause of death in diving," he says. 

 "And most drowning accidents occur 

 because people overestimate their 

 capabilities. Of the diver, the equip- 

 ment and the environment, the diver 

 himself is the most hazardous." 



Panic can be a diver's number one 

 enemy underwater, Stewart 

 warns. It can cause problems such as 

 air embolism. Air embolism occurs 

 when a diver holds his breath on ascent 

 and doesn't exhale the gases that ex- 

 pand as the pressure on the body 

 decreases. Unreleased gases can rup- 

 ture the lungs, sending bubbles into 

 the bloodstream. Since the bubbles 

 tend to travel upward, they become 

 lodged in the brain, cutting off circula- 

 tion. Brain damage or death can occur 

 in minutes. 



Although air embolism and decom- 

 pression sickness are problems that 

 could happen, they rarely do happen, 

 Stewart says. A properly trained diver 

 should know how to handle emergency 

 situations. 



Other diving precautions that can 

 prevent accidents include: 



* Raise the divers' flag. It will warn 

 other boaters that divers are in the sur- 

 rounding waters. 



* Never dive alone. Dive with 

 someone whose capabilities you know 

 and trust, and always stay within sight 

 of your companion underwater. 



* Use the U.S. Navy dive tables con- 

 servatively when planning your dives. 

 Long or deep dives usually require 

 decompression stops before surfacing. 



* Use the U.S. Navy repetitive dive 

 tables for any dive made within 10 

 minutes to 12 hours of a previous dive. 



* Never dive after drinking or tak- 

 ing drugs. They can impair your judg- 

 ment underwater. 



* Don't dive if you have a cold. You 

 can rupture your eardrums or injure 

 your sinuses. 



* If you haven't been diving in the 

 last four to six months, go through a 

 conditioning program before donning a 

 mask and fins. 



— Kathy Hart 



