It’s time for the rest of us to dust the cobwebs off our dive gear and our diving skills and get back in the water.  Better yet, how about improving your dive skills by taking a continuing education course?  Advanced open water is a great way to sample five different specialty diving activities.  Or, pick out an area that interests you and take a specialty course such as digital photography, navigation or Peak Performance Buoyancy to name just a few, many of which can be completed in one day.  For those of you with Advanced Certification, the Rescue Diver course is just perfect for taking your diving skills and awareness to the next level.

Whatever you chose, just make sure you get out and dive this season.

The Rule of Thirds

One of gas management’s most fundamental principles is known as the Rule of Thirds. Quite simple, the rule states that you should plan your gas supply by breaking it up into three parts:

• One-third for moving away from your starting point and entering any kind of overhead environment.
• One-third for your return trip.
• One-third as a reserve, in case of any unforeseen circumstances that require you to stay under longer.

In order to plan your gas requirements for a specific dive, you’ll need to include not only your bottom gas but any decompression or travel gas needed. Once that amount is determined, just increase volume by 50 percent to account for that extra one-third needed as a reserve.

SAC

To calculate how long your gas supply will last at a certain depth, you need to understand a concept called Surface Air Consumption (SAC). This is the amount of gas you consume during each minute at the surface and is used to find the necessary volume of gas for a dive at a specific depth for a specific period of time.

Determining your SAC starts with a basic exercise. First, record the current reading of your submersible pressure gauge (SPG), then swim at a pace that is average to your typical dive at a constant depth for about five to ten minutes, recording how much time has elapsed. After the swim, record the new reading of your SPG—then you will know how much air has been used in terms of bars or psi (pounds per square inch).

Using this information, the rated working pressure of your cylinder and the pressure and time of your planned diving depth, you can calculate the volume of gas you’ll need for any dive. Many handy SAC calculators are available online, but to ensure maximum accuracy, you should ask your TecRec instructor for help in determining gas volume.

Plan Each Step of Your Dive

As SAC can change due to a number of different factors, including equipment used and level of physical fitness, it’s important to re-calculate SAC often to account for any changes in circumstances. It may also be useful to calculate your resting SAC to plan decompression stops and your SAC under exertion to plan for instances of increased activity. These will help you develop a more detailed gas management plan based on your level of exertion at each point in a dive.

Determining SAC and utilizing the Rule of Thirds are the most basic steps in gas management, but you can also take things a step further. Try planning a series of way points during your dive and allot a portion of gas for each segment, then reference the information during your dive to be sure that you’re consuming gas according to your plan. This will ensure that your gas consumption stays on track.

Remember: no amount of detailed calculation and planning will prepare you for a dive without proper training. Especially with technical diving, it’s a must to receive instruction before jumping into the water. Ask your diving instructor for other strategies for gas management, and as always, dive safely!

• Study Up! It is vital to keep a clear head and understand what is going to happen before heading out for the dive. Before a dive, divers should be certified and trained on the many procedures, equipment and rules of diving. Training will ensure that they can go about everything correctly and safely. Additionally, they need to be comfortable swimming and moving within the water. It also doesn’t hurt to know the area in which they will be diving.

• Gear Up!  Testing gear before getting into the water is vital, because once a diver hits the water, any gear issues are compounded. Equipment checks are designed to spot equipment issues before  entering the water. Diving buddies should check not only their own gear, but each other’s gear to minimize the risk of something going wrong.

• Buddy Up! Diving alone is never a good idea, especially for beginners.  Chances are that beginner divers will execute their first dive with an instructor or with a team, which can lead to boosted confidence and thus, a more successful first dive. If a diver decides to go about their first dive without an instructor, an experienced scuba guide is another good option.

A solid first dive can lead to years of enjoyable and exciting dives, so make sure it’s a good one!

Sunday & Monday Apr 15 & 16:  CLOSED

Tues thru Friday, Apr 17 – 20:  Noon until 5:00 pm

Saturday, April 21:  10:00 am till 5:00 pm

Our regular hours will resume Monday, April 23

• Knowing and Using the Water - Stay professional under all conditions, no matter what the water is like and no matter what the weather outside is like. Learning to work with and in the water is a key element of scuba diving in Illinois. Even in our local waters, divers can get in trouble in the underwater world, and the more a rescue diver knows about the area, the more likely a diver in need can be saved.
• Stay Confident - A constant training routine can build confidence in any diver, and it is a vital part of any rescue dive. Practice drills allow divers the opportunity to trust their equipment, the water, and their bodies, so that when the time comes, they can use all aspects of themselves in meeting the ultimate goal: rescue.
• Follow the Rules - The rules of diving still apply to rescue divers. A good diver establishes procedure and enables him or herself to act rather than react. Making decisions based on set rules and regulations protects both the rescue diver and the diver that needs rescuing. Playing it by the books is often the most effective and safest route to all dives, both for rescue and leisure.

1. Equipment check – Before you ever enter the water, know how your equipment operates and that it is working properly.  All this is made much easier if you have your own equipment (if you’re renting, you are probably getting different gear every time you go out).  Either way, make sure you understand how to read your gauges to manage your air and depth.  If you’re using a computer, step one is to read the instruction manual and make sure you know what the computer is telling you!  Equally important,  know how your BCD (buoyancy control device) works.
Which button inflates the BCD?  How do I dump air?  If the BCD has integrated weight pockets, make sure you know how to load and ditch the pockets.   While many dive operators will set up your equipment for you, you need to be comfortable attaching the first stage and BCD to a full tank, and then disassembling  it once your dive is complete.

2. Regulator removal and replacement – Sooner or later during your diving career, your regulator will get knocked out of your mouth.  Locating a dislodged regulator is not difficult, and is made all the easier by the fact we carry alternate air sources.  If you lose your regulator, remain calm,  simply pick up your alternate (it should be attached to the front of your BCD or around your neck in a regulator necklace), clear it, and resume breathing while you find the errant regulator second stage by using either the arm sweep or reach method.   All divers need to be comfortable with, and practice, the basic regulator skills of removing, replacing, clearing, and recovering their regulators, preferably in a horizontal, swimming position off of the bottom, and not on your knees!

3. Mask flood and clear – Like regulator replacement, being able to comfortably flood and clear your mask will ensure that when a stray kick from your buddy dislodges your mask, you can put it back on without panicking.  Unfortunately, many divers  are not very comfortable with this skill after they complete their Open Water scuba class, and drop out of diving.   The only way to get comfortable, is to practice, practice, and then practice some more until you can do it in your sleep, again preferably in a horizontal/swimming position, not on your knees.  Winter is a great time for pool practice, or to seek help from your friendly dive professionals here at Do Dive In.

4. Trim, buoyancy control and weighting– Proper weighting, good trim and buoyancy control are the keys to safe and nearly effortless scuba diving.  (Good propulsion/kicking techniques are also important, but we’ll save that discussion for another day)  A properly weighted diver swimming in a trimmed out, horizontal position uses very little energy or air and seldom needs to adjust their buoyancy once underwater.  One of the biggest mistakes that new divers make is over weighting themselves, which makes swimming and proper buoyancy control much more difficult and is a sure fire way of sucking all the fun out of scuba diving.  Achieving proper trim and precision buoyancy control are skills  that take time and practice, but starting off with the right weighting is an important first step.  The more you dive, the more comfortable you get, which for most divers translates to better breathing patterns and the need for less weight.  While most divers have been taught to check their weighting at the beginning of a dive, a good way to double check your weight is at the end of a dive with around 500 psi in your tank.  If you can hold a safety stop at 15 feet with little or no air in your BCD without hanging on to the down line or  floating up to the top, your weighted pretty good.

If you can develop your basic skills to the point you can do them while hovering off the bottom in a stable, horizontal position, you will be amazed at how effortless and fun diving can be!  Things to work on in 2012.

Jan. 10:  Scuba Review Pool Session

Jan. 15:  Begin Sunday Learn to Dive Scuba class

Jan. 24:  PADI SEAL Class begins-AquaMissions 1 & 2

Jan 16:   Monday/Tuesday Learn to Dive evening class begins

Jan 28:  First Aid/CPR Class