QUESTION: Is there an age requirement to become a certified scuba diver? If so, how old?
ANSWER:
Each certifying agency has their own standards with minimum ages for certification being set. As a NAUI instructor, we are allowed to teach children as young as 12 years of age. I believe PADI allows 10, but I am not certain. Most agencies offer very controlled basic pool sessions for children under the age of 12, but their minimum ages vary, as well. SSI offers "Scuba Rangers" while PADI offers the "SEALS" program.
Each instructor had the right to refuse to teach any person for any reason. For a year or two NAUI allowed 10 year olds, but I personally believe that is too young. Not many 10 year olds are responsible or mature enough to understand the possible repercussions if the don't "play by the rules".
Most agencies that offer certification for children under the age of 15 have strict guidelines that must be followed. Oftentimes the child must be accompanied by an instructor or a parent, and a maximum depth of 40 feet is mandatory. Essentially, the escort of the child is babysitting.
It is not uncommon for a child under the age of 15 to be required to attend more classroom and pool sessions than an adult. Personally, I have held several children back for another session just to make sure they know the material, and sometimes to give them more time to mature enough to be responsible divers.
How do divers feel about themselves after they get certified?
QUESTION: I'm an underwater camera operator, my job is about taking underwater videos for scuba divers who come Malaysia for holidays. At the same time I'm a film arts student completing my thesis research too. So I'm studying and researching on scuba divers' psychology and mentality and their behaviours; but please don't get me wrong here that I'm not studying how the divers could get panic, apprenhensive or what; I'm talking about how divers feel about themselves after they are being certified, e.g. do they feel proud of themselves, think that they are a level higher than the average public/friends because they are doing an extreme/high risk sport, so they feel more superior somewhat?
ANSWER:
That's a difficult question to answer because everyone gets certified for their own reason, but the final outcome is the same ... We're all certified scuba divers. It is my opinion that people get certified for the following reasons:
- Because they love water, travel, fish and are curious about what's below the surface.
- For the adventure of it all.
- For someone else.
- Because that are adrenaline junkies.
- To enhance their vacation/down time.
- Jacques Cousteau definitely influenced many, as have shows on the Learning Channel and Discovery Channel.
- To overcome personal fears.
- For professional reasons.
As for what I see and what I hear from my students, I am certain they all feel very proud of themselves and better about themselves for becoming certified. Diving definitely takes people to a higher plain of existence from where they were. Whether or not I'd call it "feeling superior" That's not for me to say.
I tell you what ... I will write a blog entry about this and we will see what our readers have to say! If you will send me a list of questions you'd like to have answered, I will GLADLY post them and forward the responses to you!
Which Olympus underwater camera?
QUESTION: I'm researching and trying to decide between the Olympus 770 and Olympus 720. In January, I am traveling to Ecuador and am going to be snorkeling in the Galapagos Islands for 9 days. I also dive every now and again but it would unlikely that I would take my camera with me. I looked on your site and could only find the review for the 720 with the underwater casing and even by searching olympus 720, I couldn't find the review of just the 720. I'm trying to decide if I should get the 720 since I will likely be going to a maximum of 10-12 feet while snorkeling. Please email me back with what you think and also send me the review of the Olympus 720 if you can. Thanks!
ANSWER: Since both the 720SW and the 770SW are waterproof cameras, we combined the general and underwater reviews into one. So we wrote about the 720SW (see review of the 720) and the 770SW (See review of the 770).
If you won't take the camera diving, there is no real reason to get the 770SW as it is more expensive, so a camera that can handle 10 feet of water or so will be the better choice for snorkeling.
In the meantime, the 720SW has been replaced by the 790SW -- essentially an updated version of the 720SW. It has the same resolution, but is quicker and adds some new technologies such as face recognition, perfect shot, shadow adjustment, etc. We previewed the camera at our DigitalCameraRoundup.com site (See review of the Olympus Stylus 790SW).
Questions about scuba instructors
QUESTION: I am doing a survey. Can you tell me the following about a scuba instructor?
Job title:
Education required:
Where is this type of education available and how long does it take?
What kind of a degree, certification, or bonding is required?
Who employs this type of worker?
What is the most common geographical location for this type of job?
What is the average annual salary range?
What are the job prospects/stability of employment?
Describe the work that is done on this job.
ANSWER:
1. Job title: NAUI Scuba Instructor.
2. Education required: Beginning Scuba, Advanced Scuba, 3 Specialties, (Nitrox, Drysuit, and Equipment Specialist are recommended) Advanced Rescue, First Aid, CPR, Oxgen Provider, Assistant Instructor, Dive Master.
3. Where is this type of education available and how long does it take? -- Most NAUI Facilities Teach classes. Instructor classes, however, are harder to come by.
4. What kind of a degree, certification, or bonding is required? -- No degree. See #2 (above) for required classes.
5. Who employs this type of worker? -- Dive shops, Dive Resorts, Dive Boats, Live Aboards, Aquariums, and many are self-employed.
6. What is the most common geographical location for this type of job? -- Anywhere in the world, especially near the oceans.
7. What is the average annual salary range? -- That's impossible to say. It depends on how frequently classes are taught, how much the Instructor makes per student, how much he/she has in expenses, if the person is teaching fulltime or parttime. But as a guess, anywhere from $5,000.00 - $50,000.00 annually.
8. What are the job prospects/stability of employment? -- As a self-employed Instructor, the sky is the limit. People everywhere want to learn to dive. In places like Florida where the market is saturated with Dive Shops and Instructors, a person will make less money, and the competition is very high.
9. Describe the work that is done on this job. -- Again, the job duties vary greatly. Everything from instructing students to leading dives to maintaining dive gear to filling tanks to cleaning and maintaining dive boats to humoring clients. Most people who go to the Caribbean or other tropical areas are trained in other fields to supplement their income and attractiveness to the potential employer. Someone working on a Live Aboard would benefit from having training as a diesel mechanic, a chef, a boat captain, etc. -- Carol Cotton Walker
Diving Safety
QUESTION: I was delighted to read your well-thought-out article on Diving Safety. I have been an active diver for longer than I care to remember and I also happened to work as safety professional before I retired. Since I retired I have done some volunteer work at the Naval Undersea Museum Library here in Keyport, Washington. While I was there I did a little study of SCUBA safety statistics and found the major concern was that the exposure time was unknown, and at that time no one seemed to want to even estimate it. So I found it surprising that you mentioned a death rate in you article (one death per 200,000 dives). If you have a reference for those figures I would appreciate your telling me what it is. I truly believe that the raw data DAN provides annually is not useful without knowing more about the time spent u/w. For example it is not significant to know that accidents have increased if the amount of diving increased proportionally during the same time p!
eriod. In other words, knowing accident rates can help us identify and focus on true safety issues and accident trends. Thanks for your concern with safety. - Jim
ANSWER:
I wrote that blog entry on scuba safety. Let me state right upfront, and maybe I should have made that clearer, that my thoughts were just that, thoughts on a topic based on what I believe in, what I've read and what I've seen. I DO have formal training in statistical analysis and actually did my doctoral thesis in part on the then-new use of computers for multivariate regression analysis and discriminant analysis and so on, but that was a long time ago.
As is, the figures I used in my statement, "Unfortunately, that number is uncomfortably close to the roughly 150 people who die every year in the US from/while diving. But what does this really mean? The rate is about five deaths per million dives. So the chance is one in every 200,000 dives." are gleaned from a variety of dive books I have read, some Google searches, and mostly from "Diving Science" by Michael Strauss and Igor Aksenov, both MDs. On page 185 they state" Deaths from SCUBA diving accidents have remained level at approximately 100 per year even though the number of SCUBA divers has increased 10-fold over the past three decades." (Also, on page 27 they state, "About one injury requiring medical attention occurs for every 1,000 SCUBA dives," and on page 32: "Two or three case of decompressions sickness occur for ever 10,000 SCUBA dives. (in the US).)
Now how did I get from that data to my statement? Like I said, I can not recall if I read it or computed it. I am certain, because I know how I write and think, that I did not simply guess or make it up. My likely thought process was this:
"Diving Science" states that there are "an estimated 5 million certified SCUBA dives in the US..." I've read higher and much lower numbers, but let's assume it is 5 million. Let's say of those 5 million, half are somewhat active, and those half do an average of 12 dives a year, so that would be 30 million dives. If 150 people die from diving accidents, that would five deaths per million dives. If it's more like 100 deaths a year, then it'd be three deaths per million dives. If my assumption of half of all certified divers doing about a dozen dives a year is way off, then it is yet another number. If there are far fewer certified divers, the rate goes up, and so on.
I also have no doubt that a dive is not a dive is not a dive. In other words, yes, bottomtime makes a difference, as well as gender (according to "Diving Science" the vast majority of diving deaths are males), age (foolishness/invincibility in youth vs. declining health at age), equipment, training and so on. - Conrad H. Blickenstorfer
The Average Depth function
QUESTION: I do most of my diving from local boats, and never log more
than three dives in a day as a rule. I do not have a computer, but my dive watch (Casio sea pathfinder) has an average depth function. When filling out my log, computing pressure groups on a square dive, using max depth obviously puts me at a disadvantage for multiple dives and nitrogen loading. Is it safe to compute this using the average depth measurement from the dive? What is the purpose of the average depth function? -- Watchmanjc
ANSWER:
As a NAUI Instructor, I teach using the dive tables and following them to the letter, literally. I read somewhere where the Navy developed a rule of 120. This meant time plus depth added together must not exceed 120. Examples are 100 feet for 20 minutes, 60 feet for 60 minutes, etc. Global Underwater Explorers uses that same train of thought, although they add the use of 32% Nitrox. I am pretty sure they also use average depth as their guidelines, not maximum depth. I am certain you can find out more of their theories and practices by going directly to their website. www.gue.com
As for using your watch's depth averaging feature, personally, I would not. But that's me. I'd use the depth averaging feature to help figure your air consumption rate and allowing that information to help you plan dives that require consideration of your air supply. Only you can say for sure what to do. It's your body, and scuba is all theory. There are no definites, unfortunately. I apologize if I have left your question unanswered, but there's a lot more to think about and consider than simply saying yes or no to your question. -- Carol Cotton Walker
Can rental scuba gear make you sick?
QUESTION: This is probably a silly question, Can you get sick from
rental equipment? I was just certified yesterday, it is probably just
coincidence, but the first weekend we did our pool dives I woke up in the middle
of the night in a cold sweat and had a sinus/head cold for a week and a half.
I was feeling better about mid last week and then yesterday we did our deep dive
and now I have a terrible chest cold. I don't get sick often, but you know, my
kids are back in school so it could be anything. I just thought the timing of
these two colds were weird. I looked on line to see if I could find anything
on cleaning regulators, but I haven't found anything. -- Vicki
ANSWER:
Greetings Vicki
I'm sorry to hear you're not feeling well! Your question is not silly. I've been teaching scuba for 12+ years, and I've honestly not heard of anyone getting a cold from rental equipment, though I'm sure it's not unheard of. Most dive shops have enough chemicals (chlorine) in their pools to kill most any germ. I had a brother and sister in class one time and the brother came down with Mono ... Luckily his sister, nor anyone else got it. It's always a question when we teach sharing air.
Dive shops should sanitize their rental equipment or at least hang it up till all danger of germs has past. You might want to ask them how they sanitize their equipment.
Is there a common denominator (classmate) who has had a cold who was with you during pool session and dives? Might you be getting the cold germ from your school-age children? Colds take several days before their symptoms surface. I've read where we often get the cold germ on Fridays when our immune system is weakened from working all week, but we don't actually feel sick from it until Monday mornings. -- Carol Cotton Walker
Depth limits for youths
QUESTION:What in max depth a 12 year old dive?
ANSWER:
NAUI's standards allow a 12 year old to go to a max depth of 130 feet, but only with an adult. My class is structured in such a way that we recommend 60 max for all Beginning divers, 100 max for Advanced divers, and 130 for absolute maximum for all recreational/sport divers. -- Carol Cotton Walker
