Scuba diving is an intriguing sport that’s gaining popularity, but many wrongfully assume that it’s too difficult to attempt.
Scuba diving is not hard, but it’s not something you can jump right into. While a normal person can choose to start scuba diving, they need to learn certain skills and techniques before diving. This allows them to stay safe and have an enjoyable time underwater.
In this article, we look closer at how the average person can scuba dive and what they should expect from the activity. The key in a good scuba diving experience is understanding your limitations and what you should bring to the table.
Can a Normal Person do Scuba Diving?
A normal person can do scuba diving, but this doesn’t mean that you can just get started without preparation.
Before you can go scuba diving you need to:
- Take an appropriate diving course, including book time and in-water time
- Pass certification assessments
- Set up a dive with a reputable dive center
These prerequisites require time, money, and experience, but they aren’t hurdles that the average person cannot overcome. As long as you are in reasonable fitness and absorb all the information needed to scuba dive responsibly, you can expect to have a safe and memorable time.
Do You Need to be Strong to Scuba Dive?
You should be strong enough to handle the basic physical demands of scuba diving. Scuba diving doesn’t require you to put your muscles to work during the entire dive (you get a sense of weightlessness when under water), but you need to carry about 50 lbs worth of equipment when you’re on the shore or boat.
Being honest with yourself about your strength is an important part of determining your capabilities when diving. There’s no shame in being a weaker swimmer, but you need to acknowledge this instead of diving in waters with a reputation for stronger currents.
Knowledge, situational awareness, and good decision making can tide you over until your body is strong enough to handle difficult dives, but only if you’re setting realistic expectations.
Reasonable Expectations
If you consider yourself an average individual and want to set proper expectations for diving, setting up a try dive at your local dive center can give you the best idea of how things will be.
Dive centers that offer this spend a few hours explaining the basics of scuba diving to you, and they may let you get in a pool to test out a few situations and get a feel for scuba diving without spending too much time or money on the sport.
For certification, expect to:
- Spend a few hours learning the basics of scuba diving
- Spend a few days in the water with an instructor putting everything into practice
- Log at least 4 open-water dives
You don’t need to put yourself in a strong current or carry lots of gear to prove yourself, but you should be strong enough to cover the basics.
Is Scuba Diving Hard on Your Body?
Scuba diving is hard on your body in certain ways, but it’s also a great low-impact alternative to exercise.
Scuba diving puts more pressure on certain systems in your body, primarily your pulmonary system and cardiovascular system. This is what makes diving so difficult for some, and it accounts for a large portion of scuba-diving related injuries and hazards.
Alternatively, scuba diving allows many to exercise their body without putting stress on their bones and joints. This allows for an easier workout experience, especially for those with weakness in these areas.
Part of scuba diving is weighing these hazards and benefits before deciding whether it may be too hard on your body.
Effects of Scuba Diving on Your Body
Your mammalian dive reflex plays a heavy role in what happens to your body when scuba diving. This reflex aims to prevent you from drowning, but it can be counterproductive when you are trying to enjoy a dive.
The mammalian dive reflex causes these changes:
- Peripheral vasoconstriction
- Slowed heart rate
- Redirection of blood to vital organs (in your chest) to conserve oxygen
- Release of red blood cells stored in the spleen
- Heart rhythm irregularities
The most obvious effects are your increased likeliness to hold your breath and the rigidity of your lungs due to blood redirection to that area.
Other changes involve the increase in pressure the further you descend and the decreasing volume of gas. It’s difficult to keep track of these changes, so scuba divers adhere to strict timelines to prevent these changes from affecting them adversely.
The effects of scuba diving affect everyone differently, and those with pulmonary conditions or heart conditions may have a harder time adapting to the changes.
Is Beginner Scuba Diving Safe?
Beginner scuba diving is overwhelmingly safe. An Open Water Diver certification is the most basic certification you can get, and it ensures you stay in safer diving conditions.
A beginner certification lets you do what you need to go scuba diving without giving you more than you can handle. This includes:
- Air fills and renting dive equipment
- Diving on your own (with a buddy) to a max depth of 60 feet (18 meters)
- Book boat dives
- Pursue special certification
The riskier parts of scuba diving, including deep water diving and solo-diving, are not accessible for beginners. Instead, you append your time at a safer depth and often with highly trained supervision.
Is Scuba Diving Stressful?
Scuba diving is stressful in a few ways.
First, your body must overcome certain reflexes aimed to prevent you from diving. You’ll likely experience a mild amount of fear, unless you’ve gone through underwater activities such as snorkeling, and need to teach your body to move past the fear.
Scuba diving puts stress on certain parts of your body as well. Your heart and lungs need to work harder under the increased pressure of the water, and the pressure only increases the further down you dive.
The Dangers of Stress-Induced Panic When Scuba Diving
Stress is normal and expected, but it creates an issue when it evolves to panic. While panic is not a direct cause of death, many diving fatalities derive from unresolved panic.
This leads to errors such as:
- Improper gas management and buoyancy control
- Intentional or accidental misuse of equipment
- Entrapment
Learning to keep stress from turning into panic is a vital part of scuba diving. THe sport prioritizes safety by emphasizing the importance of diving with a buddy and running through emergency simulations to make sure you have the highest chance of staying calm.
Does Diving Shorten Your Life?
There is no definitive proof that scuba diving either shortens or lengthens your lifespan, but there are indicators that those who dive usually do other things associated with a longer lifespan. More research is necessary to tie scuba diving and life span data appropriately.
In theory, scuba diving can improve health by giving a more enjoyable and less impactful way to exercise. As long as the diver is reasonably fit, there is no reason this should not have more benefits than harmful effects.
Scuba diving can improve your health by:
- Burning calories (up to 600 per hour)
- Improving cardiovascular fitness
- Improving pulmonary fitness
- Putting less stress on joints
On the other hand, those with preexisting conditions can accelerate their condition by scuba diving. An example of this is someone with a heart condition going for a dive. While a healthy individual is likely to experience cardiovascular benefits from the dive, the person with the heart condition can put too much stress on their heart.
Most of the evidence linking divers to a longer lifespan must also take into account that divers are more likely to monitor their health, have a higher education, and sit at a higher income level. All of these details are linked to longer lifespans on their own, and scuba diving may share association rather than cause.
Who Should Not Scuba?
Scuba diving suitability is determined on a case basis. Certain individuals will have a harder time scuba diving, and those with more severe and untreatable conditions may be safer out of the water.
Scuba Diving and Age
The youngest suitable age for diving is 8 years old. Divers at least 8 years old have the opportunity to dive in a controlled experience with an instructor limited to 12 feet (4 meters).
The youngest a diver can become certified is 10 years old, but they’re limited to dives of 40 feet (12 meters). Those 12 to 18 can dive at standard depth, but they must also be supervised by an adult for the dive.
There is no upper age limit on diving, but certain health factors may disqualify you.
Scuba Diving and Mental Health
Scuba diving benefits your mental state, but those with severe mental health conditions risk impaired judgment. These often include:
- Severe anxiety or depression
- Active bipolar or psychotic disorder
- A history of panic attacks
- Alcohol or drug use
- Claustrophobia or agoraphobia
A mental health assessment and correspondence with a diving-familiar physician can give you a better understanding of whether these are deal breakers for you.
Scuba Diving and Physical Health
Scuba diving affects the body in many ways. Certain conditions are worse off when put in a high-pressure situation, and certain physical health issues affect your ability to dive.
Most dive centers have you fill out an evaluation form prior to your dive to pick up on potential issues, but your doctor will have the best chance of determining the severity of your condition.
Severe physical health conditions usually involve:
- Heart problems (i.e. high blood pressure, pacemakers, or heart failure)
- Metabolic conditions (including diabetes or pregnancy)
- Neurological conditions (i.e. epilepsy, seizures, or convulsions)
- Pulmonary conditions (i.e. asthma, lung cancer, or pneumothorax)
You don’t need to be in top form to scuba dive, but you need to be honest about your limitations and understanding of anything that disqualifies you from spending time underwater.
Is it Hard to Breathe While Diving?
It’s hard to breathe while diving until you get used to breathing with a regulator.
Your body’s instinct is to hold your breath when underwater. This works well to prevent drowning, but it’s counterproductive when on a dive. Holding your breath increases your chances of diving-related trauma.
Even after you overcome this hurdle, you need to learn how to breathe using a regulator. You should practice this during your certification course, first above water, then at the surface, and finally submerged.
The increase in water pressure puts extra stress on your lungs. They’re more rigid from blood pooling to the area, but you must also adapt to the changes in air volume in your lungs.
How Divers Make it Easier to Breathe
Divers make it easier to breathe by improving the efficiency of their respiratory system. Instead of trying to find a way to breathe as they would on land, divers make it easier to handle breathing underwater by practicing methods such as diaphragmatic or segmented breathing.
These methods improve the body’s ability to exchange gas, and they’re particularly helpful when scuba diving. Not only can a diver use less air during their dive, but they also stand a better chance at off-gassing efficiently and avoiding conditions such as decompression sickness.
Can a Weak Swimmer Scuba Dive?
A weak swimmer can scuba dive, but they are at a higher risk of accident and injury. This puts the diver and anyone else in the water with them at risk.
Weak swimmers should focus on improving their swimming capabilities before a dive. Until then, they should limit themselves to less-intensive activities, such as shallow dives or snorkeling.
Even with a superb understanding of scuba diving skills and techniques, a weak swimmer can too easily get swept away by a strong current. They will also face more issues in an emergency.
It may be hard, but improving your swimming abilities opens the door for more opportunities when scuba diving. It keeps you and your dive buddies safe, and your hard work pays off in the end.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538245/
https://dan.org/alert-diver/article/scuba-diving-and-life-expectancy/