Ten Reasons Why You Should Become a Certified Diver

A whopping 14 million viewers were wowed by the
groundbreaking docuseries, Blue Planet II, when it first aired in
2017, and people’s fascination with all things ocean-related
continues to grow, from Ocean Film Festivals popping up across the
world to power-house brands creating fashion from the ocean’s
plastic pollution. But, there’s nothing quite like seeing the magic
of the underwater world with your own eyes. Whether you’re on the
fence, have a toe in the water or are passionate about taking the
plunge, discover the top ten reasons why you should become a
certified scuba diver…

pod of fish

1. You Will Discover a Whole New World

Whether you dreamt about becoming an archaeologist, marine
biologist, explorer, photographer, or all the above, you can easily
fulfill all your passions in diving. Covering over 70% of the
world’s surface, the ocean is an endless playground; see the most
beautiful and fascinating creatures you never knew existed, hover
over wrecks steeped in history and marvel at kaleidoscopic cities
of coral – there is always something mind boggling to explore.

scuba diving along a coral wall

2. You Will Become Aquaman (or Woman)

To coin an old phrase, you really do have to see it to believe
it, and becoming scuba certified is practically synonymous with
becoming a POTO (Protector of the Ocean). From joining in on ocean
initiatives to collecting rubbish on your dive, becoming a citizen
scientist and so much more, you will be inspired to protect the
ocean – an Aqua(wo)man, if you will.

scuba diver swimming through a pod of fish

3. You Will Become Part of a Community

From the buddy system (divers are always paired on a dive) to
sharing a magical marine experience, there’s nothing quite like
diving for bringing people together. We may be biased, but the
diving community is well known for being a friendly bunch and you
will feel like you are part of one big fishy family. Before you
know it, you will find yourself indulging in post-dive drinks and
late evenings swapping stories about your favourite marine life and
underwater discoveries.

underwater photo of coral

4. You Will Learn a Secret Language

Not to be Captain Obvious, but it’s impossible to talk
underwater (bar from a few techy tools out there), ergo divers have
their own secret language called scuba sign. The language is
universal (read: no pesky language barriers) and covers everything
from diving safety to the entire encyclopaedia of marine life –
once you get a grip on it you can have the whole conversation
underwater.

manta ray

5. You Will Become Physically Fit

While we wouldn’t treat it as our only form of exercise, there
is no doubt that diving benefits your entire body. It is proven to
lower blood pressure, improve blood circulation, increase the
strength and flexibility of muscles and even burn calories; an
average 60-minute shore dive can burn up to 600 calories an hour –
similar to jogging but the pros of diving are you get to see the
cool stuff.

turtle underwater

6. You Will Become Mentally Fit

Fact: the breathing techniques used in scuba diving are on par
with those of meditation. Focusing on the surrounding marine life
allows day-to-day issues to melt away, while taking deep, low
breaths and generally being relaxed means divers use less air.
These can improve our overall mental health and help to deal with
stressful situations in real life.

coral reef

7. You Will Overcome Your Fears

While strapping a tank on your back to breathe underwater might
seem barmy, it’s one of the most exhilarating experiences out
there. Not to get overly philosophical but getting out of your
comfort zone and trying new things will teach you so much more
about yourself. Plus, you’ll be surrounded by professional dive
instructors every step of the way so that you can get comfortable
in the water.

octopus

8. You Will Learn New Skills

Diving is so much more than just learning how to use dive gear
and will see you gain a whole heap of both theoretical and
practical skills. From learning buoyancy control while floating
weightless like an astronaut, to channelling your inner science
geek uncovering the physics and physiology of scuba diving, not to
mention skills that will come handy in everyday life, such as
multi-tasking, communicating clearly, social skills and keeping a
level head.

dolphins

9. It’s a Life-Long Activity

While you will need to take a refresher course (which you can do
while on holiday) if you haven’t dived for over six months, there
are no age restrictions so you can continue your diving adventure
for life (the world record is currently 96 years old). And once
you’ve gained your first certification, a whole world of other
options will unfold, from advanced certification (which we
thoroughly recommend for diving down to 30 metres) to speciality
courses, ranging from underwater photography to nitrox and
everything in between.

coral and fish

10. Your Holidays Will Become More Adventurous

Excuse us for a moment of unabashed self-promotion, but scuba
diving holidays are some of the most adventurous, life-changing
trips across the world; uncover secret underwater jungles in
Papua
New Guinea; dive between continents in Iceland; come
face-to-face with whale sharks the size of buses in the
Galapagos; or even head 300 metres below the ocean’s surface in
a DeepSea Submersible, to name but a few.

Discover more about the open water scuba diving course, get inspired
by our learn to dive
collections and get in touch to organise your next
adventure.

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Being an Environmentally Conscious Diver in the Age of COVID

It’s a common misconception that being a ‘green’ diver is difficult, now made nearly impossible in the age of Covid, but this is simply not true. The coronavirus has introduced many new challenges, but businesses and divers continue to come together to find solutions that work. Your next dive does not have to be complicated, or expensive, and you don’t have to compromise on enjoyment to keep ocean conservation top of mind. Here are eight easy ways to be an environmentally conscious diver in the age of Covid.

Select a sustainable business

Not all operators are equal. When planning your holiday try to book with a responsible operator. Search for a business that adheres to its environmental commitment even in this difficult time. If the operator stands firm in its pledge, you will see creative solutions at work. Look for a sustainability strategy on their website and visual evidence of their environmental efforts. Read their reviews, and steer clear if they mention harmful practices.

Buy a washable face mask

Whether you’re visiting a dive shop or traveling through an airport, masks are now the norm. Say no to disposable and buy a mask made from recycled plastic-bottles. These face masks contribute to cleaner oceans and are washable. Plus, you can choose a unique pattern that shows your aquatic personality. Order them from PADI, or better yet, buy one locally and support a small business owner.

Go paperless

There’s never been a better time to switch to digital. Request all your dive and travel documents be sent electronically. It’s a win-win — going paperless keeps you socially distanced and makes for a happier planet.

Keep reusables nearby

An unexpected side effect of Covid-19 is an increased accumulation of plastic pollution. To adhere to new government regulations, many businesses are only supplying disposable items, eliminating more eco-friendly options. Keeping reusables close at hand allows you to refuse plastics on the spot and reduce waste. A to-go bag with a water bottle or coffee cup and utensils are must-haves for every sustainable diver.

Look for smart sanitization

Most cleaning agents used for coronavirus sanitization are hazardous to the marine environment. More so, the type of product and ways they are being applied can further exacerbate the impact. For instance, aerosols are more harmful than liquids.

Try to dive with shops that have a green sanitization strategy. They tend to be more cautious with their product use and dispose of chemicals correctly. To do a deeper dive into the best environmental cleaning practices download this guide. Don’t forget to apply these tips at home too.

Wash those hands

Alcohol-based hand sanitizer can negatively impact on the ocean. Plus, each little bottle is 100 percent plastic. So, when possible, always make hand washing your first choice. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) agrees that washing your hands in hot, soapy water is the most effective strategy to kill the coronavirus.

Make your trip matter

Marine parks are falling into financial crises without visitors. Supported by day use fees, some are unable to continue their protection of these special areas. By diving in a marine protected area you can aid conservation simply by paying your entry fee. For a more hands-on approach, join one of their volunteer programs. Fight invasive species, conduct a fish count, or even plant coral.

Set a good example

As a diver, you’re on the front line. Set a good example by using best diving practices, limiting your own physical impact, and educating others to do the same. Green Fins has created easy guidelines for divers, dive staff and dive operators which are free to download here. Dive professionals can also take the free Dive Guide e-course to continue their environmental learning.

In the end, staying an environmentally conscious diver is not about being perfect. It’s about striving to make better choices and helping others do the same. If we all work together to adopt sustainability as the new norm, we can emerge in this new post-Covid world stronger. Let’s spread sustainability, not the coronavirus.

Rachel Huber is a dive instructor and freelance writer based in Squamish, Canada. After a decade living a pirate’s life in the Caribbean, she moved home where she now writes primarily on travel and liveaboard diving. Her passion for scuba continues to take her all over the world seeking her next great story, and a whale shark or two. Visit her website or find her on Instagram.

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Top Tips for Basic Dive Gear Maintenance

By Yvonne Press
Gear
Aug 5, 2020

Once bitten by the diving bug, most divers start looking to buy some or all of their own equipment. And while some bits of gear are more expensive than others, all is worth looking after no matter the cost. Here are some of our best tips for basic dive gear maintenance.

Choosing between different styles and brands of diving equipment and weighing recommendations and personal preferences may seem hard enough, but it would be positively heartbreaking if you damaged your new gear simply because you didn’t look after it. Never fear — you needn’t become a scuba technician just yet to keep this from happening. Many agencies offer an equipment-focused course that gives you more knowledge about your gear, as well as hands-on experience in taking care of it. These classes are generally good value, especially if you’re not technically minded or simply didn’t grow up taking apart and putting back together cars in your spare time.

If that’s not available to you, here are some practical pointers.

Start with cleaning

Maintaining your equipment really begins with how well you clean it. While it’s usually not necessary to wash equipment between dives, you should make an exception for computers and cameras to prevent salt residue from drying on the outside of your equipment and potentially damaging buttons and other moving parts. Most other equipment is fine with a freshwater wash at the end of a diving day. Rinse tanks allow you to fully immerse your gear, which is a great way to remove or minimize salt residue. Beware, however, of being the last person to use the tank at the end of the day. In a busy dive center, you’ll be washing your gear in brackish water and should add a freshwater rinse from a hose if possible.

On a dive vacation like a week-long liveaboard, there are often restrictions on how much water you can use. In that case it’s a good idea to give your gear another thorough wash when you return home. If you’re limited for space, use your shower or bathtub to clean gear.

Exposure gear like wetsuits and booties often benefit from being rinsed with a bit of disinfectant on a daily basis, especially if you had to pee in them. At the end of a trip, consider washing your suits, rash vests and boots with a gentle shampoo or specialized wetsuit shampoo.

Drying your gear

Having talked about washing, drying is just as important. Dive pros can sympathize with this one: as most of our gear is never really dry, it’s hard to prevent mold growth, especially in warm, tropical environments. At best unhygienic, over time this mold will start to eat away on the silicone skirt of masks and more. Even if it takes three days to dry out those booties: do it.

Preventative care

Another secret to well-maintained dive gear is simply to prevent problems. Every so often, examine things like mask and fin straps for deterioration. Often, dive gear deteriorates over time as opposed to failing without warning. You may be able to spot the rubber on the strap looking brittle in good time before it breaks in the water. Similarly, a small tear in a mask strap may take a bit of noticing but often develops long before the strap actually rips.

Mind those hoses

If you have your own regulators, hose protectors may hide more problems than they prevent. Many technical divers simply remove them or choose hoses without protectors in order to monitor any deterioration and aging hoses.

If your regulators have hose protectors, pull them back from time to time to clean underneath and check the health of the hose itself. Look for corrosion on the metal parts, for example. If you are using Miflex or similar hoses the outside braiding may begin to fray. That may not require immediate hose replacement, but it’s smart to check with a technician.

Rubber hoses start to get brittle on the outside, meaning the internal braiding that holds the pressure of the gas in the hose is less protected. Brittle rubber may signify that the hose itself is aging. How long you can use a hose varies from manufacturer to manufacturer but, in general, extreme environments exact a bigger toll than moderate conditions do. How much you use your gear also plays a role.

If you can see bubbles forming under the rubber part of a hose, it’s reached the end of its lifespan. Bubbles mean gas has escaped the braiding under the rubber, and the hose is no longer strong enough to hold pressure. Replace it now before it ruptures suddenly.

Other pieces of gear

It’s also easy to maintain the mouthpiece on your regulator. While not life-threatening, diving with a torn mouthpiece is at best uncomfortable and can prove distracting, thus taking away your focus and leading to other problems.

Next on our maintenance list are BCDs and wings. Every open-water diver learns to rinse the inside of their BCD. The main reason to do so is to keep bacteria from growing inside uncontrollably, which will eventually damage the bladder itself and shorten the BCD’s life. Rinsing it is all about protecting your expensive gear. Next, look at your inflators and dumps. Are all buttons and strings moving smoothly? If not, try cleaning them with hot, soapy water. Should that fail, it’s time to get the professionals on the case.

DIY when you can

Chances are, as your diving career progresses, you will become comfortable enough to fix small problems yourself, like changing O-rings on tanks, or the DIN connector of your regulator or at the end of a hose leading into your first stage. The key to competently doing so is having a tool kit and a few spares handy — a save-a-dive kit, so to speak. This needn’t be huge. In fact, there are plenty of useful multi tools available, some of which can even fit into a BCD pocket and safely go underwater.

Generally, divers will need a selection of Allen wrenches (know the difference between metric and imperial sizes and which you need), adjustable spanners and an O-ring pick or two as a start. Keep a selection of O-rings suitable for your equipment on hand and lastly, never underestimate the versatility of cable ties when it comes to saving a dive (or a dive day) by applying a temporary fix. While not ideal, especially when diving in a remote area, these can save more than just the proverbial day.

Yvonne Press

Yvonne Press / About Author

Yvonne Press has worked as a dive professional since 2010, and is now a technical instructor trainer and CCR instructor based in Indonesia. Initially guiding and teaching full time in Scotland, after four years she moved to warmer waters including the Red Sea, Thailand and Indonesia, where she has been based since 2014. The discovery of untouched WWII wrecks lying in 40 to 60 meters off Scotland’s east coast started Yvonne’s journey into technical diving, and she became a TDI and PADI TecRec instructor in 2015. In 2016, Yvonne became southeast Asia’s first female TDI instructor trainer. She now teaches from a variety of locations in Indonesia and recently established her own centre in Bali, Dark Horizon Diving.

More posts by Yvonne Press
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The Best Scuba Diving in the North Maldives

10In the north-central Indian Ocean sit the Maldives, 1,200 islands forming an archipelago of 27 atolls. Only a handful of these tropical islands are occupied, and the country has become an idyllic destination for honeymooning couples. Palm-fringed, white-sand beaches are home to luxurious resorts offering a romantic escape. But it’s not just romance that attracts tourists — the north Maldives is also quite popular with scuba divers. In the center of the country is North Kaafu — better known as North Male Atoll — the most developed atoll and the hub of Maldives tourism.

Here you’ll find the most explored and well-known dive sites in the region. Healthy reefs, drop-offs, caves, deep current-swept channels, and an abundance of marine life are just waiting to be discovered by divers of all levels.

north maldives scuba diving

Yellowbanded sweetlips swim over the reef.

north maldives scuba div ing

Turtles are another common sight on many dives (photo credit: Torben Lonne)

north maldives scuba diving

Turtles are common on many dive sites (photo credit: Torben Lonne)

north maldives scuba diving

A lionfish lingers for the camera (photo credit: Torben Lonne)

north maldives scuba diving

Clownfish are common in the north Maldives (photo credit: Torben Lonne)

Banana Reef

This banana-shaped reef was one of the first sites discovered and is still a firm favorite with local divers, as it offers some of the best coral coverage in the Maldives. Large thickets of pristine Acropora coral and huge sea fans occupy the sloping reef. Watch for large grouper, bluestripe snapper, angelfish, morays, and lobster hiding in the crevices.

As you drift with the current at depths between 33 and 85 feet (10 and 25 m), you’ll enjoy a varied topography including overhangs, caves, and caverns. At the eastern end of Banana Reef is the ‘washing machine,’ where an enormous school of bannerfish hangs in the current. Inexperienced divers should observe the bannerfish from a distance as the current in this area can be very strong.

Manta Point

As the name suggests, Manta Point offers the area’s best chance of seeing these majestic creatures. Manta rays come in from the blue and queue above the shallow reef to visit one of three cleaning stations. By controlling your buoyancy and keeping your distance, you’ll see cleaner wrasse removing parasites and dead skin from the mantas’ body, mouth, and gills. Once the cleaners are done, the manta moves on to make room for the next one. It’s a truly amazing spectacle.

If you can drag your eyes away from the mantas, Manta Point has plenty more to offer. Large numbers of oriental sweetlips, Napoleon wrasse, hawksbill turtles, morays, and octopus occupy the reef. Out in the blue, you’re likely to see schools of jacks and barracuda while whitetip reef sharks rest on the sandy bottom. Manta Point is definitely one of the most exciting dives in North Maldives.

Maldive Victory wreck

In 1981, a 328-foot (100 m) Singaporean cargo ship sank on its journey to the Maldives. It now rests between 39 feet (12 m) and 115 feet (35 m) and has become a vibrant artificial reef, encrusted with sea fans and corals which countless species of marine animals now call home. Ghost pipefish, nudibranchs, soldierfish, and hawkfish take shelter among stunning corals. Also expect to spot batfish, large puffers, and schools of fusiliers. Turtles often perch on the deck of the ship.

The Maldive Victory wreck is located in a channel and currents are particularly strong in this area. The ship provides you with some shelter while exploring but make sure you have plenty of air remaining for the ascent and safety stop.

Girifushi Thila

Girifushi Thila, or Rainbow Reef, is recognized as one of the best dive sites in the northern Maldives. ‘Thila’ means submerged pinnacle, and this one’s shallowest point is around 39 feet (12 m). As you drift along on the current, you’ll see an amazing array of brightly colored soft corals interspersed with tunicates and gorgonian fans.

The topography includes many overhangs, caves, and swim-throughs, including ‘the chimney,’ which rises from 85 to 33 feet (25 m to 10 m). These various rock formations offer the chance to escape from the current and observe snappers, lionfish, jacks, angelfish, and yellow-mouthed morays. Eagle rays, tuna, barracuda, and gray reef sharks also frequently visit Girifushi Thila. Liveaboards will often dive this site more than once due to popular demand. 

Hans Haas Place

Free from the currents that are a staple of many dive sites in the north Maldives is Hans Haas Place. This 328-foot (100 m) reef starts at 16 feet (5 m), drops down to 100 feet (30 m), and plays host to several overhangs and caverns.

The overhangs have ceilings of purple sea fans and soft corals that hide soldierfish, trumpetfish, and groupers. Hans Haas Place is also a great place to see some less-common species, including scrawled filefish, leaf scorpionfish, and freckled hawkfish. This protected marine area offers one dive site that divers of all levels can enjoy.

How to get the most out of diving in the north Maldives

If you’re looking for a relaxing vacation and the opportunity to do a few fun dives, staying at a resort in North Male Atoll is your best option. Every resort will cater for divers and some are even dedicated to scuba diving. However, without a doubt, the way to get the most out of diving in North Maldives is on a liveaboard.

It’s not a cheap destination but a dive safari is probably more economical than booking into a resort. It also offers you the opportunity to visit some of the more far-flung dive sites in the northern atolls. You can find liveaboards to suit the majority of budgets whether you’re after no-frills or a luxury cruise.

When is the best time to dive the north Maldives?

Water temperatures are comfortable year-round in the north Maldives and average between 80 and 86 F (27 and 30 C). December to May is the dry season and this is when currents pick up, improving visibility and bringing in the larger pelagic marine life. During the southwest monsoon from June to November, there’s more chance of rain and high winds and sea conditions can be unpredictable.

Resort dive centers operate year-round. Even if the weather and conditions are not ideal for diving some of the remote sites, there are plenty of sheltered sites nearby to enjoy. However, liveaboards only run in the north Maldives between September and April.

January to April offers ideal diving conditions with excellent visibility and calm seas, but no matter when you choose to visit the north Maldives, you are guaranteed some world-class diving.

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