- This article refers to underwater diving by humans. Recreational diving or sport diving is a type of diving that uses SCUBA equipment for the purpose of leisure and enjoyment For other uses of the term diving, see dive and diving
Underwater diving is the practice of going underwater with or without breathing apparatus. Diving off a deck into the Great South Bay of Long Islandjpg|thumb|A man dives into the Great South Bay of Long Island. Underwater is a term describing the realm below the surface of Water where the water exists in a natural feature (called a body of water) such as an Ocean
Recreational diving is a popular activity (also called sports diving or subaquatics). Recreational diving or sport diving is a type of diving that uses SCUBA equipment for the purpose of leisure and enjoyment Professional diving (Commercial Diving or Diving for Financial Gain) takes a range of diving activities to the underwater work site. Hardhat diving redirects here Often "hardhat diving" is used to specifically mean diving in the old-type Standard diving dress. Hardhat diving redirects here Often "hardhat diving" is used to specifically mean diving in the old-type Standard diving dress. Scuba diving is swimming underwater, or taking part in another activity while using a Scuba set.
Levels of training and types of equipment and gases used differ between types of diving.
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History
It is unknown when exactly the sponge became an article of use. The sponges or poriferans (from Latin porus "pore" and ferre "to bear" are Animals In ancient writings Plato and Homerus the sponge is mentioned as an object used for bathing. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the In Kalymnos also sponge diving had it's roots in ancient times. Kalymnos, (Κάλυμνος is a Greek island and municipality in the southeastern Aegean Sea. It can be seen as the oldest profession on the island. Diving for sponges brought social and economical development to the isays the free-diving method was used. Free diving is any of various aquatic activities that share the practice of breath-holding Underwater diving. The crew went out to sea in a small boat. They used a cilyndrical object with a glass bottom to search the ocean floor for sponges. As soon as one was found, a diver went overboard to get it. He was usually naked and carried a 15 kilogram skandalopetra with him to take him down to the bottom quickly. The diver then cut the sponge loose from the bottom and put a special net around it. Depth an bottom time depended on the divers lung capacity. They usually went down to about 98 feet for 3 to 5 minutes.
Diving without breathing apparatus
Free diving
Free diving includes a range of activities from simple breath-hold diving to competitive apnoea dives. Free diving is any of various aquatic activities that share the practice of breath-holding Underwater diving.
Swimming underwater
The ability to dive and swim underwater can be a useful emergency skill, and is an important part of watersport and navy safety training. Swimming is the movement by humans or animals through Water, usually without artificial assistance More generally, entering water from a height is an enjoyable leisure activity, as is underwater swimming with or without breathing apparatus.
Snorkelling
The addition of a short breathing tube (snorkel) allows the diver to breathe while remaining immersed, but close to the surface. Snorkeling ( British spelling: snorkelling) is the practice of Swimming at the surface of a body of water while equipped with a Diving mask, a
Diving with Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA)
Scuba divers are sometimes known as frogmen, particularly divers engaged on armed forces covert operations. Scuba diving is swimming underwater, or taking part in another activity while using a Scuba set. A frogman is someone who is trained to dive or swim in a military capacity often in combat
Open circuit
Breathing systems consist of one or more diving cylinders containing breathing gas at high pressure connected to a diving regulator. A scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the Breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during Scuba diving. A diving cylinder, scuba tank or diving tank is used to store and transport high Pressure Breathing gas as a component of SCUBA (Self-Contained A diving regulator is a Pressure regulator used in a Scuba set that supplies the diver with breathing gas
Rebreather sets
Closed-circuit breathing systems allow recycling of exhaled gases. A rebreather is a type of Breathing set that provides a Breathing gas containing Oxygen and recycled exhaled gas This reduces the volume of gas used, making a rebreather lighter and more compact than an open-circuit breathing set. Rebreathers also make far fewer bubbles and less noise than open-circuit scuba; this makes them attractive to military, scientific and media divers.
Surface supplied diving
The alternative to scuba is breathing gases supplied via an umbilical from the surface, often from a diving support vessel but sometimes, indirectly via a diving bell. Surface supplied diving (also known as Hooka diving refers to divers using equipment supplied with Breathing gas using an umbilical cord A diving support vessel is a Ship that is used as a floating base for Professional diving projects A diving bell, also known as a wet bell, is a cable-suspended airtight chamber open at the bottom like a Moon pool structure that is lowered Underwater Surface-supplied divers almost always wear diving helmets or full face diving masks. Diving helmets are worn by mainly by professional divers engaged in Surface supplied diving. A full-face diving mask is a type of Diving mask that seals the whole of the diver's Face from the water and contains a mouthpiece or Demand valve
Saturation diving
Saturation diving lets professional divers live and work at depth for days or weeks at a time. Saturation diving is a diving technique that allows divers to remain at great depth for long periods of time This type of diving allows greater economy of work and enhanced safety. After working in the water, divers rest and live in a dry pressurized habitat on or connected to a diving support vessel, oil platform or other floating work station, at the same pressure as the work depth. A diving support vessel is a Ship that is used as a floating base for Professional diving projects An oil platform or oil rig is a large structure used to house workers and machinery needed to drill and/or extract oil and Natural gas through wells They may be transferred in a diving bell. A diving bell, also known as a wet bell, is a cable-suspended airtight chamber open at the bottom like a Moon pool structure that is lowered Underwater Decompression at the end of the dive may take many days.
Diving training
Basic Dive Training entails the learning of underwater skills and other skills requisite to the successful and safe conduct of activities in an underwater environment such as the buddy system, dive planning, and use of dive tables among others. Also, underwater diving training should come from a qualified diving instructor, to be safe.
Below are some basic underwater skills that a beginner should learn:
- Equalization – this refers to the adjustment the Eustachian tube in the ear needs to do when submerged in the higher pressured environment underwater.
- Underwater breathing – this refers to the skill of breathing through the apparatus. All divers must get used to this way of breathing.
- Mask clearing – This is done to make sure that there will not be anything that will obstruct the diver's view as well as to remove any water that might come into the mask.
- Air sharing – refers to the act of multiple divers sharing one air supply.
- Buoyancy – the right buoyancy allows the diver to move about underwater comfortably. Amount of equipment, buoyancy compensators, and amount of air in the lungs all come to play in maintaining buoyancy. More air in the lungs makes for more buoyancy, while less air makes for less buoyancy.
- Diving signals – diving signals may vary, but its purpose is to be able to communicate with other divers. It should be clear among a group of divers what the diving signals to be used are before the dive.
Diving training can be got from many diving training bodies: see Category:Diver training agency.
Dangers of diving
- Decompression sickness
- Nitrogen narcosis
- Drowning
- Barotrauma
- Oxygen toxicity
- Shallow water blackout
- Deep water blackout
- On jumping into water: divers sometimes jump into water feet first from some height above the water (e. Divers face specific physical and Health Risks when they go Underwater (e Decompression sickness (DCS, the diver’s disease, the bends, caisson disease is the name given to a variety of symptoms suffered by a person Nitrogen narcosis or inert gas narcosis is a reversible alteration in Consciousness in scuba divers at depth Drowning is Death as caused by suffocation when a liquid causes interruption of the body's absorption of oxygen from the air leading to Asphyxia. Barotrauma is physical damage to body tissues caused by a difference in Pressure between an air space inside or beside the body and the surrounding Gas or Liquid Oxygen toxicity or oxygen toxicity syndrome (also known as the " Paul Bert effect" or the "Lorrain Smith effect" describes harmful effects caused A shallow water blackout is a loss of consciousness caused by Cerebral hypoxia towards the end of a breath-hold dive in water typically shallower than five A deep water blackout is a loss of consciousness caused by Cerebral hypoxia on ascending from a deep Freedive or breath-hold dive typically of ten metres or more g. from a large boat or from a pier). A pier is a raised Walkway over water supported by widely spread Piles or pillars. Jumping into the water headfirst is unsafe for those wearing any sort of scuba or snorkelling equipment. In particular, an open-circuit scuba on the back is big and hard and heavy and during a headfirst dive into water may cause back or neck injury or break the neck. A scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the Breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during Scuba diving.
Other forms of underwater diving
Diving in submersibles
Submarines, submersibles and 'hard' diving suits enable undersea diving to be carried out within a dry environment at normal atmospheric pressure, albeit more remotely. A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability A submersible, or Bathyscaphe, is a type of Underwater vessel with limited mobility which is typically transported to its area of operation by a surface A diving suit is a garment or device designed to protect a diver from the Underwater environment Underwater robots and remotely operated vehicles and also carry out some functions of divers at greater depths and in more dangerous environments. A robot is a mechanical or Virtual Artificial agent In practice it is usually an electro-mechanical system which by its appearance or movements Remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs is the common accepted name for tethered underwater Robots in the offshore industry
Diving by other animals
Humans are not the only air-breathing creatures to dive. Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus Marine mammals such as seals, dolphins and whales, dive to feed and catch prey under the sea as do penguins and many seabirds, as well as various reptiles: turtles, saltwater crocodiles, seasnakes and Marine Iguanas. Marine mammals are a diverse group of roughly 120 species of Mammal that are primarily Ocean -dwelling or depend on the ocean for food Pinnipeds ("fin-feet" lit "winged feet" or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semi-aquatic marine Mammals comprising Dolphins are Marine mammals that are closely related to Whales and Porpoises There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genera. Whales are marine mammals which are neither Dolphins (ie members of the families Delphinidae or Platanistoidae) nor Porpoises Orcas Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless Birds living almost Seabirds are Birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment Reptiles, or members of the class Reptilia are air-breathing Cold-blooded Vertebrates that have skin covered in scales as opposed to hair or feathers Turtles are Reptiles of the Order Testudines (all living turtles belong to the Crown group Chelonia) most of The saltwater or estuarine crocodile ( Crocodylus porosus) is the largest of all living Crocodilians and Reptiles It is found in suitable For sea snakes in mythology and cryptozoology see Sea serpent. The Marine Iguana ( Amblyrhynchus cristatus) is an Iguana found only on the Galapagos Islands that has the ability unique among modern Lizards Many mammals, birds and reptiles also dive in freshwater rivers and lakes.
See also
External links
- Divers Alert Network - Asia-Pacific - Scuba diving safety organisation