10 scuba diving myths - what's your take?

[teecup]

Hi everyone!

What's your opinion on the following so-called diving misconceptions?

1. Scuba diving is an expensive hobby.
2. It's risky.
3. It's complicated.
4. It's for people who don't have a day job.
5. It's for men.
6. It takes forever to get certified.
7. It allows for a very little margin of error (make one mistake, and you're toast).
8. It requires you to be good at swimming.
9. It increases your risk of being attacked by sharks.
10. It damages your ears over time.

Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts!

 

[scubadiver888]

Hi everyone!

What's your opinion on the following so-called diving misconceptions?

1. Scuba diving is an expensive hobby.
2. It's risky.
3. It's complicated.
4. It's for people who don't have a day job.
5. It's for men.
6. It takes forever to get certified.
7. It allows for a very little margin of error (make one mistake, and you're toast).
8. It requires you to be good at swimming.
9. It increases your risk of being attacked by sharks.
10. It damages your ears over time.

Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts!

1. Expensive is relative. You definitely have the cost of the equipment and maintaining it. It also depends on where you live. I have to travel a distance for any good diving. A dive weekend would cost as much as going on a trip to the Caribbean for me. If I live in say Florida it could be a lot cheaper.
2. I don't think scuba diving is any more risky than other day to day activities. If you don't take it seriously or do stupid things it will kill you. It is much easier to do something stupid in diving than in other things but a sensible person should do fine.
3. For some people it could be complicated. There is a mechanical portion. They is some physics. If you don't have some level of manual dexterity it could be complicated. I, personally, find it very easy.
4. I have a day job. I don't dive as much as I'd like to but I do get a fair amount of diving just on weekends and holidays.
5. Half my instructors have been women. This is definitely not a sport for just men.
6. This is a sport I've been doing for 12 years now; around 650 weeks now. It took me 2 weeks to get OW. It took me 6 days to get my AOW. I think I might had 10 weeks total of training (wild guess). Less than 2% of the past 12 years in training. Doesn't seem like a lot of time to me. I know other people have done it in much less time.
7. There is plenty of margin for error. If there wasn't it would be a LOT more expensive. The gauges and equipment you use has a margin of error. This is why you never breathe your tanks to below 500 PSI. The gauge might say you have air but the tank is actually empty. Your reg might need 147 PSI but the technician tuned it to 151 PSI. It will still work but might breathe a little different.
8. You should be comfortable in the water but you don't have to be a good swimmer. Now I'm not sure how you can not be a good swimmer and comfortable in the water.
9. I have known people who have been attacked by sharks. None of them were scuba divers. I don't know any scuba divers who have been attacked by sharks. You can do things which will increase your chance of getting attacked but then I can walk through a bad neighbourhood at 2am waving handfuls of cash and it will increase my chance of getting shot or at least robbed.
10. Going to a lot of rock concerts will damage your ears. Not a lot you can do to avoid it. When you are diving, if you clear your ears properly and don't push it you will not damage your ears. I do know a lot of instructors don't put enough emphasis on this and many will hurt their ears a few times before they learn what to do to prevent it.

Bottom line, don't believe any of them as a blanketed statement. There can be some truth to them but they are not facts.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Hi everyone!

What's your opinion on the following so-called diving misconceptions?

1. Scuba diving is an expensive hobby.
2. It's risky.
3. It's complicated.
4. It's for people who don't have a day job.
5. It's for men.
6. It takes forever to get certified.
7. It allows for a very little margin of error (make one mistake, and you're toast).
8. It requires you to be good at swimming.
9. It increases your risk of being attacked by sharks.
10. It damages your ears over time.

Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts!

1, Scuba IS expensive
2, It IS risky
3, It IS complicated, especially if you are married and she doesn't dive.
4, It IS better to dive than have a day job.
5, It IS dominated by men.
6, It DOES take forever to really learn how to dive (well),
7. It IS very unforgiving, especially to your toast.
8. It IS better if you can swim (well),
9, It most definitely increases the risk of shark attacks
10, It definitely DOES damage the ears.

 

[NCBusguy]

1, Scuba IS expensive
2, It IS risky
3, It IS complicated, especially if you are married and she doesn't dive.
4, It IS better to dive than have a day job.
5, It IS dominated by men.
6, It DOES take forever to really learn how to dive (well),
7. It IS very unforgiving, especially to your toast.
8. It IS better if you can swim (well),
9, It most definitely increases the risk of shark attacks
10, It definitely DOES damage the ears.

I definitely agree with #3.......makes planning vacations fun!

 

[oly5050user]

1, Scuba IS expensive
2, It IS risky
3, It IS complicated, especially if you are married and she doesn't dive.
4, It IS better to dive than have a day job.
5, It IS dominated by men.
6, It DOES take forever to really learn how to dive (well),
7. It IS very unforgiving, especially to your toast.
8. It IS better if you can swim (well),
9, It most definitely increases the risk of shark attacks
10, It definitely DOES damage the ears.

1. Expensive is all relative..yes some will consider it so..but look at it this way,
How much is spent to go for a day of lift tickets for a skier? day of golf? (here in NY at one of the local clubs here you have to be a "member" to play.Cost to join this club-initiation fee- is something like $350,000.!and then there are the dues.NO I DO NOT PLAY GOLF. For me a day of diving is cheap. Some gas in the boat, depends on where I go I"ll burn maybe anywhere from $10. to $80. of gas,my gear is owned not rented. If I go on a local charter costs can run $50.-$150..
2. I do not consider it risky for myself. Driving a car to the boat has much more risk.
3. Complicated? Whats complicated about putting a regulator in your mouth,keeping track of time,looking at a set of gauges every so often. driving a car is more complicated!
4. For people who do not have a day job? what, have to work every day so go night diving, dive on a weekend,dive on a vacation.sometimes I do a dive BEFORE going to work for the day..Oh by the way I dive as a day to day job ( work at LDS as instructor) only because I am retired from corporate now.
5.If it was dominated by men where would all the single instructors get a date?
6. It can take as little as 4 hours to 10 hours pool time when you do elearning at your own pace, at home, and do a private ow course for required confined water work.. All depends on how fast a student can comfortable with the skills. OW training dives can be done on a weekend locally or on a trip to the islands . Island trip works like this: have breakfast, make 2 dives in the morning for certification dives, get out of water and have lunch and beers. Repeat next day and you are certified!
7.little margin of error? whats the problem? Run low on air simply go up..we are talking about nice ,easy recreational dives here where a person can go up at anytime with no issues.
8. swim ability should not be a problem..Either you CAN swim or you cannot.. If you cannot tread water for 10 minutes and be able to swim 200 yards you are NOT a swimmer. My dogs never had a swim lesson in their life and can do this. Speed or style does not count.
9.sharks..people pay extra $$$ to just get to see them. Shark sightings are getting as rare as seeing a UFO landing in your backyard..
10. damage to ears will not happen if you dive properly.Loud music is more damaging.

 

[Steve_C]

1. It is not cheap. Takes a few hundred to get started. After that it can be done cheaply if you will dive local. Cheap compared to owning a car and paying insurance.

2. There is risk. If you are reasonably alert you can greatly reduce the risk. You control your dive difficulty to a large extent. You control your equipment.

3. It may be complicated for some people. Other people pick it up very quickly. Question is whether the diver is in tune with their body and the environment. I found learning to ride a bike much harder than learning to dive with crude buoyancy control. Learning some of the ball room dances with my wife was really hard.

4. People I know with day dives can afford to dive more and in nicer places than those without a good day job unless they live on the beach or the like.

5. I don't think that diving is for men. I do see more men than women diving. There are many exceptions but I do think that attached men are more likely to go off diving without the spouse than attached women are to go off diving with instabuddies without the spouse. I am not talking about being on vacation and working in some dives. I am talking about taking off in the car and driving 3 hours to the coast and doing some dives and returning.

6. Not unless you are NAUI or taking a college class.

7. There is a large margin of error. If you do not pay attention and use up your margin of error, then you have wet toast. A safe diver creates margins. "Oops I am down to 50 psi at 100ft" requires making repeated errors.

8. You need to feel comfortable in the water and be able to move around without expending much energy.

9. So does swimming in the ocean. It does increase your odds of being bitten by a shark but they are still very small odds assuming you are diving the US coast and you are not spear fishing (chumming). It definitely increase the odds that you will be bitten/stung by something some time.

10. Rock music in my youth damaged my ears over time. Diving in my old age has not made it any worse. Staying alive damages your ears over time.

 

[TMHeimer]

Hi everyone!

What's your opinion on the following so-called diving misconceptions?

1. Scuba diving is an expensive hobby.
2. It's risky.
3. It's complicated.
4. It's for people who don't have a day job.
5. It's for men.
6. It takes forever to get certified.
7. It allows for a very little margin of error (make one mistake, and you're toast).
8. It requires you to be good at swimming.
9. It increases your risk of being attacked by sharks.
10. It damages your ears over time.

Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts!

1. Relatively not unless you must buy the latest gadjet.
2. Of course, but their is "risk management" and "this activity is risky relative to that one".
3. Not rocket science, but some basics can be tricky at first, like gear assembly.
4. Possibly. I'm retired. Doubt seriously if I would've wanted to put in the time and effort when teaching school
full time--even if I WERE located where diving would be interesting.
5. It's for anyone who can do it "safely".
6. No.... 2 weekends for PADI or 3 weeks with night class. Apparently not like in 1965....
7. The wrong KIND of error and you're toast. Lots of margin for some, little margin for others.
8. You SHOULD be good at swimming -- for any activity in or near water chest deep or more. A "life skill". Diving doesn't require it really, as you dive with fins and basically need strong legs. PADI requires you to swim 200 meters (or 300 with m/f/s), but you don't have to be good at it--ei. have any kind of decent stroke.
9. Of course it does--dramatically (despite all the comparisons to other ways you can die). Sharks don't come on land!
10. Haven't noticed it over 8+ years. My hearing has always been worse in one ear & still is. But I don't dive real deep very often, so who knows?

 

[plot]

Hi everyone!

What's your opinion on the following so-called diving misconceptions?

1. Scuba diving is an expensive hobby.
2. It's risky.
3. It's complicated.
4. It's for people who don't have a day job.
5. It's for men.
6. It takes forever to get certified.
7. It allows for a very little margin of error (make one mistake, and you're toast).
8. It requires you to be good at swimming.
9. It increases your risk of being attacked by sharks.
10. It damages your ears over time.

Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts!

1. It's not cheap.
2. It's safe if done properly but there is an inherit risk to being in an environment humans can't naturally survive in. Same can said for flying.
3. It's not complicated. The skills required can be as easily taught as learning to drive, but something like learning to play a musical instrument is much more difficult.
4. This kind of directly conflicts with #1. All of the divers I know have day jobs.
5. Women can easily, and do, dive. But it's dominated by men as are pretty much all outdoor activities.
6. Takes two weekends to get certified. Pretty minimal time commitment for a hobby you can participate in well into your old age.
7. You can make mistakes, just depends on the mistake... with computers and the rock solid equipment these days, it's actually pretty forgiving. Keep a level head and you can recover from most mistakes.
8. You don't have to know how to swim at all. There's absolutely zero swimming skills required in scuba. One could even argue it's a detriment for a swimmers tendency to hold their breath. You do need to be comfortable on the water though.
9. I dive in lakes, so nope.
10. No idea.

 

[Crowley]

Hi everyone!

What's your opinion on the following so-called diving misconceptions?

1. Scuba diving is an expensive hobby.
2. It's risky.
3. It's complicated.
4. It's for people who don't have a day job.
5. It's for men.
6. It takes forever to get certified.
7. It allows for a very little margin of error (make one mistake, and you're toast).
8. It requires you to be good at swimming.
9. It increases your risk of being attacked by sharks.
10. It damages your ears over time.

Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts!

(1) Scuba diving is not necessarily expensive, but it's not cheap either. Divers on a budget can be catered for, but deals that seem "too good be true" often are just that, especially when it comes to courses. Do not disregard them altogether, but ask careful questions
(2) There is an inherent risk involved in almost every aspect of daily life. Sitting still for too long can cause serious circulatory problems! The risk involved in diving depends on what you are doing, and it would be fair to say that the risk increases with depth. Relatively shallow recreational diving carrying the smallest risk, and deep tec the greatest. The worst-case scenario in diving is, of course, death - but that's the same as driving a car, riding a bicycle, going out to dinner, using the lavatory or, indeed, sitting still for too long. Proper prior preparation is required
(3) Depends on the diving. Preparation for deep tec is complex, but recreational diving is no more complicated than riding a bicycle.
(4) Most divers have a day job; the majority of the divers I've worked with over the years are professionals in the middle to high income bracket. On the other hand, my day job is... diving!
(5) Guys are still in the majority, but the gender gap is closing rapidly. I see more and more diving families in recent times. It's a good thing.
(6) You can get certified - safely - in 4 days. Becoming a great diver takes longer, but that depends on the person and their learning ability. Some divers are great from the day they complete their Open Water course, some divers, after 30 years and thousands of dives, are still rubbish. Most people are in the middle of those two extremes.
(7) For deep Tec, the margin for error becomes very slim indeed. For recreational diving, if mistake = fatality then I would be pulling bodies out of the water on a daily basis. I'm not!
(8) You do not have to be a good swimmer to be a great diver. You need to be comfortable in the water. Most training agencies require you to perform a swimming test of some sort, but as long as you can comfortably paddle your way through 200 metres of water, then that's fine. If you're Olympic class, that's great, but it's a test of personal comfort and basic fitness; you're not required to be an athlete to learn to dive
(9) Completely incorrect. Diving reduces the risk of shark attack. swimming, snorkeling or surfing or otherwise looking like a seal / turtle / other prey carries a much greater risk. Underwater you are on more even terms with sharks. You are two metres of metal and bubbles, and most shark species are probably either afraid of, or annoyed by the noise you are making and disappear fairly rapidly. Unless there's food involved, in which case, as long as you are not the food, they don't tend to pay you much attention.
(10) Sorry, what? I can't hear you...

 

[ajduplessis]

1. Scuba diving is an expensive hobby. All hobby are expensive
2. It's risky. Walking across the street is also risky
3. It's complicated. If crossing the street is complicated, then I agree
4. It's for people who don't have a day job. I don't know any active divers without jobs
5. It's for men. Not true
6. It takes forever to get certified. $$ and time drives this
7. It allows for a very little margin of error (make one mistake, and you're toast). This is what the mindset should be
8. It requires you to be good at swimming. IMHO you should be a great swimmer
9. It increases your risk of being attacked by sharks. Compared to what? Surfing!!
10. It damages your ears over time. This also happens if you are married