10 scuba diving myths - what's your take?

[Superlyte27]

Hi everyone!

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

Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts!

1. Scuba diving is an expensive hobby. -- It depends on how far you take it. I have 40k in dive gear. I know people who dive around the world. It can be very costly, but doesn't have to be. You can have a full set of new gear for under 1k and dive for as cheap as 10 bucks per dive.
2. It's risky. -- It can be risky. Scuba isn't for stupid people where risk can be increased.
3. It's complicated. -- Open Circuit Scuba is pretty simple. If my 7 year old can grasp the concepts, anyone can.
4. It's for people who don't have a day job. -- Ever hear of the weekend?
5. It's for men. -- Nearly all of my dive buddies are girls. I wonder why that is
6. It takes forever to get certified. -- You can get certified in as little as 4 days, and some people are doing it in three.
7. It allows for a very little margin of error (make one mistake, and you're toast). -- Read my post here where mistake compounded, and I'm still alive... http://www.ultimatecavediving.com/1/post/2013/08/closer-than-i-would-have-liked-it-to-get.html
8. It requires you to be good at swimming. -- I think you should be good at swimming to get the most out of scuba. That's just time and practice. Anyone can become a good swimmer with some minimal dedication.
9. It increases your risk of being attacked by sharks. -- LOL... I have more time in salt water than a lot of people. I'd have to look at my commercial log book, but I'm guessing I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 hours underwater as a commercial diver in salt water. I've never had a shark bother me. This doesn't include the hundreds of hours I have in the water as a rec & tech diver. Now, an Alligator, that's a completely different story. I've had three try to eat me.
10. It damages your ears over time. -- Again, see above. I've been diving for 20 years and have more time in the water than most people. My ears are fine.

 

[EastEndDiver]

11. It's Fun !!!!

 

[fjpatrum]

1. Scuba diving is an expensive hobby.---Expensive is a relative thing. So far it's about par for most of my hobbies. I'm a cheap bastard though and have been able to dive a lot of different dive types in a very short amount of dives. I own all my own gear including multiple sets of regs, 3 tanks, dry suit and I think 9 wet suits now and I've spent <$3k.
2. It's risky. ---Again, risk is relative. Rec diving isn't particularly risky, in my opinion, but you can certainly take more risks than are reasonable, even in rec diving.
3. It's complicated. --- Nah, keep breathing and everything's going to be okay.
4. It's for people who don't have a day job.--- I don't know anyone who dives that doesn't have a day job.
5. It's for men. --- sure. And women too.
6. It takes forever to get certified. --- 4 days to get certified for me. That's not quite forever.
7. It allows for a very little margin of error (make one mistake, and you're toast). -- Nope. I'm sure I've made multiple mistakes during a dive and I'm still alive to tell the tales. Not particularly interesting tales, either. See #3.
8. It requires you to be good at swimming.--- Requires, perhaps not. It certainly does help a lot though.
9. It increases your risk of being attacked by sharks. --- I wish people would stop spreading this rumor. It wasn't funny in OW class and it's really not funny anywhere else.(I know you weren't trying to spread such things, just my cranky response of "No it doesn't".)
10. It damages your ears over time.---I'll tell you in time. I haven't heard this to be the case though.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

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 an expensive hobby. Even if you're lucky enough to live in a place where there's easy access to shore diving (and therefore don't have to pay for a boat), the equipment purchase and maintenance costs are high. And there are endless choices of new toys to want, trips to pay for, and classes to take.

2. Living is risky ... the trick is to learn what the risks are and how to manage them. In this respect, scuba diving isn't any more risky than a lot of other things we do regularly ... and way less risky than some we take for granted ... like driving a car.

3. It ain't rocket surgery ... but it does involve leaning how to stay alive in an environment we were never designed to be in, and learning how to use our senses in a way we're not used to. When we're new, we learn a bunch of "rules of thumb" that are easy to remember, and as we progress we develop an understanding of why they exist and learn how to apply them in different situations. But that's no different than when we learned how to walk, or how to drive a car. Do you consider walking or driving a car complicated?

4. I don't know too many people who can afford to scuba dive unless they have a day job ... I certainly couldn't.

5. It is for men ... it's for women and children too.

6. To my concern it often doesn't take long enough to get certified. What's the rush?

7. Nonsense. We learn by making mistakes ... I've personally made tons of them, and continue to even with over 3000 dives under my belt. The trick is to manage your mistakes in a way that won't hurt you, and to learn from them. What gets most people in trouble isn't mistakes ... it's willfully doing something you know you shouldn't be doing.

8. You don't have to be a great swimmer, but you should be comfortable being in the water ... and knowing how to swim tends to help you develop that comfort.

9. More nonsense. Sharks don't "attack" people ... we're not on their menu.

10. It can damage your ears ... but not if you manage your descents/ascents properly. Equalize often and control your descent/ascent rate and you can dive as often as you like without affecting your ears.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[TSandM]

1. Scuba diving is an expensive hobby. It's relative. It's more expensive than bird-watching. It's FAR less expensive than showing horses, racing sailboats, or flying light airplanes. Like all hobbies, it is more expensive if you get into it in a serious way and want high-end gear. Just as the difference between a WalMart bicycle and a top-of-the-line racing bike can be an order of magnitude or more, the difference between entry-level dive gear and high end stuff can be significant. And depending on where you live, the cost of the actual diving can be low (fills for shore diving) or high (offshore charter boats).
2. It's risky. Again, compared with what? Probably riskier than bird-watching. Maybe riskier than riding horses, although you're probably far more likely to get hurt on (or coming off) a horse, and more likely to get killed diving. But in fact, recreational scuba is amazingly forgiving, considering that many people aren't very well trained and don't do it often enough to get good at it. I know I survived some amazing errors completely unscathed.
3. It's complicated. You have to learn how to put your gear together. You have to learn some basic rules. It's no more complicated than riding a horse, and I think less complicated than flying light aircraft. Probably more complicated than birdwatching, but not a whole lot more than rock climbing. Stamp collecting is probably simpler.
4. It's for people who don't have a day job. I'm quite sure I'd enjoy diving if I didn't have a day job. But the vast majority of people I know who dive do work.
5. It's for men. There are still more men than women in diving, but we're catching up, at least in warm water. I think men outnumber women more in cold water (where the gear is heavier) and in technical diving (which is expensive, complicated, and has a bit of machismo).
6. It takes forever to get certified. We work for the shop in Seattle that has the longest OW class, and it takes three weeks.
7. It allows for a very little margin of error (make one mistake, and you're toast). The whole point of the OW class is that the vast majority of issues underwater can be quite neatly solved, if you don't panic. Panic, on the other hand, is a big problem.
8. It requires you to be good at swimming. All agencies I know of require some kind of swim test, but you don't have to be a GOOD swimmer. I'm GUE certified, and they have a swim test far harder than any OW class, and I'm a crummy swimmer and I passed it. Don't you think anyone involved in a sport that occurs on, in and around water, ought to be able to swim at least to some degree?
9. It increases your risk of being attacked by sharks. This is true. If you never get in the water, you will never be attacked by a shark.
10. It damages your ears over time. Ear injuries are probably the most common injury that occurs to divers. But if you use good technique with your ears when diving, you are not at risk for damage over time. The only exception might be the bony growths that can occur in people who do very cold water diving over a long period of time.

 

[mizzie]

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 depends. You don't need to get the most expensive gear or travel the world. Plus, if you figure that you spend nearly $1,000 a year on cable (if your is around $80 like mine), it doesn't seem quite as expensive anymore. I'd rather DO something than sit in front of the TV.

2. It can be. But so can driving, bike riding or even just stepping out of your bathtub. Life is risky.

3. There are some details. And as a newbie, I'm still getting the hang of it all. But it's less complicated than many things we do every day.

4. I have a day job. I dive on the weekends.

5. Well, I'm a woman...

6. It took be about a week of reading the book and two weekends of class time. Total, about 13 days?

7. Sometimes, some times not. There are things you can recover from and get out of safely and there are times when it can all go wrong. But driving is like that also.

8. Doesn't require it, but it probably makes it easier if you are fairly good at swimming.

9. No, most shark attacks are at the surface of the water.

10. I haven't really read or heard much about this. I suppose it can. But I doubt it 100% certain.

 

[Mustard Dave]

Mark Powell (author of Deco for Divers and highly regarded technical diving instructor) did a talk at the Birmingham (UK) NEC dive show on the subject of diving myths. One of the myths was 'diving is safe'. His position was 'it is dangerous'. He went on to say how it worries him when he hears instructors tell novice divers that diving is safe. Diving is risky - we have not yet evolved gills and underwater is an unnatural environment. We can manage these risks and as others point out, there are many activities we undertake in our day to day lives that carry varying degrees of risk. He used a saying I have heard (and quoted) on many occasions, "Diving is safe as long as you remember it is dangerous".

The point of the above is not to put people off, but to remember to respect the hazards and always endeavour to reduce the risk with safe diving techniques.

 

[Skittl1321]

1. It depends. You don't need to get the most expensive gear or travel the world. Plus, if you figure that you spend nearly $1,000 a year on cable (if your is around $80 like mine), it doesn't seem quite as expensive anymore. I'd rather DO something than sit in front of the TV.

I spend nothing a year on TV. Or Starbucks. Or smoking. I'm really screwed in the "you can save so much money by getting rid of X" department.

 

[freewillie]

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!

I'll throw in some thoughts.

1. It's expensive. Only to start. Once you have your own gear fills and local dives don't cost much. Expensive exotic diving locations do.
2. It's risky. So is driving fast in the rain.
3. It's complicated. Yes and no. Simple dive 65 ft. or less calm conditions 100+ ft. viz. no. Deep dive cold water poor viz. yes.
4. It's for people who don't have a day job. See #1. How do you think we pay for gear and vacations?
5. It's for men. Don't tell my daughter that.
6. It takes forever to get certified. Did mine in two weeks. My daughter full PADI course did in 5 days.
7. It allows for very little margin of error. Don't breath your tank that low.
8. It requires you to be good at swimming. Only on the surface. Even poor swimmers can flutter kick and breath a reg.
9. It increases your risk of being attacked by sharks. Less that surfers.
10. It damages your ears over time. Hide the receipts from non-diving spouse or plug your ears when screams "How much did you pay for this?" (see also #1)

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

..."Diving is safe as long as you remember it is dangerous"....

The point of the above is not to put people off, but to remember to respect the hazards and always endeavour to reduce the risk with safe diving techniques.

Terrific quote, thanks for posting it!