Diving Health Precautions

Diving is a sport that must be respected. Every time you go underwater your life is at risk. You are entering a world where you depend on your skills and equipment to survive.

It is important for both you and your dive students to understand the science and rules that apply to diving before you fully dive into it.

Every SCUBA diving organization is different, but in general they all teach the same skills. And the science is the same for all them. If you don’t feel that you are learning the necessary information, move on to a different dive shop or ask for a new instructor – you’ll be thankful you did later on, when your life depends on it.

When you work in the diving world you are responsible for both your safety and your guests safety. Be sure you know your stuff. Soon after you begin working in the diving world you will realize that people are overly confident in their skills and often put a “yes” instead of a “no” on their pre-dive medical form. Those forms are quite lengthy, but every question, from pregnancy to asthma, is there for a reason. Even if you’re dying to take some cutie out for a dive, be sure they are capable of diving first.

Bad situations are rare, but when bad situations happen, they are bad! And they can be caused by any number of things – all things you will prepare for in your certification training. If you follow the rules, you will be fine, but you also need to watch out for others. Even if this means reminding divers of the most basic diving rules.

• Don’t hold your breath underwater – your lungs could explode
• Don’t touch the wildlife – that thing that looks like a stone, is really a stone fish and will kill you in seconds
• Don’t ascend to fast or miss a decompression stop – you could get bent
• Don’t party too hard before diving – divers that smell like booze are at higher risk of injury, not to mention it’s a bad idea to dive drunk!
• Don’t fly too soon after diving – the airlines won’t be happy if you die in the air

There are a lot of rules when you dive, but as you can see, most are pretty easy to follow if you have basic common sense. As a dive professional, be sure you know the rules and enforce them with the people you dive with. Also be sure that your dive employer is safety conscious too. It will make your job easier.

DAN, the Diver’s Alert Network, is a dive insurance company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is highly respected and highly recommended that you join DAN. Not only can they track your lost luggage in Bali, they can also get you to the nearest hyperbaric chamber in Thailand if something goes wrong. In the long run, it will save you a lot of money and could help avoid lifelong injuries

As a professional diver, keep all your diving certifications, your insurance, and your first aid up to date. There are numerous things that can go wrong underwater, but most can be avoided by common sense. Don’t dwell on the possibility of the worse, but be aware of the consequences. Know what to do if something does happen and know how to prevent it. Just remember, safety first.