Scuba diving is an outdoor sport that takes you into a foreign environment. But is scuba diving dangerous? While there are dangers inherent in scuba diving, its a safe and fun sport that can be enjoyed nearly anyone. Proper training, like those offered by PADI and adherence to safe diving practices is key to diving safely. Lets have a look at 5 common hazards and how we handle them to stay safe.
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Disclaimer: The discussion below is not medical advice and is intended for informational purposes only. If you have specific concerns regarding the hazards discussed here, please consult your medical professional.
1. Decompression Sickness (aka “The Bends“)
When we scuba dive, we are breathing air or specialized air mixes at depth. This can lead to inert gas (usually nitrogen) to dissolve into the body. The amount of gas dissolved increases with depth and total time a diver is below the surface. When we ascend we decrease the pressure on our bodies. During ascent, the excess gas absorbed during the dive must be cleared out through respiration. If managed incorrectly, this process of off gassing can lead to bubbles forming in the body leading to decompression sickness.
We use two primary methods to manage this risk:
- Dive planning. As recreational divers, we dive within the no-decompression limits. Using dive tables to plan our dives ensures that we stay safely within the no-decompression dive limits. Conservative dive planning is an important step to preventing decompression sickness.
- Controlled Ascent: During diver training, we are taught proper controlled ascent skills to limit the rate off gassing of excess absorbed gas is cleared. This helps allows the time required safely clear any excess gasses as we ascend. As a rule of thumb, we ascend slower than our smallest bubbles.
2. Nitrogen Narcosis
Nitrogen Narcosis occurs from breathing inert gases (typically nitrogen) under pressure. The deeper the dive the great the chance of the intoxicating effects. Symptoms tends to start to be noticed at depths of 30 meters or 100 feet, but everyone is different and may experience noticeable effects at shallower or deeper depths. As the name implies, nitrogen narcosis causes you to feel intoxicated. This leads to lack of judgment, poor concentration, and a feeling euphoria. Under these effects the risk of making risky decision or no not noticing changing conditions that affect your safety are increased.
While there is no way to 100% prevent nitrogen narcosis from occurring there are a few things we do to help:
- Take a deep diving course. Training is one of the best ways to be prepared for what you may encounter at deeper depths. If your diving past 18 meters or 60 feet, this really is a must.
- Plan your dive thoroughly and stick to the plan. Planning your route, depths, and dive profile in advance limits the number of decisions that need to made when you down in the water. Sticking to the plan could help you or your dive buddy notice if something isn’t right with one another. If you or you buddy are acting silly or strange, it may be time to ascend.
- Trust your instruments. Your dive computer or other instruments aren’t susceptible to nitrogen narcosis but you are. Check your gauges and trust what then tell you.
- Be fit and ready to dive. Diving when well rested and hydrated is important to your safety. Drinking before diving or having partied the night before and being hungover can both make you more susceptible to nitrogen narcosis.
If you or your dive buddy start acting strangely, slowly ascending to a shallower depth can help reduce the effects if symptoms are mild. If symptoms are more pronounced, ascend to the surface is the safest bet.
3. Barotrauma
Barotrauma is sometimes referred to a squeeze. This is when the pressure in the air spaces in your body (sinuses, ears, and lungs) is different than the external environment. As we descend, the water pressure increases which causes the air in out air spaces to compress. This causes us to need to equalize the pressure in our air cavities by adding more. It takes more air to equalize the deeper you go. As we ascend, the opposite occurs. Water the pressure decreases and the air expands, so it need to be able to get out of our air spaces. You may have experienced something similar when flying on an airplane.
When the air can’t get in or out, that’s when problems arise. However, taking simple steps can help prevent this from occurring:
- Equalization Techniques. In dive courses we are taught techniques to equalize air spaces. For ear equalization by pinching the nose and gently blowing air in to the nose. Equalizing the mask space by exhaling through the nose. An the gold rule: never hold you breath. Breathing keeps the lungs equalized.
- Being healthy. If you are congested or are under the weather, you may not be able to equalize properly.
While diving, if we have difficulty equalizing, we may have to abort the dive. Risking tissue damage is worth carrying on.
4. Equipment Malfunction
We use a lot of specialized equipment in scuba diving and rely on that equipment to keep us safe under the water. But with all things, equipment does wear and can have issues. Rupture air hoses, failed O-rings and other malfunctions can happen. This is why our SCUBA is built to have redundancies. Most importantly, we have two air supplies, our primary and secondary. Luckily, there are some simple ways handle situations when we have equipment issues:
- Training and practice. This is a recuring theme because it is so important. As the saying goes “When things go sideways, we fall to the level of our training.” I our dive courses we learn the skills and techniques that prepare us to deal with unexpected situations.
- Redundancy. As mentioned above, building in redundancy is an integral part of scuba diving. We have redundant air supplies but also takes steps like having primary and back up light sources, and use the buddy system.
- Good Maintenance. Most divers are not gear technicians, so diving with a reputable dive shop when renting dive gear can make a big difference in how good of condition the gear is in. If you own your own gear, keeping up the maintenance with a good dive shop is a must.
- Pre-Dive Checks. This should be standard for all dives. Function testing your before you get in the the water helps ensure it’s in good working order.
5. Hypothermia
Some of the most fantastic diving happens in cold water. If you’re not in the tropics, ocean water is pretty cold and the risk of hypothermia is real. Hypothermia is a condition where due to environmental factors, the core body temperature drops to unsafe levels. Luckily, this is way to deal with. Dressing for the weather applies as much to diving as it does to day to day life. You wouldn’t visit the north pole in your swim trunks, so it stands to reason that you wouldn’t go into chilly Pacific water unprepared.
We have a lot of good dive gear to help us stay warm in the chillier waters we can dive in. Lets look at some options;
- Wet Suits: There a wide variety wet suits available to meet the wide variety of environments. They come in thicknesses ranging from 3mm to 7mm depending on the temperature of the water you plan to dive in. They also come in a number of styles including shortie, full body, up bibs with a jacket. They also come in some pretty nice colors too.
- Dry Suits: For the coldest dive environments, we have dry suits. As the name implies, dry suits keep you dry by sealing at the writs and neck, and have a waterproof zipper to get in and out of the suit. You usually also have neoprene gloves and hood (the same material as wet suits) to keep your hands and head warm. Additionally, dry suit underwear is is available for added insulation when necessary.
Managing core body temperature is easy when you use the right equipment.
We’ve covered five of the most common dangers of scuba diving. But we’ve also covered how we mitigate those hazards. As with all sport, there are hazards when scuba diving. But is scuba diving dangerous? No, not when done correctly and safely. Proper training is an important component of making diving safe, to learn more check out this post How To Learn Scuba Diving: A Beginner’s Guide.
