A Little Apprehension is Normal Most people who have not spent much time swimming in the ocean or other open bodies of water have a little apprehension about learning to dive. You might have concerns about the strange equipment, the marine life, and the environment. This is normal and to be expected. Diving is seldom like it is portrayed in popular films or television shows. Once you become a diver, you will quickly begin to spot the flaws in most of the movies that feature diving. When you go under water, you will find that most fish swim away from divers and that humans are almost always the most dangerous creatures there. There are ways to minimize the risks in diving. By knowing the risks, you can deal with them and make the probability of problems occurring extremely small. This is one major objectives of your NAUI Scuba Diver certification course. Misconceptions About Diving One of the most popular misconceptions about diving is that you can easily run out of air under water. The amount of air you have in your cylinder limits the amount of time you spend under water on any given dive. Divers use a submersible pressure gauge (SPG) connected to their cylinder to monitor their air supply and help them determine when it is time to surface (figure 1-9). Just as a person driving a car monitors their fuel gauge, you will monitor your pressure gauge under water. However, you must monitor your pressure gauge more frequently than you would a fuel gauge. As an extra precaution, most divers carry either an additional regulator, which allows their dive buddy to share air during an emergency, or a totally independent backup air supply. If you are a responsible and reasonably cautious diver, the risk of running out of air under water is very slight. Another common misconception is that diving equipment is unreliable. Few divers ever experience an equipment failure in diving gear that has been properly maintained. A poorly maintained regulator is more likely to freeflow and deliver more air than you need than to deliver no air at all. As part of your NAUI Scuba Diver certification course, you will learn how to properly care for your equipment and inspect it before each dive. Occasionally, a piece of gear might become loose or go out of adjustment under water, but you will learn how to deal with these minor nuisances as part of the course. Another common concern is that when you are diving in the ocean, you will always be under the threat of a shark attack. Few divers ever have the opportunity to even see a shark during normal scuba dives. There are special trips for experienced divers that have the sole purpose of seeing and photographing sharks. The opportunity to dive with these unique creatures is something rare and special. In most cases when sharks do encounter divers, they show little or no interest in the divers unless they have been baited with food. Divers who remain calm, swim slowly, and stay under water usually receive little or no attention from a passing shark. They, like most creatures under water, will leave you alone if you do not harass them. NAUI Scuba Diver 8 Introduction FIGURE 1-9. YOU MONITOR A SUBMERSIBLE PRESSURE GAUGE THROUGHOUT YOUR DIVE TO SEE HOW MUCH AIR YOU HAVE LEFT.
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