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Posted: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 10:13 pm
by rej70
HI,

I m definitly interested in diving, I know a club called scubacorner which seeems to be very good.
Feb would work for me, let me know if you are still interested.
mail: [email protected]

Jeremy

Posted: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 1:07 am
by mho
..err novice question .
Can one dive without knowing how to swim?

checking to know if technology and all that has advanced since I last hrd.

Posted: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 7:24 pm
by pgeorge525
It shouldnt be a problem with the flipper u'll just be paddling urself forward. Ya you can dive ....

Posted: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 11:35 pm
by mho
thanks pgeorge

Rej , if thats the case I'll test the waters . Count me in.

Posted: Sat, 27 Jan 2007 9:08 am
by sundaymorningstaple
I hate to disappoint, but in order to dive you must be certified (at least with a resort course training cert which is only good for that resort/trip). In order to be certified you MUST be able to swim a certain distance within an allotted time unaided by fins, floats or other appliances.

Please confirm with the resort before you lay out hard earned cash in bookings only to be disappointed on arrival. It will save a lot of hard feelings between you and the resort operators.

Posted: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 11:18 pm
by mho
Alamaa...seems like diving has as many restrictions as base jumping.

Posted: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 6:06 pm
by mslise
Oh dear.. to echo sundaymorningstaple yes, you need to be able to swim to be certified.

Can you dive if you can't swim? Possibly..

Should you try to dive if you can't swim? That's entirely another issue.. :shock:

Diving sounds cool

Posted: Thu, 01 Feb 2007 7:57 pm
by ikustak
I am interested.
I have never done it before, nor do I have a diving license.
But I am a good swimmer.
Would I still be able to dive? or do I have to take classes?

Posted: Thu, 01 Feb 2007 9:21 pm
by Plavt
I would have though it painfully obvious that you need to be able to swim to dive; what happens if your equipment fails? :shock: :shock:

Posted: Thu, 01 Feb 2007 9:31 pm
by sundaymorningstaple
Plavt wrote:I would have though it painfully obvious that you need to be able to swim to dive; what happens if your equipment fails? :shock: :shock:
To be bluntly obvious, if you are down around 40 meters (where I was normally - commercial, not bottle baby) and your equipment fails swimming isn't going to do you much good. Best thing to do is stick you head between your legs and kiss your @$$ goodbye! :P

Posted: Thu, 01 Feb 2007 11:04 pm
by jpatokal
sundaymorningstaple wrote:To be bluntly obvious, if you are down around 40 meters (where I was normally - commercial, not bottle baby) and your equipment fails swimming isn't going to do you much good. Best thing to do is stick you head between your legs and kiss your @$$ goodbye! :P
Yabbut resorts don't usually take newbies to 40 meters below (unless they want to get rid of them and hide the evidence :o). From recreational depths you can still survive a free ascent if you remember to keep your mouth open -- but it would kinda suck if you follow protocol, ditch your BCD, get to the surface and then drown because you can't swim.

Anyway, at least CMAS requires that you have to demonstrate swimming for 50 meters before they'll certify you. Not sure about PADI and the rest.

Posted: Thu, 01 Feb 2007 11:16 pm
by sundaymorningstaple
jpatokal wrote:
sundaymorningstaple wrote:To be bluntly obvious, if you are down around 40 meters (where I was normally - commercial, not bottle baby) and your equipment fails swimming isn't going to do you much good. Best thing to do is stick you head between your legs and kiss your @$$ goodbye! :P
Yabbut resorts don't usually take newbies to 40 meters below (unless they want to get rid of them and hide the evidence :o). From recreational depths you can still survive a free ascent if you remember to keep your mouth open -- but it would kinda suck to get to the surface and then drown.

Anyway, at least CMAS requires that you have to demonstrate swimming for 50 meters before they'll certify you. Not sure about PADI and the rest.
Sorry,

I forgot to add my tongue-in-cheek piccie. I thought my 'stick your head' comment would have been alert enough to let people know that I was taking the mickey!

Having said that, if they are doing a free ascent and diving properly, they don't even have to know how to swim there either, just use the BC to bring you up (of course tilting the head upwards and keeping the mouth open, etc., etc. Once you hit the surface, the BC will keep you afloat till the pickup boat can get you. Of course if you are shore diving you would actually need to know how to swim then. Underwater is not really swimming as most of the effort in "swimming" is staying afloat. Without that and air supply to worry about most anybody can manage to propel themselves underwater with just a pair of fins. (Course I'd never recommend nor would I ever enter the water with a less than strong swimmer). There are old divers and there are bold divers, but there are damn few old, bold divers. I'm still around at almost 60 after a diving career that has spanned 45 years of which over 15 of them were commercial. I still dive today although I've retired commercially.