Gerard RochScuba diving activity

Introduction:

Last Tuesday we made our first incursion in the scuba diving world. This event was held, of course, in the school swimming pool. That eliminates all possible hazard related with diving in the sea. First of all it is not very deep, which avoids the need to decompress and the nitrogen narcosis problem. Moreover, we could get out the water whenever we had or wanted to, so the air levels were not a problem.

Materials:

We used swimming suits, swimming glasses and swimming hats. Apart from that, the trainers gave us the air bottles and the jackets. We used a regulator too, which, as it's own name indicates, regulates the pressure of the air given to you by decreasing the pressure of the air coming out the bottle. Otherwise, we could have got injured because it would be too compressed.We did not need the neoprene since the water temperatures were pleasant, but when we go to dive in the sea we will have to use it.

Technical details:

We dived for 5 minutes each at a deepness of 1meter. That means that our normal air consume has to be multiplied by 1,1 (every 10 meter of water the pressure increases 1 at-mosphere). If we consume air at a rate of 8 litres per minute, that means that our total air consume was, approximately, 44 litres of air. If we don't include in the operations the deepness (it was so little that it may not affect much the consume), then we breathed 40 litres of air.

Safety measures:

There are some safety instructions which have to be taken into account when diving. To start with, you have to start going back if your air levels reach the 50 atmospheres. An-other safety measure is to know well the language used in the water, so all the divers know if you have a problem. One of the most important safety measures is to go always with at least one more person in order he can help you if you are in trouble. The last one, and maybe the most important, is to respect the decompression stops. Missing this last part could mean serious injuries or even death.

Conclusions:

We think that this scuba diving activity was a great way to get used to all the gadgets needed and used during immersion, and we are all willing to try it in the sea despite the fact it is slightly more dangerous. On the other hand, we learned a lot of curiosities and realised that diving is not as easy as it may seem, and you have to train and be prepared if you don't want to get harmed.

Webgraphy:

http://tagangadives.blogspot.com.es/2011/03/sabes-cual-es-tu-tasa-de-consumo-de.html