Clint Eastwood would say it: “A diver’s got to know his limitations.”

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A scuba diver discusses the inherent dangers of diving, what can go wrong and especially with bad ears, or tubes in your ears.
How dangerous is diving? Great question.  And the answer is: as dangerous or as safe as you want it to be. What’s really dangerous is diving with bad ears, or if you have tubes in your ears. If that’s the case you need something called the  IST ProEar dive mask.  I found an online dealer that carries this mask, and chose between the IST 4windows and Panorama dive mask. I chose the former.

There is no question that putting on equipment and submerging one’s self beneath the surface of a lake or ocean has inherent and obvious dangers. But if you limit your dives to open water, within recreational limits, maintain good health, and maintain your diving skills as an active diver, and dive only with quality equipment, well maintained, do a thorough buddy check, dive with a competent buddy, follow no decompression dive limits, and don’t feed the wild life, scuba diving is not very dangerous at all. There are many other activities of equal or greater danger of serious injury or death, including bicycling, skiing, and frankly, even walking across the street. However, if you try to dive without proper training, or with rusty skills, equipment in disrepair, no planning, no buddy check, and an “every man for himself” attitude in the water, scuba is very dangerous. Especially if you have bad ears.

Even tech divers and cave divers (who are the best at safety planning, redundancy with equipment, etc.) will tell you that a properly planned and executed dive of that kind, while having substantially greater danger factors than a recreational dive, can be executed quite safely.

When you read of dive fatalities, usually there is an issue with at least one of these: 1)the diver’s health before the dive; 2) diving in conditions beyond the training and competence of the diver; 3) inattentive diver; 4) poorly maintained equipment malfunction. So train properly, be an active diver to maintain your skills, maintain your equipment, plan and execute dives within your personal limits, maintain good health, and diving is not nearly as dangerous as most people think. Ignore any of those things, and diving is very dangerous.

A diver’s got to know his limits.  Clint Eastwood couldn’t say it better.

This was not my idea of an “ice breaker.” Then I moved to Florida.

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This is the story of a guy who lived in Massachusetts, would be on his boat on Christmas Day. Then he moved to Florida, gets skin cancer, meets his wife and she learns to dive with him.
I moved to Florida from Massachusetts in 1986. I moved there because I absolutely hated the cold weather. I was the guy out in his boat on Christmas Day. I would just try to ignore that it was winter. There were times I remember breaking the ice in order to get my boat out so I could pull my lobster traps.

In order to break the ice, and I don’t mean it in the conversational way, I needed a pair of really heavy duty diving gloves.. I get my dive gloves from a great online dive store. In Massachusetts the gloves were 5mm supratex Velcro dive gloves made by IST.  In Florida, they are Tilos’s 1.5mm  mesh reef dive gloves.
I was definitely a summer person. Anyway, I moved to Florida because I loved the summer. It wasn’t long before being in the sun took its toll on my skin and I had several rounds with skin cancer. Nothing serious but I needed to stay out of the sun. That’s when scuba diving entered the picture. I have been diving for about 13 years now. It’s funny but underwater photography has become my greatest interest. So far I have been diving in Grand Cayman, Nassau, most all of the Keys in Florida and last summer my wife and I went to Bonaire.

For over 10 years I have been trying to get my wife to join me diving but with no luck. So this summer after accompanying me to Bonaire while sitting on the plane to leave I ask her, would you like to return next year. She replies: Only if I’m scuba certified! This is the woman who couldn’t swim when I met her. So now I have a permanent scuba buddy This summer on our 30th wedding anniversary we will be diving in Bonaire.

I always wanted to try diving until my dad drowned.

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A girl who really loves swimming and all water activities is tempted to go diving, but the death of her father in a drowning accident while diving dissuades her.
Water, water, everywhere. Water was always a part of my life here in Canada, from swimming in the St. Clair River and Lake Huron, to swimming laps for many years in a pool. For swimming laps in a pool, I researched prescription swimming goggles, and came up with a great online store, seavenger.com.   I chose between a pair of smoked lens prescription swim goggles made by TUSA, and another pair by Splaqua which are mirrored, polarized and prescription.   I went with the latter.

I always thought of taking up diving. I always had one excuse or the other, then my father drowned in Vero Beach, Florida in 1990. He was a good swimmer, but the rip-tides got the better of him. After that, I didn’t need any excuses, and diving went out of my mind.

One day while getting my hair cut from someone who happened to be PADI Master Teacher Diver, she suggested I take up diving. I thought about it, since at the time I was kind of between jobs and was looking for something to do besides cleaning the house! I thought this should be easy!  She  gave me a video to watch.

I watched the video, studied my book and I got in. Had some troubles with buoyancy, the mask leaked etc etc, but I kept going. However my open water dive was a bomb!!!! Panic set in, mask leaked, BCD not a proper fit, all sorts of problems. Went home from trip in Ohio, and thought diving was not for me. The Gilboa Quarry is full of interesting things to see, including helicopters, planes, and cars, but really, there are more pleasant places to have your first dive experience.

However, my instructor called me and persuaded me to try again. So this time, off to the St. Clair River I go with fellow divers, right below the bridge, where the current is swift. Just before I jumped in I saw an image of my Father, like a guardian angel over me, and this time I knew it would all work out—it did, and I passed my Open Water Dive. I turned my passion into a business. I created a website named after my father. He was my guardian angel that day, and for that I am thankful, and and my website is dedicated to him.