Merry Christmas Everyone!
I’ve had a great time SCUBA diving over the years; actually its been several decades now. It’s been a great adventure and love finding what’s under the water. I’ve recently been doing some SNUBA with a friend which is a tad different but fun. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages. A SNUBA set up does not require all the equipment that SCUBA requires. Basically the 2nd stage regulator, weight belt, mask, booties and fins and you’re off.
But, to be honest, both can be extremely dangerous if you haven’t been properly trained or haven’t practiced. Even with shallow water SNUBA diving, inadvertently holding your breath while ascending to the surface can cause a deadly air embolism. Any diving requires some training and also being mentally prepared for emergencies. A number of unexpected events can occur under the water that can cause panic. When this happens, naturally most people revert to training. A panic mistake could be as simple as running out of air or having your regulator snatched out of your mouth by an obstacle or a branch. When something bad happens, if you are not trained, you may go into a panic mode. The only thing you’ll think about is getting to the surface to breath. Pretty hard to do when you forget to remove your weight belt or forget to dump your BC.
Cellrdweller, I like the fact that you’ll spend some time in the pool learning this new equipment and that you’ll be diving very shallow water. Get yourself comfortable with this new rig and also practice shedding you weight belt. Also, there’s no such thing as holding your breath using hose-fed or compressed air. You always have to mentally prepare for emergencies on the bottom. Fighting panic and dumping your weight should be a top priority for getting to the top during bad times. Also, never dive alone, keep a quality cutting tool with you and even wear a line buoy so people know your location.
Personally, I don’t skimp on any of my dive equipment. When I hose dive, I wear a nice Aqua-Lung mask, booties and short-fins. I have several weights belt options depending if I’m suited up or not. I never go in without a quality knife and sometimes pliers. Irony, but my weight belts were built from fishing sinkers. Lastly, I always wear quality gloves to protect your hands. I’ve grabbed too many broken bottle necks with the aluminum tops still attached. Ain’t no sense ruining a good trip from a cut hand and leaving me all those rings behind.