Scuba Skills

Okinawa in Photos

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First things first : Don't descend before you're ready. During your entry, you might have knocked a piece of gear out of place, or you might be fumbling to find your pressure gauge, which is dangling somewhere behind your back. Stop, slow down, get yourself and your equipment reorganized (it usually takes just a few seconds to restore order). Do a final once-over check with your buddy to make sure everything is in place. Then signal that you're ready to go down. Check the time.

Note : Bottom time starts when you begin your descent, not when you reach the bottom, because you start taking on nitrogen as soon as you start going down.

Position
The best position for SCUBA descents is feet first. First of all, you have to be pretty much in a vertical position to let air out of your buoyancy compensator (BC). (Air rises because it's lighter than water; this is also why you hold the BC inflator hose in an upright position when you want to let air out.) Second, a feetfirst descent lets you pay attention to the things that need your attention: where you are, where your buddy is, whether your ears are equalizing properly, and how deep and how fast you are dropping.