The beginner scuba diving enthusiast will undoubtedly go through a stage where simple mistakes and oversights are the norm. Experience in a teacher is a great help, so find someone experienced to be paired with. When you are underwater, every safety trick that you know, will make diving safer. The things that need to always be done at a certain time, get into a habit of doing them. Checking to see if you have everything that you need for your dive before getting into the boat is just common sense. Make sure you have everything you need before leaving the dive shop. Also, if you are renting scuba gear, then be certain everything fits properly with no exceptions.
The issue of diving weights has been problematic for decades; in fact, almost every novice scuba diver will have problems in this particular area. When choosing weights, especially for a novice, they will choose too many and sink too far into the ocean. This common problem with weights actually prompted someone, a very clever inventor, to make a device called a buoyancy compensator. This device is not encouraged for a variety of reasons. To compensate, especially if you are in deep water, you may overuse the BC which can affect the quality of the dive. Then there are other contributors such as your wetsuit, if you are wearing one, will loose buoyancy at greater depths. This will also affect the safety levels that you are trying to maintain because of this lack of buoyancy. When you are being prepared to take your PADI certification, your teachers will repeat the same things many times, in the classes you will take. That is a big hint because it means those points are very important and should never be forgotten. Once such item is that you should never dive if you have a cold. Equalization is important underwater, and it can be affected when a cold produces congestion. “Reverse squeeze” is something that can happen when you are returning to the surface, when you are on cold medication, or just have a cold. We know you want to dive, but never dive with a cold.
Another tip to follow is to always begin equalizing prior to your descent in the water. The way that you do this is by accomplishing the Valsalva maneuver which is used by most divers to clean up their ears. More than likely, even if you do not dive, you have done this before. By pinching your nose, and then trying to blow your nose as you normally would, you accomplish the task. It is best to do the Valsalva maneuver prior to going into the water for your dive.
The pre-pressurization of your ears after doing this technique will make your dive much less painful as you go deep. You will notice that equalization is easily accomplished when you do this before your descent. Underwater can be a dangerous place, so you will want to observe all of the safety precautions for scuba diving. We hope it is more than obvious why they exist. Even though it might be life-threatening, there are divers who will still cut corners on their safety. Usually when you hear of a deadly situation involving a diver, it was because of taking shortcuts that should have never been taken.