It is no wonder anymore why people are drawn underwater.  Beyond the water surface is a world more beautiful and captivating.  It is a place of dazzling colors and mesmerizing sea creatures so truly fascinating and alluring.  No wonder, scuba diving continues to rise in popularity and more and more people are enthralled.

Scuba diving is swimming underwater with the help of specific breathing apparatus.  With the help of a compressed air, scuba divers can stay longer underneath the water surface and take pleasure in mingling with the underwater life.  A scuba diver swims with fins attached to the feet for easy glide.  However, there are certain divers who move underneath with a DPV or a Diver Propulsion Vehicle or more common as “scooter,” while others take comfort with sleds being pulled by boats.

The word “scuba” came to exist at the onset of the Second World War, which originally referred to oxygen breathers used by the US combat frogmen, which was developed by a Dr. Christian Lambertsen who specially designed it for underwater warfare.  At present, scuba refers to inline open circuit equipment made by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan.  The equipment itself bears a compressed gas that is inhaled and then breathed out into the water.  Scuba actually stands for “Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.”  But the word has been accepted worldwide that it is being used to point out scuba-related stuffs like scuba equipments or scuba gears.

Scuba diving is diverse, as it comes with variations.  Somehow, this area of water activity is still evolving.  However, its general classifications came to describe varied diving activities such as commercial diving, naval diving, military diving, professional diving, police diving, recreational diving, rescue diving, scientific diving, and technical diving.  In professional diving, divers are paid.  They dive for a living or are paid to dive for a reason or a cause.  One of its branches is the so-called commercial diving, where commonly, commercial divers are in support of particular sectors of the gas and oil industry.  The other classifications, like the naval diving are also professional diving that is manned by navies.  

Sometimes, commercial, professional, and police diving is done by volunteer divers.  In recreational diving, there are those labeled to be professionals since they keep professional skills and training standards and sufficient knowledge necessary for technical diving activities.  On the other hand, military diving, as well as public safety diving, is fairly classified as commercial diving due to the income earned from it.  But public safety divers or the police and rescue unit divers and military divers differ in missions with the usual commercial diver.  Meanwhile, scientific diving, basing from the name itself is a research dive conducted by marine scientists for gathering data about marine biology.  Scientific divers are typically the underwater archaeologists and marine biologists.

Scuba diving is not at all easy.  In fact, it is far from being easy, not to mention utterly dangerous.  Professional divers are certainly aware of the hazards of this activity, just as they are deeply familiar of the rule that no one is allowed to dive without any licensed or professional diver at bay.  This sport is absolutely alarming particularly for the inexperienced divers. 

One of the horrific incidents associated to scuba diving is injury brought upon by the change of air pressure.  Divers must avoid such terrifying circumstance as much as possible.  This occurs since density of the water triggers the increase of air pressure in contact with compressible material like wetsuit, and so with the sinus and lungs in direct proportion to depth under water.  This happens in similar way that the atmospheric air compresses the eardrum or damages the sinuses.  This is indeed a natural occurrence knowing the setting, but it can be avoided.  To avoid such, the diver must equalize the air pressure every time he or she changes depth.  This is done with the use of two techniques namely, Valsalva maneuver and Frenzel maneuver.  Pinching the nose while gently exhaling through it does the former, and the latter makes use of the throat muscles by doing a swallowing motion. 

In scuba diving, utmost caution is a must.  But beyond its dangers and frightening possibilities is a mind-blowing and breathtaking panorama of marine biodiversity.