Scuba Diving - Section 4

- State at least three reasons to always dive with a buddy.

A buddy assists in dive planning, suiting up, pre-dive equipment check, water entry support, assistance throughout the dive, post-dive equipment maintenance and logging dive information.

- State how to enter the water through surf, and what to do in case you lose contact with your buddy. - State the primary reason for planning dives and executing them according to the plan.

When entering the water through the surf, dive buddy teams should maintain physical contact and time entry to coincide with the lull between wave sets.

If you lose contact with your buddy you should search for no more than a minute by turning 360 degrees and looking up and down, and then preform a normal ascent to the surface.

- State the primary reason for planning dives and executing them according to the plan.

There are many reasons for planning and executing your dives, but the most essential is to prevent accidents.

Listed below are some of the key terms you must know in order to help you understand how to use a dive computer.

• Depth: The deepest point reached during the dive, no matter how briefly you stayed there.
• Bottom Time: The amount of elapsed time from the start of your descent until the start of your ascent.
• Total Dive Time: The total amount of elapsed time from the start of your descent until you reach the surface including ascent and decompression stop time.
• No-Decompression Dive. Any dive made to a depth and time that allow a direct ascent to the surface without mandatory decompression stops.
• Residual Nitrogen: Residual nitrogen is the amount of excessive nitrogen dissolved in our bloodstream and tissues after a dive and all previous dives in a series. Since the goal is to make no-decompression dives, the remaining nitrogen is what we have to track during the diving day and week. A dive computer does this automatically.
• Decompression Dive: Any dive which exceeds the No-Decompression Limits at a certain depth, so that a direct ascent to the surface is not possible and mandatory decompression stops must be made.

- List six guidelines to follow when using a computer to plan and execute dives.

Dive computers are essential for planning and executing your dives. They record all the pertinent information and help you stay within your no-decompression limits. However, there are a few guidelines you should follow:

• Always have your own dive computer. Do not enter the water sharing a dive computer with your buddy —…