“Scuba diving(Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) is a type of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply.¹

 

 

Are you interested in scuba diving? There will be students who don't know about it. This is because scuba diving is not a common hobby for us who live in urban areas other than the seasides or port areas. So, I want to show you how amazing and wonderful it is to enjoy! Also, it is one of my favorite hobbies! First, it's an unconstrained sport. I mean it has only basic rules and cautions that you need to memorize. But except for these rules, while doing this, you can do anything you want. For example, you can play with any underwater creatures, see coral reefs and underwater landscapes, or feel a kind of low gravity phenomenon(because it’s filled with water instead of air like the ground). Second, it is very helpful in relation to many underwater and leisure sports. For example, if you learn how to swim quickly and smoothly without wasting much oxygen, you can use it when you do snorkeling, free diving, or something like that. Third, it's not as important as the first two reasons, but for people like me who like to wear a lot of devices or learn about equipment to do something, this will be a pretty attractive point in this sport. For example, almost all devices are required, such as an air cylinder (or tank), a compass indicator, and a regulator. So someone like me, it will be a good feature to suit your tastes.

 

As I said earlier, scuba diving is a sport with lots of equipment. Here are some interesting equipment used for scuba diving. “Regulator” and “Octo(octopus regulator)”. This equipment actually plays the same role in diving, but the situation in which they are required is quite different. The regulator controls the pressure in the air cylinder (tank), changing it so you can breathe. The Octo is intended to provide additional regulators to other divers when your diving partner is in danger or has a problem and needs an additional regulator (respiratory). And it looks like a bean sprout with a huge head and long body. So the head part, which is quite bigger than the body, is formed easily to inhale or exhale the breath by biting the part. Next, the “Buoyancy Compensator”, it's a kind of synthesis vest. It has lots of functions. For example, there is a “Gauge” to check the last amount of air and the pressure in the air cylinder(tank). Also, there's a computer(not in every Buoyancy Compensator, just on some of it). And lastly, there’s the most essential function, “the inflator”, which controls the buoyancy of a diver. A diver can control it by pressing two buttons(in/exhale) on the end of the inflator hose.

 

Deservedly scuba diving has some dangers because it's an underwater sport. So, I'm gonna share with you some common safety problems, and some dangerous situations that I actually experienced. For common hazards, there’s a kinking regulator. It makes a diver hard to breathe, and it can bring about other dangerous problems, for example, panic or in the process of solving the hose, it can harm sight in water(by making sand fog). You could accept it as fun. But sometimes divers could try to steal other divers’ regulators when they felt threatened with their life. In that process, other divers can get in a shock or panic(if they are not skilled enough), or float matters could harm the eyesight underwater. Someone can think as if you can just stop moving and wait until the sight recovers. But in the ocean, because of the ocean current if once the sight was gone, then it’s not coming back that easily(waves), also in water, if you cannot know where the sunlight is coming from, then you will be very confused about where the top and bottom is(because there’s no clear gravity’s flow like land, the buoyancy of yourself harms to recognize it, also the white sand on the bottom is looks similar with overcast sunlight). So when you are faced with that situation, you need to sign(that already chosen) to your buddy for the Octo, or you can just take off the buoyancy vest with the air cylinder and hold your breath for minutes and solve it with your hands. If you’re in panic then you should press the inflate button and wait for your body to refloat to the surface. You need to make sure that you keep exhaling a little amount of air inside your lung because the water pressure changes so the volume of the air inside of your lungs is getting larger, so unless you’re doing that, you could get some symptoms of decompression sickness(DCS). The symptoms are headache, sudden hearing loss, and fainting. Even seriously, it could bring paralysis of the lower body or death.

 

The reason that I started scuba diving is that my family moved to Jeju island for 3 years. In the second year of Jeju, I went to the diving shop with my father on his recommendation. So I was educated for 2 weeks and acquired a license for scuba diving named “Open Water”, it’s the most basic license in this sport. During my education, I started enjoying the three zingy points of it. Then I decided to keep learning it, so for now I’m an advanced diver which is the second course of the level to P.A.D.A(Professional Association of Diving Instructors). And I had reached enough level to just enjoy the many peaceful, and dreamy moments, and also can cope with some contingencies during diving. So for about a few months(in summer and early fall), I could do some new types of diving, for example, boat diving which is diving that many people usually know. It just jumps into the ocean on a boat, so it has the advantages of saving time, less exhaustion of stamina, and can reach a deeper place than beach diving(a type of diving that just walks into the sea through a beach or harbor). So I’d dive about 25m by that boat. And also I could enjoy navigating(not actually in terms of diving, it uses a compass to find a way) under the sea. However, unfortunately, we moved back to Hyangnam-city. It's not possible to keep scuba diving here, but I hope that I can find an appropriate place to do it.

 

Usually, when someone asks about underwater, then many people imagine beautiful fish, and reef coral, and just a few people would think about many dangers or emergencies. But except for this, there are a lot of mysterious phenomena underwater, and divers can see and feel them while diving. So, let me share with you guys about that wondrous phenomenon. There’s a sandbank, which is one of the most common phenomena. You can even find it at a beach, or river. Its external form is similar to a dune(sandhill). At a beach or shallow foreshore, you would see a small waveform sand pattern, that’s a sandbank. But not every sandbank has that size. The size of the sandbank is dependent on the depth of that point’s underwater terrain. The size is getting bigger as the depth goes deeper. The reason is simple. It’s because of meandering. The wave affects the sand which is positioned at the bottom, as the wave goes tortuously, the sand on the surface of the bottom moves a little bit with the same pattern as a wave. So the same pattern of waves because of the same ocean current in one point, the sand piles up in a very similar position and amount, so it finally forms lots of small wavy sandbanks. Then, why does the sandbank’s size depend on the depth? The reason is the waves' scale and power are different by their depth. if the depth of a point is 50m, then there are more powerful, bigger waves than the 2m depth of the sea. Because most of the time, the size of a wave is bigger as it is deeper. So, in a mixed layer, there would be more influence on winds than a thermocline or a deep layer. As a result, the difference between the affection of winds in the mixed layer and the thermocline brings about making small and many waves in a shallow spot, forming a small sandbank, and comparatively surging and fewer waves than a shallow spot in the thermocline area. Besides that phenomenon, there are lots of others, for example, rapid current and extra.

 

As you know, 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by the ocean. It means there would be lots of things that are new or interesting to us. Of course, we can’t go all underwater because there are lots of dangers and technical problems. But at least I can bet we can enjoy it on the coasts, or the shallow sea. There are a lot of different and beautiful tourist destinations for scuba divers. Let me introduce just some of it. This spot is one of the most common and famous regions for diving, named “Cebu”, in the Philippines. This spot is usually for beginners or those who are not used to scuba diving. You could see lots of species of fish here. But you need to check about safety problems. In Cebu, the usual price is very cheap, so other diving shops are rivals with each other in terms of price, so, there might be some shops that are not checking the diving devices thoroughly. For intermediate divers, “the Galapagos Islands” in Ecuador would be a great place to dive. In this region, as it’s more appropriate for intermediate divers, there is more clear differentiation than in Cebu for beginners. In this region, you can see lots of creatures that only live on these islands. And also the ocean current is a bit rougher and tougher than in Cebu, so there are some dangers for beginners in diving. In the Galapagos islands underwater, you can see unique fish species and animals. For example, there’s a “Galapagos Penguin”, “Sea-lion”, a “barracuda”, and some sharks. Sometimes(between July to November), if you’re lucky enough, you could even see “whale shark”. Last diving spot, for master-level divers. There’s “the great blue hole”, it’s a hole in the middle of the ocean, so there are a lot of different species of fish and sea animals. Also, coral reefs and underwater scenery would be tremendously enchanting. But I chose this place for the master level because it’s a hole(underwater cave), so many people might not get out of the cave easily. And ‘cause it’s too deep, it’s hard to recognize the surface and the bottom(as I said earlier), so divers can go deeper as they think they are going up. Plus, because of water pressure, the total amount of air is decreased so the time that a diver can stay at the blue hole is very short, so if the diver forgot which direction they had come by admiring the underwater scenery, then it will be related to an unforgettable accident.

 

In conclusion, I recommend you to enjoy or pay more attention to this sport called “Scuba diving”. And have some wonderful experiences or memories like me. It would remain a very positive or enjoyable experience in your childhood life. But I want you to always remember that every sport or hobby has dangers(not only scuba diving). Because to have a recollection as positive remains, then your body must be healthy too!

 

1. 참고 :  https://www.oceansdivers.com/history-of-scuba/

   자문 :  향남중학교 영어교사 심예원