You want to go diving but you haven’t been diving in a long time, what do you need to do? The first thing we would suggest is to go to a local dive shop and sign up for a refresher dive course. If you do the refresher course, they’ll run you through all the basic points that you need to know as a diver. Say you haven’t been diving in just a few months, not a few years and you don’t feel like taking a refresher course, what are some key things you need to know.
The first thing you keep in mind is knowing you and your partner’s limitations and know what to expect from a dive. If you’re an open water diver with your deepest dive being 25 feet (7.6m), don’t sign up for a 100 foot (30m) wreck dive. If you are an experienced diver but you’re diving with someone who is a novice, don’t put them in a situation that is out of their scope of comfort. If you haven’t been diving in a long time, a difficult dive is not the best answer. Doing a shallow reef dive is most likely going to yield the greatest results and level of comfort for a diver who hasn’t been underwater in a good amount of time. Not to mention, if you do find yourself in 60 feet (18.2m) of water past your NDL (no-decompression limit) and something goes wrong, you can’t swim straight up to the service due to having to perform a decompression stop. If you’re on a 25 (7.6) foot deep reef and something goes wrong, you can swim to the surface without issue. So, the first thing we’d suggest is knowing your boundaries and limitations. Pushing your limits can get you killed while diving or at the least it can get you or those around you seriously injured.
The second thing you need to know are the hand signals other divers might give you underwater and what to do if someone runs out of air underwater. If you haven’t been diving in a long time and your partner runs out of air, you might not remember how to help give them additional air. Not to mention, what might happen if you find yourself out of air, are you going to remember what to do? Reading this, you might find yourself thinking, “yeah I kind of remember but I am sure I would figure it out if it happened.” That is the kind of thinking that could find you in a world of trouble if you did unexpectedly in a tough situation. So reviewing the different hand signals used underwater is definitely going to help you, so review the procedure for what to do if someone runs out of air.
Reviewing buoyancy is key for diving as well. The last thing you want to do is get underwater and have forgotten how to balance your buoyancy. We went diving not too long ago and there was an older gentleman who admitted that he hadn’t been diving in quite a while and was doing a reef dive in order to prepare for a trip to the Caribbean. This particular gentleman was a little older and made reference to the fact that he’d been diving for 30+ years. Once we got underwater, he immediately started having problems with buoyancy. He would sink to the bottom or be floating to the surface. He was kicking erratically and overall just appeared to be uncomfortable underwater. Hubris can be common, this is why being humble and going over the basics is the best thing to do. Put pride and ego aside and if needed, start at square one until you start remembering your training.
Finally, knowing what gear you need to bring and how to clear your mask. If you own your gear, get it serviced before you go diving. Most recommend getting your gear serviced once a year or every 100 dives; however, if your gear has been sitting in a closet for 5 years then you should get it serviced before taking it underwater. Your BCD, first and second stage can get serviced in usually 7-21 days depending on the dive shop. Examine your mask, fins, wetsuit, compass or dive computer, even your dive booties. Look for any deficiencies, you don’t want to find that something is wrong with your mask once you’re on an actual dive. Look up how to set up your gear too in case you’ve forgotten. Know how to put your first stage on the air tank or how to connect your tank to your BCD. Going back to hubris, it might not be a totally bad thing to look up how to set up your gear so you don’t look completely lost and confused while on the dive boat with other divers. Not to mention if you look confused simply setting up your gear, it won’t instill confidence in you in the eyes of the other divers on your boat. As I said before, knowing how to clear your mask is massively important. If your mask starts to flood while you’re diving, are you going to remember what to do? What if something pulls your mask off, will you remember how to calmly put your mask back on? If you’re not sure how to clear your mask, ask a dive buddy or look it up online.
All these things mentioned will help keep you and everyone around you safe. If you haven’t been diving in a long time, don’t be afraid to get back into it. Do some research before you go diving and you’ll be fine. Know where you’re diving and if you need to, tell the shop who you’re diving with that you would prefer a shallow reef dive over a deep dive.
We hope this helps, the main thing is that you get back into the water and keep diving!
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