Forms Of Diving

Diving is engaged in for different reasons, but by far most diving is undertaken for recreational purposes in waters around the world.

Snorkeling

Snorkeling strikes a good balance between freedom of movement, ease and convenience. It allows the swimmer to float on the surface of the water, viewing everything below without the need to lift the head for air. Equipment is minimal as is special knowledge, skills or preparation. A J-Shaped tube and goggles allows a person to breathe and see clearly whilst keeping their face fully submerged. Snorkeling is particularly useful in shallow waters where there is much to see such as tropical reef teaming with aquatic life. Once waters become deep, visibility from the surface of the water is compromised, with a wide range of aquatic life out of eyes reach.

Recreational Diving

Recreational diving utilizes compressed air, allowing the diver to breathe under water and reach greater depths then they can via snorkeling. Since divers are not restricted to the surface of the water, diving deeper allows greater visibility in deeper waters. There is still depth and decompression limits to adhere to but a recreational diver has much greater freedom to explore otherwise inaccessible shipwrecks, canyons and see more diverse aquatic life.

Technical Diving

Technical diving involves more equipment and specialized training then that of recreational diving. A diver is equipped with at least 2 cylinders containing different gases. During the dive the diver will breathe in a mix of the gases allowing them to reach depths and stay underwater for periods not achievable by recreational diving techniques. The other popular method of technical diving is called rebreather diving where equipment recycles exhaled air. Extra cylinders called stage bottles are sometimes carried by divers as a backup or when extra air is required during decompression stages.

The greater depths and longer periods underwater achieved by technical diving as apposed to recreational diving means divers can access deep caves, shipwrecks and ice diving. Furthermore, technical divers are equipped with a higher skill set and more advanced equipment required to dive in these waters where there is extremely low light and moving currents.

Freediving

The basic premise of Freediving is to dive down under water and stay submerged without the aid of any equipment with just the one breath. As a sport, Freediving is called apnea. It is extremely competitive and the goal is to reach the greatest time, length or depth in the one breath.

In the pool there are static and dynamic apnea competitions. Static Apnea has competitors keeping still while holding the one breath for as long as possible. Dynamic apnea has competitors holding the one breath for as far as they can swim beneath the surface of the water. Competitions can be held with or without fins. In the case of fins, some competitors may use two fins or have both their legs inside a mono-fin.

Finally there are depth Apnea competitions where participants dive as deep as they can with the one breath. This involves a guideline which acts as measurement and sometimes an aid in the diving or returning to the surface. There are several different variations of this competition which alter in the way the guideline, weights or fins are used.