Scuba diving (like all adventure sports) is surrounded by myths and commonly accepted “reasons” of why this sport is too boring / difficult / expensive etc for the normal person to take up. Most of the myths are untrue, some are partly true and none of them is reason enough to stop any interested person from escaping from the hum-drum of normal life and entering a world that often goes unseen and unexplored by most people.
Don’t let these common misconceptions hold you back! Join us in the wonderful underwater world, enter a new realm of experience and start to live!
Myth: “Diving? – that sport is for safe, boring, old people”
Truth: If you think scuba isn’t extreme enough for you, you’re not seeing past the first step. Sure, a lot of people never go beyond puttering around in nice, calm water, looking at nice, calm fish. However, if you get the right training and equipment, you can get radical with this sport. Try diving down 120 metres onto a sunken World War 2 submarine off the Fujairah coast. It will be you who will be shaking from the adrenaline rush, incoherent and exhausted, thrilled and high as a kite – not the elite band of middle-aged divers who have tagged this wreck as “theirs” and dive it regularly.
Need more? Ever hand-fed a shark? Explored the far reaches of a flooded cave? Chased a 200 kilo fish through the legs of an offshore oil rig? Gone inside the rusting hallways of a sunken ocean liner? Swam beneath the polar ice caps? These are just some of the experiences that divers (and only divers) get to have. But you’ve got to build up to it, check your ego at the door, and take the first step (earning your Open-Water certification) before you start talking like the Big Boys.
Myth: Diving is only for people who live near warm water, I will leave here soon / eventually and will not be able to dive again.
Truth: There are few things that rival the experience of being suspended weightlessly in warm, clear tropical water while floating effortlessly along a colourful coral reef. Unless, of course, it is the experience of drifting through a California kelp bed with a pod of sea lions. Or exploring the amazingly preserved ruins of a wooden shipwreck in a Swiss Lake. Or diving with sharks in South Africa, or seeing Sea Lions underwater off the British Coast, or… the list goes on and on.
No matter where you live “back-home”, chances are there’s a popular dive site somewhere nearby. Don’t believe me? Just ask anyone with the red and white “diver down” flag on his car. Lakes, quarries, rivers, flooded mineshafts – almost anywhere there’s water, you’ll find divers. Each of these sites provides its own unique dive experience and a chance to get started in the sport and to continue diving. Not every dive site is for every diver, but scuba diving is not just a sport, it’s also a lifestyle and a very social activity. So even if your “back-home” dive sites do not sound all that inviting, get started in the welcoming warm waters of the Indian Ocean, make new friends and know that “back home” your new sport will open more doors, opportunities and friendships to you.
Myth: There are sharks in the ocean and they eat divers. Don’t try to deny it–I saw “Jaws” and “Open Water”
Truth: Don’t tell Hollywood, but the factual record on shark vs. diver is pretty dull: Sharks just don’t make a habit of munching on divers. In fact, except in certain conditions and environments, they don’t even stick around when divers get in the water. Let’s look at it from the shark’s point of view. You’re out cruising the depths, when out of nowhere this noisy, bubble-blowing pack of creatures that looks and moves like nothing else in the ocean drops into the water and starts flashing lights (i.e., camera strobes) at you. It’s got to be the shark equivalent of Close Encounters. The first thing most sharks do? Turn tail and run. It used to be that divers could go their whole lives without ever seeing the beauty and majesty of a shark up close. Today, carefully managed encounter dives (from cage diving with great whites off Australia to hand-feeding reef sharks in the Bahamas) abound, and there is no better way to gain a true understanding of these amazing creatures than to see them up close.
Myth: I have to buy a ton of gear just to learn
Truth: Scuba is a gear-intensive sport, but you only need three basic items to start lessons (a mask, a snorkel and a pair of fins). These are personal gear items and they need to fit well for you to have a good time, so it’s worth buying them even if the dive school / instructor provides the equipment for the course. All the other gear is available to rent, usually at a discount rate to students, and often the use of the more complex equipment is included in the dive package price. Once you are a full-fledged diver, you will ultimately want to purchase your own gear. It will be tempting to max out the plastic and buy everything at one time, and if you’ve got the room on your credit cards, go for it. But most beginning and intermediate divers continue to make use of rental gear and acquire their own items one piece at a time.
Myth: You have to be a really fit competitive swimmer to be a diver
Truth: It is true, ultra-fit, competitive swimmers make great divers because they’re comfortable in the water and they’re in great shape, but if the logic of this myth were true, then only professional footballers would play football. Diving is an active sport and the better shape you’re in, the easier it will be, but any healthy individual with at least an average fitness level can do it. This myth is most likely fuelled by the fact that there is a basic swim test at the start of scuba lessons. You’ll need the endurance to swim about 200 yards nonstop, but there’s no time limit and it’s not a race. The instructor also needs to know that you have basic water skills and are comfortable submerging your face in water. That’s it. And when you consider that there are divers from age eight to age 80 who have passed this gruelling test of physical ability, it’s pretty clear that anyone with an activity level above that of a chronic couch potato can do it. So, get off the couch and get diving!
Myth: Diving is a male macho sport that is not female-friendly
Truth: This might have been true, back in the 1950s when American TV showed “Sea Hunt” with men of steel like Mike Nelson (played by the late, great Lloyd Bridges) who were out there spearing fish with their bare hands and rescuing damsels in distress. Only it wasn’t really true then, either. The lovely Zale Parry, the actress who played the damsel, was one of the most accomplished divers on the set. And when Sports Illustrated decided to feature the young sport of scuba diving in its May 23, 1955, issue, it was Zale Parry who made the cover, not Lloyd Bridges.
It is true, however, that men have always participated in the sport more than women, but the gap has been closing steadily since the 1980s. Today, the male/female ratio is roughly 60/40 and everyone from equipment manufacturers to tour operators offers products specifically for female divers. And there’s no glass ceiling to this sport – there are female instructors, dive-masters, boat captains and resort owners. Look at me – I’m a woman, I’ve dived more than most men, own a dive business, my most powerful contacts at most of the diving equipment manufacturing companies are women. Diving is a great sport and a great business for women to be in.
Myth: Diving will make my ears hurt
Truth: This one’s true – but only if you don’t equalize the pressure in your ears as you descend. That’s one of the first things they teach you to do in scuba lessons. It’s called the Valsalva manuever and it’s really easy: Pinch your nose and blow gently against your nostrils until you feel relief. Try it. See? It’s so easy.
Myth: Certification is way too expensive
Truth: Only true if you never go out and do anything! Check the price for a decent dinner, movie tickets for two, throw in some popcorn, after-movie coffees and you’ll have spent DH 370 easily. So, how does that compare to scuba? Depending on who you learn with, the average certification class runs between DH 1,750 and DH 2,200, or
just a few of those dinner-and-a-movie dates. In return, you get an all-access pass to a world of aquatic adventure, not to mention a great new lifestyle you can brag about at the office. Go on: Compare the cost of scuba lessons to almost anything and you’ll see it’s a bargain, especially compared to golf green fees, ski lift tickets and the cost of that home gym collecting dust in your guest room.
Myth: I can’t dive. I have asthma.
Truth: Why not get a second opinion? Your Doctor is probably a great General Practitioner, but not a Diving Doctor. GP’s are a very cautious bunch and often don’t understand the sport of diving, so if you ask about scuba with regard to a specific medical condition, their likely answer will be the safe one: “No”.
But before you let a lifetime of adventure slip away, you should get a second opinion from a diving doctor. Dr Horst Kafer of Dr Akel’s Clinic on the Beach Road is a diving doctor and can give you a second opinion. You may be surprised to find the answer is: “Yes, you can dive safely.”
In just the past 10 years, for example, asthma and diabetes have gone from being absolute disqualifiers to conditional ones. In both cases, if the condition is carefully monitored and controlled, and the patient can tolerate physical exercise, the pool (and the sea) is usually open.
Myth: Snorkeling is just as good as scuba diving
Truth: Don’t get me wrong. I like to snorkel – floating around on the surface peering down on the reef from above is a great way to spend time between dives. But just as good? No way! Not if you like action. Snorkelling is sort of like watching a football game from the window of an apartment block overlooking the pitch. Diving is like suiting up, running down the tunnel and getting in the game. Strap a tank on your back and you are a player – swimming with the sharks as equals, getting up close and personal with giant Goliath grouper, or, for a good laugh, looking up and seeing the soft, bulging underbellies of all those snorkelers drifting like flotsam on the surface and blocking out the sunlight.
So……… Do you still think that you cannot dive??? May be you just don’t want to, that’s ok – diving is not for everyone. However, hopefully this article will make you think a bit, re-assess your reasoning and open a door for you. Come on in and join us!
