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on a dive is a factor of both depth
and time. The deeper you go and
the longer you’re down there the
more time is needed to ascend,
allowing that extra nitrogen to be
released safely. These days, divers
are often equipped with watch-sized
dive computers, which precisely
measure the time and depth of a
dive and calculate a safe rate of
ascent, as well as the amount of
recommended time between dives at
the same or different depths.
In the absence of such comput-ers,
divers will utilize a device
called an Electronic Recreational
Dive Planner, Multi-Level, which
is about the size of a hand-held
calculator and is employed before
and between scheduled dives. In
the absence of either of these high-tech
devices, which is rare these days, divers will consult printed
decompression tables that provide the same information. Dive
shops and the instructors who work for them are downright para-noid
about making sure that divers in their care know this infor-mation
and are constantly checking with people on their boats to
be sure that they do.
“Another important thing to remember is the necessity for equal-ization
of pressure as you descend,” says Captain Shawn Nasseri,
owner of the area’s newest dive shop — Scuba Now (5725 Oleander
Drive, 910-395-5111).
When you scuba dive, the pressure of the water around you is
greater than the pressure in your sinuses and ear cavities, leading
to a painful sensation in the ears, known by divers as a “squeeze.”
Equalizing that pressure (and if you’re in pain, you’ve already waited
too long), is a simple matter of pinching your nose and blowing out-wards;
similar to the procedure you might employ on an airplane,
although as you descend in water, you’ll be doing it every few feet,
as the water pressure mounts around you.
█ Training
The dive training offered at three area dive shops — Aquatic
Safaris, Cape Fear Dive Center (1018 North Lake Park Boulevard,
910-458-7390) and Scuba Now — is governed by the rules and
regulations of any one of three organizations: the Professional
Association of Dive Instructors (PADI, with the largest recreational
diving membership), the National Association of Underwater
Instructors (NAUI; the oldest) and Scuba Diving International
(SDI, the recreational arm of the largest technical diver training
organization). All three shops offer PADI certification. Scuba Now
also offers NAUI and SDI certification. All such training begins
with a mandatory medical questionnaire to determine if you’re fun-damentally
fit to dive.
Once the medical questionnaire has been successfully completed,
you’ll take approximately eight hours of classes and then be tested to
determine if you’ve actually acquired the knowledge. Instructors, in
general, will assist diving students with any aspect of the classroom
experience to assure that they don’t fail the requisite written test.
From there, you’ll get your first underwater experience in a swim-ming
pool, where a variety of diving procedures will be tested. The
A pod of dolphins
near the Cassimir.
Below left to right:
Lionfish on the
Cassimir, barracuda
with Atlantic
spadefish, hogfish on
Normannia.