Equipment

Every diver needs their own set of gear (or a generous instructor who lets them borrow). When I dove, I rented my gear. During my training I typically used many more pieces, but those seen here are only some of the pieces I used for my pool dives the past weekend:

(From left to right)
Air tank, BC vest, fins, lead weight belt, regulator, and mask & snorkel

The regulator is required to always have two air hoses. In the event that a diver loses their main mouthpiece, there must always be a backup so that they don't run out of air. It is also for situations in which divers need to share air, and two divers can swim together sharing the two mouthpieces. 

The regulator also has a small air valve that attaches to the BC (vest) so that a diver can inflate it and increase buoyancy. Additionally, there's a monitor that gauges water depth and the PSI of pressurized air remaining in the tank.

The weight belt is not always necessary, although it can greatly assist a diver in resisting buoyancy. Lead weights are attached to the belt, and the more weights added, the lower you sink! This belt I used during my pool dives only held about 2lbs of lead, and when I dove in the quarry I used more, though I'm not sure how much.

Visibility underwater is restricted and nowhere near the visibility on land due to factors such as water salinity, sediment particles, etc. Even if you've got great vision, the mask and snorkel are crucial for underwater diving because without it, you can't see!

Divers must clear their masks before they can get in the water, and my instructor's method for doing so threw me off the first time haha. You spit directly onto the glass, rub it around, then rinse it with water. This defogs the glass and ensures clearer vision.

The fins are a vital piece of equipment because they stir up much more water with every kick than our feet do. Underwater navigation with a pair of fins propels a diver far faster and keeps them afloat while treading much more easily. Every time I took off my fins in the water during training it felt liberating because my feet were free, but I suddenly felt like I'd drown because of the weight of my equipment on my back and my sudden lack of suited swimming feet!

Finally, the all-important BC hold the entire set together - literally. It holds the tank like a backpack, attaches to the regulator and inflates or deflates to adjust buoyancy, overlaps the weight belt and wet suit (if the diver is wearing one at that time, which I did not during my pool dives but did during my quarry training), and contains pockets in case a diver finds something underwater and wants to carry it to the surface!

Fish-Eye View?

What does a fish see, exactly? While there's no way to know for sure, it can be interesting researching and observing fish's vision.

I won't bore any of you with words and facts because even typing it out was boring, so here's a photo taken by a photographer curious about what lobsters see!

What this guy did was extract the lens of a lobster's eye and place it partially over his camera lens. He focused on a starfish and you can see the difference between what we see and what a lobster sees!

Did You Know: PLASTICS

The #1 thing that grinds my gears is litter. How many times have you seen someone toss a cig out of their window while driving? Or leave a candy wrapper on the sidewalk? Or even just spit their gum out willy-nilly? 

Here's a little something you might not have known about plastics:

1. Plastics are the No. 1 type of trash found by Dive Against Debris volunteers, making up about 66% of the total number of debris found to date.
2. Over 700 entangled or dead marine animals have been reported in the past three years. Plastics are not only harmful substances, they're literally deathtraps.
3. Over 1400 dive surveys that report plastic litter have been submitted from more than 60 countries.

I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT. This world belongs to all of us and it is not your personal waste bin go home and trash your own place if you're okay with doing that to all of us! STOP KILLING THE PLANET WITH YOUR DIRTY HABITS PEOPLE.

Interactive Diving Debris Map

For anybody interested in what lies on the ocean floor, this interactive diving debris map shows a map of many diving sites in various regions of the world and some of the items collected by divers at the sea floor!




I looked at several of the dive sites and noticed a pattern. Most of the items are not artifacts or anything interesting my any means - it is mainly plastic. 

Even in the empty open waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, there's still traces of waste and garbage due to human littering. There's plastic food wrappers in even the least most populated areas! 




This site gives insight to just how much litter humans are responsible for and advice on how we can help clean up after ourselves. We must all do our share to keep our waterways clean; it's a collective effort between all of us!

I MEAN COME ON PEOPLE DON'T BE NASTY

The Lost Underwater Lion City

China's take on Atlantis is one of the most breathtaking underwater diving sites I've ever stumbled upon. 

Qiandao Lake, an artificial waterway located about 150 km from the city of Hangzhou, China, goes by many names and is often called the Thousand Island Lake. It is also commonly known as the Sunken Lion City, and for good reason.

The two great, ancient cities that make up the underwater site are located at the bottom of Wu Shi Mountain (Five Lion Mountain) and were built around the 2nd and 6th century. In 1959, the region was flooded to establish a hydroelectric power station and food reservoir. In order to flood the area efficiently, countless villages, cities, and residential homes in addition to the two cities were drowned and almost 300,000 people were relocated to make the project a success.

Shockingly, the Chinese government has been nothing but apathetic towards the protection of the underwater ancient civilization, and it remained forgotten until about 2001 when it was rediscovered by divers. It's a phenomenon how well-preserved the city has remained over the past 1300 years.

LOOK HOW COOL THIS PLACE IS GOOD GRIEF >>>

THIS IS AN ENTIRE UNDERWATER CITY AS IN CIVILIZATIONS ONCE POPULATED THESE STRUCTURES AND NOW THEY'RE HIDDEN BENEATH TONS OF WATER

Undiscovered/forgotten relics of the past like these are why I want to dive.

Fun Fact: The Mariana Trench

The world-famous Mariana Trench is a wonder humans have yet to fully understand. As it currently stands, the Mariana Trench holds the record for the deepest ocean depth at 36,201 feet (or 11,034 meters).

Venturing down below water this deep puts an immense amount of pressure on a vessel or a human body so high that we cannot explore beyond a certain point, so how was this depth measured? Much like dolphins using echolocation, oceanographers used sound waves. Sound waves were projected from the surface and bounced off the ocean bottom, the time it took to bounce back was recorded, and the distance to the bottom was recorded.

Strange and even frightening creatures dwell in the trench, such as the Angler fish.

What's in your sunscreen?

A good number of sunscreens, cosmetics, and fragrant body soaps contain a chemical called benzophenon-2, or BP-2, which oceanic scientists now claim is incredibly harmful to ocean reefs. Through the innocent act of protecting your skin, you could be unintentionally furthering the destruction of our worlds' reefs!

How much damage are we actually doing? Read the article here.

Fun Fact: Dolphins

Dolphins communicate and navigate underwater by means of echolocation. They send out messages through clicks which assists them in underwater navigation much more than sight alone.