Scuba Diving for Beginners: Learn Your Equipments

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When it’s your first time on diving, getting to know about the equipments could be quite overwhelming. You just learn how to sink to the bottom of the pool and regulating your breathe and now you have to deal with complex equipments that you don’t even know the names yet. See the BCD? You might have heard it several times by know, but do you really know the complete name of the acronym? Have you really comprehend the use of weight? Do you know the right wetsuit to wear on each dive condition? Worry not. Here we will learn all the basics of scuba diving equipments for beginners.

Scuba Diving for Beginners: Learn Your Equipments

Learn Every Type of Wetsuit

Now, wetsuit is the first thing you would wear before diving. It’s the thing that will keep you warm under the deep water, no matter how much you hate putting it up and peeling it off. Before going in depth to the world of diving, you would think that all wetsuits are the same. In fact, there are five types of wetsuits to wear in five different conditions. First, the “skin”, is not made from neoprene and made mainly to protect you from exposure rather than retaining warmth. It’s something you want to wear if you are diving in very hot area and warm waters and don’t want to get sunburned. The second, the shorty, is a short wetsuit with 2mm thick neoprene. It’s one of divers’’ favourite as it’s super easy to wear and put off, though you need to be extra careful with the sun and jellyfishes.

Third wetsuit is the famous 3mm, which also goes by “warm water” suit. This wetsuit is ideal for diving in warm tropical waters such as Bali, Maldives, or Caribbean. It’s also the most popular dive suit for beginner scuba divers as they mainly spend their time in pools and shallow open water. The forth is the 5mm to dive in 15-20ºC water. Not many divers have it, because they either own the 3mm for summer and the 7mm for winter dive. The thickest of all, a 7mm wetsuit is the best to dive in below 15ºC water to prevent drop of body temperature and hypothermia. 

BCD, Your Best Buddy

The BCD is acronym for Buoyancy Control Device, which function exactly like is name. Divers use BCD to control their natural buoyancy under water by either inflating or deflating the air into the BCD. This is an essential things to learn by scuba diving beginners. BCD is essentially your extension of life under the water, where you would also attach your compass, dive light, cutting tools, and sometimes, the integrated weight system.

Read More: How To Plan Scuba Diving Vacations For Beginners?

Hardest Tool (maybe) for Beginners on Scuba Diving: The Regulator

The hardest tool to learn for beginners on scuba diving is, perhaps, the regulator. It’s a pressure tool that links your tank to the BCD which enables you to breathe under the water. The regulator regulates the pressure of air from the tank to you breather. Just as you know, air pressure on tanks is extremely high that it would injure you if you try to breathe directly from the tank. Learning to use regulator is essential on any scuba diving for beginners lessons. You need to know how to assemble regulators, minimising failure, and the right way to control the pressure.

Weights and How to Use It

Have you ever jump to the water only to find out that you can’t sink in? That’s why divers incorporate weighting system into their diving equipments. Think of how many weights you need to use during open water diving and where would you put it. Do you much prefer weight belt or an integrated weight system with BCD? Know what’s work for your body!

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