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What kind of dive education do you want?

March 13

This is one question I pose to my students when they ask me about the differences between diver training agencies, and why fees vary between dive centres purportedly offering the same course.

Your answer probably depends, in part, on why you decided to pick up scuba diving in the first place.

But I’m not talking about diving specialties that you can delve into after completing your open water diving course.

I’m talking about your learning process and outcome.

As an extreme sport, scuba diving is inherently dangerous. After all, humans are not designed to survive underwater, and external conditions can greatly impact the safety of a dive.

That said, scuba diving can and should be done safely. A good dive education is the starting point.

Education can lead to various outcomes:

Intellectually knowing something
Understanding how things work
Copying an action without understanding
Knowing and doing something well so that it becomes second nature

Personally, I believe that we ought to get to that last stage in terms of our diving ability. To be specific, a diver should at least get the basics—buoyancy, positioning and body position—right. It’s difficult to progress if you aren’t completely at ease in the water!

A committed dive instructor will work towards ensuring that you have a sound theoretical understanding and good practical proficiency. With guidance, practice and experience, you will improve your scuba diving skills and comfort level.

So do think about it: What kind of dive education do you want? A healthy attitude towards dive education—both on the part of the learner and instructor—definitely makes better and safer divers.

Education, PADI, Recreational

Why are Living Seas courses so expensive?

March 13

At face value, the Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses offered at Living Seas are more expensive than other dive shops.

We are priced higher for a number of reasons, and we encourage you to read on and decide for yourself whether the extra you pay is worthwhile.

1. We teach a longer course
We conduct our Open Water course over four days instead of the typical three. This includes two days for a theory lesson and a pool practice (confined water dive) session , followed by another two days of ocean (open water) dives.

Our Advanced Open Water (AOW) course includes a theory class and a pool session on top of two days of diving. For certification bodies like PADI, the AOW course requires the student to complete five leisure dives with the instructor. This is typically done over two days, and the e-learning component is done in the student’s own time.

Between the ocean dives, Living Seas instructors take time to introduce and discuss concepts that would be relevant when you proceed to do leisure dives in the future on your own. We believe in preparing our students well and ensuring you are real divers, not just people who can do drills underwater.

2. We teach face-to-face, not online
You get more time learning with an instructor by your side, as opposed to doing much of your learning online by yourself. In our classroom, you’re able to ask questions, get feedback, and work through difficult concepts with your classmates and instructor.

Our instructors are also trained to guide students through the material, instead of just delivering what’s in the textbook. We think it’s important that our students truly understand what we teach, and be able to tease out the connecting threads between different concepts.

Diving is ultimately a sport, so practical training gets special emphasis. After our students understand the theoretical basis of concepts like buoyancy, we systematically guide our students through drills with thorough explanations of good diving practices.

We do not adopt a traditional “Just do as I say” method of instruction, and we don’t think it’s something that anyone should stand for these days.

3. We keep classes small
Our student to instructor ratio is always kept low—no more than four students are assigned to one instructor for any in-water activity. Safety is our priority, and keeping classes small means our students get more focused attention from our instructor.

With fewer students to supervise, your instructor is more likely to catch and correct your mistakes as you make them. With timely feedback, you’ll learn faster and more effectively. You also spend less time waiting, whether it’s for the other students to complete their drills or for your instructor to check your gear one by one.

Learn well during the pool session and you’ll have more time during the open water dives to swim around, get comfortable in your gear, and hone your diving skills.

This is Elaine who learnt how to dive in early 2016. Although this video shows her third-ever dive, she looks comfortable and controls her position well.

4. We include your hotel stay
Our Living Seas Open Water course package includes theory and practical lessons, gear rental and your hotel accommodation. The hotels we partner offer comfortable stays and decent amenities. If you opt to take the course in Bali, the hotel is also where our Indonesian office is based. The hotel pool spans 100-plus metres and is four metres deep. As it’s a big pool, you’ll have more opportunity to swim around and gain more experience before diving in open water. In Bali, no traveling is required on the days the course is conducted. Your room, the classroom, pool and restaurant are less than two minutes away from one another.

For courses based out of Singapore, we’ve also chosen a hotel partner that offers us the best logistics in terms of diving, accommodation and transfers. Who wants to go on a trip where more time is wasted on traveling than diving? Rimba Resort on Sibu Island is our base of choice as it allows for smoother transfers, a more relaxed schedule and a more comfortable stay.

5. We don’t upsell
As an ethical business, Living Seas believes in fair pricing. We do not support the practice of using open water courses as loss leaders. We would rather focus our attention on teaching our students to dive well, than on our bottom line.

Your learning is our priority
We believe that learning has to come first. We go the distance to make sure you have ample time, space and practice as well as comfortable accommodation, so you are less stressed and more focused on learning to dive safely.

It’s our commitment at Living Seas to make sure that you get the best learning, in the best way and format possible.

Education, Fundamentals, GUE, Recreational

How is the GUE Fundamentals course relevant to recreational divers?

March 1

You might have heard about the Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) Fundamentals course through your “hard-core” diving friends who love exploring caves and wrecks.

Or perhaps you came across it while googling for information on how to improve your scuba diving and buoyancy control.

Either way, you’re probably wondering: Is this course relevant to me, if I’m simply into recreational diving?

We get this question a lot. Contrary to popular belief, the GUE Fundamentals course is ultimately a recreational course. It doesn’t have to lead to technical or cave diving, although the course is also a gateway to GUE’s more advanced diver training options.

The skills taught in the course are relevant to any diver regardless of certification level and where you dive. It doesn’t matter whether you’re diving over a reef, in a cave, on a wreck or 50m deep—the importance of being able to handle yourself well in any type of underwater location simply can’t be understated.

One of the objectives of the Fundamentals course is to allow you to become better at the basics of diving, that is, to improve your awareness, buoyancy and communication underwater. Coupled with a focus of diving in a team, the GUE Fundamentals course makes you a much better dive partner. You’ll emerge from the course with a better knowledge and understanding of how to interact with others while diving, and how to deal with situations that arise.

Some might also ask: Shouldn’t I have already acquired these skills at the Open Water courses? Well, the short answer is no.

The GUE Fundamentals course doesn’t just hone your skills of buoyancy, trim, balance and propulsion, but it also teaches you to streamline your equipment configuration, plan a dive, manage your gas, and master a number of drills, including how to deploy a surface marker safely and effectively. More details here.

A useful analogy likens regular recreational diving to amateur dance classes, while the GUE methodology is more akin to ballet, where the strict focus on form and technique produces a dancer with a much higher skill level.

Whether you progress to more advanced diving after the GUE Fundamentals course is completely up to you. Even on a recreational dive, having solid underwater skills is useful. After all, having fun on a reef is an objective in itself.

Plus, if everyone has better skills, we’ll enjoy the underwater environment without causing damage to the reef—or to ourselves!

Education, PADI, Recreational

Is the Advanced Open Water course just about going deeper?

February 17

Most new divers will be excited to do and learn more once they’ve gotten their Open Water certification. From here, there are two easy next steps: Book another dive trip and/or take the Advanced Open Water (AOW) course.

(Note: A number of diver training agencies offer an advanced open water course. As can be expected, the syllabuses and prerequisites vary. Wikipedia offers a good overview here. One of the most widely known AOW courses is offered by PADI.)

On the face of it, the AOW course seems to be just about going deeper, past the 18m limit that the OW certification imposes on new divers. And unfortunately, this is how some instructors conduct the Advanced course—where it’s more like a leisure diving weekend than a course—and why some divers complain afterwards that they didn’t learn anything.

While the Open Water course focuses on the basics of diving safely, it doesn’t offer the time or scope to do much else. It makes sense then that the Advanced course should give divers the opportunity to hone their skills—and get more comfortable underwater.

The Advanced Open Water course is also an excellent gateway to inspire imagination and fire up the urge to explore in new divers. Be it deep dives, wrecks, caverns, dives in strong current, open ocean pinnacle dives, photography or videography, the possibilities are endless!

We at Living Seas believe that in order to call oneself an “Advanced” diver, you should have control over your position in the water, so we introduce manoeuvring techniques such as the various frog and flutter kicks, the backward kick and the helicopter turn. After all, if you plan to do more challenging dives, you’d definitely want to have more control in the water!

Besides teaching new skills, the advanced course should involve experiencing different types of dives, such as Navigation, Deep Dives (20m to 30m), Drift Dives, Boat Dives, Night Dives, and more. Exposing new divers to a diversity of dives—under supervision of course—helps to broaden their perspectives of what diving is and can be.

Hopefully, something sparks an intense desire within them to continue diving and exploring. I’ve always believed that if someone is interested and passionate about diving, they can’t not want to care and conserve it for future generations.

Whether you’re teaching or learning the AOW, seize the opportunity to inspire—or be inspired! The AOW is not just about going deeper; it’s an opportunity to broaden one’s horizons, and see what more diving can offer. It’s a really wide world of oceans, after all.

Meme, PADI, Recreational

Get Ignored… Stop Moving…

January 12

Imagine you’re a fish, going about your daily fishy business, when you see a large bubbling creature with four appendages flailing about. Would you hang around to get a closer look? Most likely not!

By learning to use your equipment and breathing to control your buoyancy, you won’t need to use your hands to maintain your position in the water. Small, gentle movements of your fins will be all you need.

You will be able to get closer to the wildlife, and discover that the fish hang around a little longer. Rather than a fleeting view, you will be able to spend longer watching the action on the reef!

So stop moving, and get ignored by the fish!

Meme, PADI, Recreational

Can you stop creating a cloud of silt?

January 12

“I saw nothing, the guy in front kicked up so much silt!!”

Good buoyancy and trim isn’t just about dive safety, but also about your comfort level and about not impacting the reef. Sand buildup on fragile coral can kill it, while misplaced fin kicks can decimate a reef.

We believe that there is no reason why good buoyancy and trim cannot be taught at the open water level. We would love for everyone to work towards good buoyancy and trim so they don’t leave a cloud of silt behind as they move around the reef.

At Living Seas, we make it a priority to teach these concepts as early as possible, because it is our duty as good shepherds of the marine environment.

So can you stop creating a cloud of silt?

Recreational

To log or not to log? What’s the use of a dive log?

December 16

The humble dive log. A piece of recorded history, filled with pictures and memories of dives long gone…

But is the dive log as necessary as everyone seems to think? Does the dive log serve any purpose beyond being a sentimental record?

Many dive centres, like Living Seas Asia, have divers visiting them from all over the world, with varying certifications and experience levels. When planning dives, one important question comes to mind: How can we sort the divers into groups, or categorise them better so that we can keep a closer eye on those who need it?

Certifications have their limitations; they do not tell you about the diver’s experience. So how else can we know what to expect before we dive with strangers?

Enter the log book. Once a simple way to keep track of dives, the dive log has now become the “quality control form” for many dive centres to get a sense of how a diver dives. (Of course, that’s assuming the diver hasn’t forgotten to bring his log book along—and that the entries aren’t forged.)

As a dive instructor, I find log books useful—only to an extent. Again, the data captured in the log doesn’t tell all. Consider the number of dives a diver has clocked up. A higher number doesn’t necessarily indicate a higher skill level: 100 dives in a shallow bay with no current and averaging at a 5m depth doesn’t teach you very much at all, does it?

And what about the most recent dive date? A dangerous diver who dived yesterday will still be a dangerous diver today, unfortunately…

Going beyond the log book
So what can dive operators do to prevent poorly trained divers from injuring the reef, and even worse, themselves?

Conducting “check out dives” is a good first step. That way, dive leaders can get a sense of the skills lacking in a diver before bringing them out to the “nicer” spots (read: deeper and more challenging dives).

However, most dive centres stop at that, and don’t take the important step of educating these divers to be better underwater. But whose responsibility should it really be? The certifying instructors? The Dive Master on a leisure dive?

Honestly, it shouldn’t matter. We should all be doing what we can to help teach these divers how to be better stewards of the environment. If we fail in doing that, then we are as culpable as all the other instructors who trained that diver before us.

That said, the number one thing that all dive centres can and should do, is to train their students well early, starting from the Open Water certification. If dive instructors can all do this, then it wouldn’t be such a challenge vetting each and every diver coming to dive with us. The certification levels would actually mean something once again!

So, to log or not to log—that was the initial question. Ultimately, I believe that it’s entirely up to the diver. For dive centres, the log does serve as a good reference for the dives that came before, but it will not give a full picture of how the diver performs underwater.

To fellow divers: Whether you consider your dive log a treasure trove of memories or a badge of honour, I entreat you to take personal responsibility of your diving: Seek out the knowledge and skills that will allow you to do challenging dives, grow as a diver, and become a true steward of the underwater environment that we all love!

Education, Recreational, Technical

Why use double tanks?

December 16

When asked this question, most people would answer that we use double tanks to get more gas for our dive. This is a valid answer, of course, but I think the more important reason is redundancy.

Redundancy: The inclusion of extra components which are not strictly necessary to functioning, in case of failure in other components (OED)

Running low on gas during a dive can be frustrating – we all know what it feels like to want to stay down longer and enjoy ourselves! The next logical step to overcome this limitation is to carry more gas, especially on deeper dives where a diver’s gas consumption will be much higher.

Without going into a discussion on decompression here, increasing gas capacity can be done in different ways, by carrying a larger tank, using a steel tank so you can fill it to a higher pressure, or carrying multiple tanks.

If one chooses the last option of carrying multiple tanks, one could consider simply strapping two single tanks together (called a sidemount or independent doubles configuration) to effectively double the available gas. So why not just do that? Consider a situation when a failure happens (for example, a faulty o-ring on a regulator or tank valve). The result is you lose the ability to access an entire tank of gas.

Another problem with the sidemount or independent doubles configuration is that you’ll have to double up on regulator hoses. You’ll need a primary and secondary second stage, an inflator hose and an SPG on each of the first stages. This in turn doubles the number of possible failure points. Not ideal.

That aside, we also have the issue of deciding which tank to breathe on. If we breathe on one tank fully, then what happens if failure occurs on the full tank that you were planning to switch to? (Sidemount divers will argue that there are ways to prevent this from happening, such as switching tanks at defined intervals to balance the gas consumption between both tanks, but these measures could lead to additional complications, IMHO.)

We can mitigate against some failures by using DIN instead of Yoke valves on our tanks, and by minimizing the number of hoses that we need, but the best method I’ve found is to dive with a double tank configuration with an isolator manifold.

So how is redundancy built into this configuration?

One important feature is the isolator manifold. In this configuration, we have two first stages, each connected to a tank valve, which are in turn connected to each other via the isolator manifold.

Two 300 bar scuba cylinders connected by an isolating manifold

With this set-up, a single failure on a regulator will not result in an immediate loss of half your gas. We could shut off the valve that the failed regulator is connected to, and effectively shut down the leak. Because of the manifold, we can still access all of the gas in that tank. In this situation, one failure will result only in the loss of some functions (one second stage and either the inflator hose or the SPG), but not in any loss of gas.

But what if the manifold itself fails, you ask? Well, this is where the isolator comes in. If any side of the manifold, or tank valve fails, then we could isolate the two tanks by closing the isolator valve. This cuts off the flow of gas from one side to the other, resulting in only one of the tanks draining, as opposed to both, if the valve was left open, or if there was no isolator.

When doing more extreme dives, whether you’re going deeper or diving in an overhead environment, you’ll want the confidence of knowing that failures won’t result in you losing so much gas that you won’t be able to get to surface safely. Personally, I’d say that’s a pretty good reason to have the heavy weight of a set of double tanks on your back!

Dive Professional, Divemaster, Education, Recreational

Is the DM course for me?

December 16

Many people view the Divemaster (DM) course as a logical extension of recreational diving education, when they’ve already done Advanced and Rescue and are looking for the next course to take. Unfortunately, this might not make the most sense for everyone, and you’ll see DM trainees that are either not ready, or don’t have the right attitude towards the course.

Currently, this path of diving education (Open Water to Advanced to Rescue to Divemaster) is the one that is most marketed, and thus most visible to newer divers. Divers are then naturally channeled towards this path because of business interests, rather than the individuals’ passion or aptitude.

One big distinction between the first three and the DM course, which many people forget, is that the latter is a professional level diving course. This distinction has been steadily eroded over the years, due to the demand for profit and readily available labor at the dive centers, which push the DM course to customers who may not realize the true responsibility of being a DM.

To me, one should only do the DM course if leading, helping and instructing other divers is a passion. It’s not another recreational course! It shouldn’t be viewed as a way to get free dives or to stay in a tropical country on an extended holiday! Neither is it an extension of regular leisure diving, which unfortunately is how it’s marketed.

In my opinion, the current training that a Divemaster receives is woefully insufficient. Here’s what’s listed on the PADI website for the topics and workshops in a Divemaster course.

The role and characteristics of the PADI Divemaster
Supervising dive activities and assisting with student divers
Diver safety and risk management
Divemaster conducted programs and specialized skills
Business of diving and your career
Awareness of the dive environment
Dive setup and management
Mapping an open water site
Conducting dive briefings
Organizing a search and recovery project and a deep dive
Conducting a scuba review and skin diver course
Assisting with Discover Scuba Diving and leading Discover Local Diving programs

While the above might sound good in theory, the actual syllabus falls short. Many topics are not covered in depth, leaving gaps for the instructor to fill. For example, you won’t find a list of common problems that new students face when using a mask for the first time, or the solutions to them.

The quality of learning thus depends on the caliber and experience of the instructor. Without a good instructor to guide them, it’s no wonder most DM trainees do not acquire the crucial know-how and skills from the course.

What’s more, a DM trainee need only have logged 60 dives as a prerequisite for the course. I’d argue that 60 falls on the low side, and a number doesn’t say very much. Consider this: 60 dives in a shallow bay with no current and averaging 5m depth doesn’t offer much learning by way of experience.

While there is no way to exhaustively cover all the problems and scenarios that a DM might face while diving, the topic of crisis prevention is a glaring omission from the list above. Being able to prevent a situation from escalating into a crisis is, I believe, a primary role of a DM.

That said, of course there are dive professionals around who truly deserve the name, but what identifies them from the rest?

One defining characteristic of good dive professionals, I’ve noticed, is a true passion to serve. They don’t teach or lead dives because of the money or “free” diving, but because they want to contribute to environmental protection, either by sharing its wonders with others, or inspiring a conservation ethic in the students that they teach. People who truly love the marine environment are the ones I would want to go diving with!

How then do we identify these dive professionals from the others, and how can we train more of them? Well, simply talk to them about it! Someone who has passion for the underwater world won’t be able to stop talking about it, just get them started and listen to the stories they tell, and the experiences they’ve had. They are the ones who will be looking at nudibranch pictures on Facebook well into the night, and poring through marine identification books early in the morning.

These are also the dive professionals that divers return repeatedly to dive with. You know you’ve made a difference when other divers trust their lives in your hands.

A great dive professional will still have a sense of wonder when diving at easy recreational sites for the 1000^th time with their Open Water students, as opposed to one who swims away and does his own thing, or gets bored on a dive if there’s “nothing” to see. There’s always something to see on any dive if you look closely enough!

Another key trait of a great dive professional is the talent for teaching and instructing. Contrary to what the recreational agencies will have you believe, not everyone is born to teach! I truly believe good teaching comes first from passion, then next the ability to sharpen the saw, to keep on improving. Instructors and Divemasters who don’t do dives that challenge them or dives outside of “work” that hold their interest, will definitely lose their passion and burn out eventually.

The DM course isn’t and shouldn’t be for everyone. Ultimately, being a Divemaster means having other people’s lives in your hands; the decisions you make underwater can have real and dangerous implications. If you feel you are ready for that responsibility, then by all means, seek out and train under a good instructor who will show you the best ways to extend your diving knowledge and skill sets.

If the passion is really there, then keep going, and share it with the world!

Education, Technical

To tech or not to tech?

December 16

This is a great question, as one of the first things people consider after they’ve completed their Advanced course is where to go and what to learn next. There are a few common paths, most notably the Rescue/DM/Instructor path offered by all the recreational agencies. The other path available would be tech or cave diving, a gateway to exploration and more “exciting” dives. Meanwhile, there are others who have no desire to do more, and are happy just traveling and clocking up more leisure dives.

All paths are great, and part of the beauty of diving is that it’s such a wide field that there’s something for everyone to feel passionate about.

Most people end up taking the Rescue/DM path, as it’s the more commonly available path, and some would argue, the cheaper option. Technical diving is less common and harder to get training for, but I’d argue that it is an equally vital part of continuing dive education. Divers should consider an “and” approach, rather than an “or” approach when choosing between the various paths.

Some people get into tech diving because they want to go deep, see big wrecks, or just feel the thrill of it. My personal reason was wrecks – the bigger and more interesting the wreck was, the deeper the water would be (typically).

I’d argue though, that going tech shouldn’t just be about going deep, which is the misconception that many people have. I’d argue that technical diving is about understanding diving a whole lot better. That, plus acquiring more skills, and removing some limitations of time, gas and decompression from any dive that you might want to do.

One important reason for going tech is the skills that you’ll gain. With more task loading (from carrying multiple tanks, for example) and the greater necessity for excellent buoyancy (because of high PO2 concentrations in deco gases – more on that in another article), you’ll need excellent in-water skills to become a technical diver. These skills aren’t just important because you’re a tech diver though; good buoyancy, good technique and good awareness are important on any dive. Just because you’re on a warm water recreational open water dive doesn’t mean that you should dive without good technique.

The knowledge learnt in a technical course also includes a comprehensive study of decompression, which is a factor in any dive that you do – and not just in deeper dives. Isn’t it prudent to better understand where the boundaries are, how better to manage your decompression, and what to do if you exceed the currently accepted no-decompression limits?

Another great reason for doing a technical course is to gain access to more gas, and to acquire the ability to choose the most appropriate gas mixture for the depth that you are planning to dive. What if you wanted to explore a large wreck or reef that sits between 25 to 30m deep? Or want to wait at a deep cleaning station longer to get a good video of the elusive thresher shark?

Dives like these, despite being within recreational limits, would be better served with a set of double tanks and EAN32%, extending the limitation of gas consumption and decompression, allowing you peace of mind to accomplish your goal! Better still if you carried a decompression tank as well, that would definitely allow you to do a two hour long dive!

Once you understand decompression procedures, are able to manipulate stage bottles and plan your deco gases effectively, this will remove any limitation on the type of dives that you might want to do.

This could mean spending more time on your favourite dive site, since you don’t have gas consumption or decompression limitations anymore. To me, tech means getting to do any kind of dive you might want to do, be it long and shallow or deep and short.

Everybody loves spending more time in the water, and this traditionally meant doing more dives. Wouldn’t it be more comfortable being relaxed underwater, enjoying and taking in everything at your own leisure, without worrying about decompression limits, or running out of gas?

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Ask Livingseas.

All your diving questions answered!

What kind of dive education do you want?

Why are Living Seas courses so expensive?

How is the GUE Fundamentals course relevant to recreational divers?

Is the Advanced Open Water course just about going deeper?

Get Ignored… Stop Moving…

Can you stop creating a cloud of silt?

To log or not to log? What’s the use of a dive log?

Why use double tanks?

Is the DM course for me?

To tech or not to tech?

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