Scuba diving

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Scuba divers with compressed air diving equipment

The scuba diving is a form of diving , the diver when a scuba set ( English scuba ), a rebreather (rebreather) or a standard diving dress used to be able to survive under water. The artificial breathing gas supply - in contrast to apnea diving - allows dives of several hours. Unlike surface-supplied diving , the scuba diver carries a reserve of breathing gas with him during the dive. Usually this is compressed air , but other mixtures such as Nitrox , Trimix or Heliox are also used. A scuba diver moves freely in the three-dimensional space offered by the water , powered by his buoyancy compensator and fins or scooter . Scuba diving is practiced in different forms: in scuba diving as a pure leisure activity , in professional diving as a job .

history

The original Aqualung diving device.
1: hose, 2: mouthpiece, 3: regulator, 4: harness, 5: backplate, 6: compressed air cylinder

The most original form of diving is apnea diving, which involves diving without an artificial respiratory gas supply. As early as 450 BC BC dives were made with diving bells , in which the breathing gas supply was limited to the air enclosed in the bell. In the second half of the 18th century, mechanical engineering in Great Britain had developed to such an extent that it was possible to additionally supply a diving bell with air using compressors . The shrinking of the diving bell led to the invention of the first diving helmets, with which a diver could move more or less freely on the bottom. The 19th century was marked by the further development of helmet diving equipment and the increasing use of caissons , which resulted in hyperbaric medicine. The engineers Benoît Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze invented the first regulator in 1860 . At the beginning of the 20th century, new materials made the invention of swimming fins , diving masks and other items of equipment important for modern diving possible. In 1911, the Dräger company presented a helmet diving device, the air supply of which was based on a rebreather diving device. The first patent for a compressed air diving device was filed in 1943 by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Émile Gagnan . A few years later, the further development of this compressed air diving device called Aqualunge enabled the success of recreational diving as a popular sport and revolutionized professional diving in many areas.

Forms of equipment diving

Scuba diving

Group of scuba divers

In recreational diving, the diver uses a compressed air diving device (SCUBA) or a rebreather device to be able to survive underwater. Usually physical activity, fun , relaxation , adventure and nature observation are in the foreground of the diving experience. Scuba diving is the most widespread type of diving in the world today. Every year around 1.7 million people are trained as scuba divers. In recreational diving, compressed air or nitrox is usually used as the breathing gas. An oxygen - partial pressure of from about 1.2 to 1.6  bar is toxic to the central nervous system and produces an oxygen poisoning . Such a partial pressure is achieved with compressed air at a depth of 47 to 67 meters. The training organizations for recreational divers therefore define appropriate depth limits. The world's largest diving organizations PADI , SSI , VDST and NAUI limit the maximum diving depth to 40 m. Other organizations allow their members greater depths: among others, the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) 50 m or the French CMAS representative Fédération française d'études et de sports sous-marins (FFESSM) up to 60 m. Diving is usually done in a buddy team or a small group to increase safety . You should only dive solo with special training and equipment . For scuba divers there is a large selection of equipment and a wide range of diving courses .

In contrast to professional divers, in most countries there are no special legal regulations for recreational divers that would require a diving license or a diving suitability test . Almost all diving centers , however, require at least a diving license from recognized associations such as CMAS (for Germany: VDST ), PADI or SSI for proof of diving training in order to avoid diving accidents .

Forms of recreational diving

A technical diver with a sidemount configuration gets ready for a dive

There are some special forms for recreational divers, which often require special knowledge and training:

Technical diving

The technical diving (Tec-Diving) is an increasingly popular special form of scuba diving that allows recreational divers, with techniques and procedures that were originally reserved professional divers, deeper and plan for longer dives. The boundary to normal recreational diving is fluid. As a rule, the breathing gas mixture is changed several times during a single deep dive, as each mixture has different advantages and dangers at different depths. As a result, some divers enter the water with numerous bottles hung. Technical divers use equipment such as wing jackets , full face masks , stage cylinders (additional cylinders, mostly with a gas mixture for decompression), backplates with harness and others that go beyond the usual level of recreational diving. Technical diving requires special training because of the different equipment and the special breathing gases.

Ice diving

When ice diving refers to diving under a closed ice cover. Particular dangers are primarily the effects of the low water temperature on the diver and the device as well as the almost impossible possibility of finding the entrance opening without a guide line.

Historical diving

Lately, the interest in old diving technology has also started to grow among recreational divers. In particular, helmet diving equipment , as it represented the state of the art between 1900 and 1950, but is increasingly disappearing from professional diving , is attracting new attention. The focus is on the experience of dealing with old technology, comparable to the hobby of old cars.

Cave diving

Many caves are completely or partially filled with water - exploring them while diving is a special attraction. However, there are dangers of their own, especially confinement, darkness and the risk of losing your bearings. Since the cave diver usually does not have the opportunity to appear at short notice in dangerous situations, he must have a particularly high degree of self-control and also take technical precautions. A considerably larger supply of breathing gas , redundant equipment and the use of a guide line serve this purpose .

Orientation diving

When underwater orienteering it comes to fast and accurate diving. This competitive sport combines elements of orienteering and fin swimming.

Underwater Photography and Underwater Videography

With special cameras or conventional photo equipment in watertight and pressure-tight housings, it is possible to take photos and video recordings under water . This special form of photography and videography is not only used in the professional field, but also in diving.

Wreck diving

Wreck diving

Shipwrecks are special attractions for divers, on the one hand out of interest in the sunken ship itself, but also because of the often remarkable flora and fauna that inhabit such artifacts as a new habitat. The wreck diving but carries risks: Other types of flow conditions, stuck fishing nets, protruding, sharp edges and, one provided in the wreck penetration, the chance of getting hooked or getting stuck and the loss of orientation.

Environmental and monument protection

The spread of diving, which began in the 1950s, initially caused considerable environmental damage . In particular, the fact that diving equipment was used without hesitation, but with great success for underwater hunting and the recovery of antiquities , led in some places to the destruction of the habitat and the food sources of flora and fauna as well as the irreversible destruction of archaeological sites . Therefore, on the one hand, the state authorities have issued protective regulations or even completely closed certain areas for diving. On the other hand, the preservation of an intact environment and the archaeological sites is also in the interests of the divers themselves, which has prompted diving organizations to develop codes of conduct and special courses that encourage environmentally friendly and listed diving. On the one hand, this prevents recreational divers from violating the law, which are sometimes subject to drastic penalties, and on the other hand, it makes diving a sport that is environmentally friendly and enables undreamt-of insights into underwater biology or cultural history.

It is also not uncommon for recreational divers to remove waste from parts of the water or to build new artificial habitats such as artificial coral reefs .

Diving with disabilities

People with disabilities now also have a wide range of opportunities to practice diving. In addition to the scientific discussion, there is a remarkable voluntary commitment in this area of ​​diving. The training requirements are by no means reduced compared to the non-disabled, but rather increased. The reason is that in spite of the possibly limited abilities of the student diver, the same safety standard must be observed as with a non-disabled scuba diver. Diving guides for the handicapped should ideally be experienced scuba divers with appropriate additional training, in which the future guides are prepared for the special features of diving with handicapped people. In the accompanying cultural program of the Paralympics 2012 , the British performance artist Sue Austin choreographed an underwater ballet using a propeller-driven wheelchair she developed.

Children's diving

From the age of around 8 it is possible for children to learn to dive with specially adapted equipment in diving courses geared towards children. Children always dive in a buddy team with an adult. The certifications that children can obtain in this way are usually limited in terms of the maximum depth and the number of dives per day compared to adult certifications , as there are still no conclusive results on how the changed demands on the body affect the child Affect organism. Children react differently than adults to dangers or incidents and can thus become an increased risk for themselves and their companion underwater. From the age of 15 or 16, adolescents are usually admitted to diving courses for adults without restriction. However , diving guide and diving instructor training courses are reserved for young adults aged 18 or 20 years, because legal issues can arise during these activities. Diving instructors are only allowed to teach, test and certify children after additional training that distinguishes them as a children's diving instructor.

Educational diving

Since the mid-1990s, diving education offers for children and adolescents with behavioral problems have increasingly been developed . It is precisely in these areas that a scientific debate is taking place that no longer only deals with the sport itself, but also with psychological , educational and even psychiatric issues. The findings from diving psychology have made a significant contribution to this . Emotional psychological and experiential studies have shown astonishing success and confirm the practical experience of the pioneers in this field. People with intellectual disabilities can also benefit from these results.

Professional diving

Rescue divers of the fire brigade in Oude IJsselstreek

It is the job of professional divers to carry out commercial work underwater. The range of activities is very diverse, for example:

  • Construction work, in particular construction, maintenance and demolition of hydraulic structures and construction work on land in the groundwater area
  • Inspection work on hydraulic structures, ships, waterways, wrecks, wells, sewage treatment plants, etc.
  • Salvage work
  • Rescue work
  • Duties of the police and national defense
  • Signalization of the waterways
  • Professional divers dive for lobsters , clams , sponges , etc.

The range of positions that divers maintain or hire is correspondingly broad:

The professional divers also include diving instructors who are professionally involved in the training of divers. Local diving guides also work professionally at many diving centers .

Saturation diving

In the field of professional divers, saturation diving addresses the problem of increased decompression times during deep dives . One uses the fact that the gas uptake of the organism is limited at some point with increased pressure. After a certain period of time under high water pressure, the body is saturated; an extension of the diving time does not lead to an even longer decompression time. Since the decompression time z. B. after a dive to 200 m depth can be up to seven days, it can not be spent in the water. Nowadays, a decompression chamber is used for this purpose , which simulates a gradual ascent of around 30 m per day.

This technology is used particularly in underwater stations . A diver who stays in such a station for more than 24 hours is called an Aquanaut .

equipment

In addition to the breathing gas supply and the regulator or helmet, a scuba diver carries a buoyancy compensator , diving suit , lead weights , the diver basic equipment ( diving mask , snorkel , diving fins ), booties , as well as instruments for controlling the orientation ( compass ), the respiratory gas is depleted ( pressure gauge ), the immersion time ( Diving watch ), the diving depth ( depth gauge ) and a decompression table or a dive computer to calculate a safe ascent.

Compressed air diving device

When diving with a compressed air diving device, one or more compressed air cylinders are used , which are not filled with pure oxygen, as is often assumed, but with normal, purified and dehumidified compressed air or an air-like breathing gas mixture. In particular, recreational divers who do a lot of dives in a short period of time like to use Nitrox (oxygen-enriched air) instead of compressed air. Due to the reduced nitrogen content , the body tissues are less saturated with nitrogen and longer no-stop times are possible. The breathing gas exhaled by the diver is released into the water.

Helmet diving device

Diver with a modern helmet diver.

During historical helmet diving, the diver wears a diving suit, copper helmet, shoulder piece and lots of weights to compensate for the buoyancy of the helmet. The helmet is supplied with breathing gas via a hose, which is processed by a compressor above the surface of the water. Modern diving helmets, which are mainly used in professional diving, are often made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic and are often supplied by a compressed air cylinder carried by the diver or a rebreather. Surface supplied diving is still often used today, especially for underwater work.

Rebreather

A rebreather

Although rebreather devices were the first truly autonomous diving devices, they were only used by a few diving pioneers and the military for a long time. For some years now, however, these devices have also been gaining popularity among professional and recreational divers. The exhaled air is freed of the carbon dioxide contained within the device using soda lime , then enriched with small amounts of pure oxygen and inhaled again by the diver. This closed circuit means that normally no exhaled air is released into the water, a fact that is appreciated by military divers as well as by underwater photographers and researchers.

Armored suit

Training with a tank diving suit 2005 (ADS from Oceanworks with blue spacer rings)

The armored diving suit is a special form of a diving suit or a movable one -man submarine . The suit is rigid and there is no pressure equalization with the surrounding water pressure. The air supply is provided by a rebreather, as used in spacesuits . The mobility of arms and legs is created by special joints that internally balance the pressure. Since it is not possible to use the hands, grippers or manipulators are used. The armored suit is used by professional divers at great depths of up to 610 meters.

hazards

When diving, humans enter an environment for which they are not created due to their biological systems and in which they can only survive for a short time without technical support. In addition, there are few other occasions in which a person is confronted with various physical conditions as directly as in scuba diving.

Statistically, diving is a very safe sport. According to the long-standing international statistics from Divers Alert Network (DAN), there are 4.7 dives per million dives. One million dives corresponds approximately to a total diving time of at least 85 years. In comparison, 4.9 per million swimmers drowned in Germany in 2014. However, each type of diving has its specific dangers and potential risks. It is therefore necessary to complete a solid diving education in order to learn the theoretical and practical knowledge in dealing with diving equipment , dive planning and correct behavior in the water. Diving organizations offer courses in which divers can learn and expand their knowledge and skills.

The main risks are:

In diving courses, the diver learns certain behaviors and compliance with limit values, all of which aim to exclude diving accidents as completely as possible if they are observed. The limits result from diving medicine and diving physics.

Insurance

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany and Switzerland . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Germany

Statutory social insurance

There are no exclusions from statutory health insurance and statutory pension insurance ( statutory social insurance ). Treatment costs after diving accidents are also covered without restriction, as are pension payments in the event of reduced earning capacity . Professional divers are also insured through statutory accident insurance.

Private insurance

When it comes to recreational diving, exclusions apply to many types of insurance. So are z. B. Decompression accidents and typical diving health damage such as barotrauma are excluded in private accident insurance . However, some insurers include these cases through an additional agreement. Even with life and occupational disability insurance , scuba diving is considered an increased risk. Services are often excluded here or can only be insured through an additional agreement. For professional recreational divers, e.g. B. diving instructors , special exclusions must be taken into account in individual cases.

Switzerland

Most diving accidents are considered sudden and unforeseen events under Swiss law and are therefore covered by the health insurances (KVG) and accident insurances (NBU), which are compulsory for everyone living in Switzerland . If an accusation of negligence or the like arises after a diving accident, a health or accident insurance company can oppose the assumption of costs. That is why diving instructors and diving guides in particular should take out additional insurance.

The Suva treated diving under 40 meters of water as a risk sport, which in legal terms according to § 39 UVG and § 50 UVV is considered daring, the achievements of why the compulsory health insurance or accident insurance can be shortened. Therefore, ambitious recreational divers and technical divers should take out additional diving insurance. This can be included in a supplementary insurance (VVG) or any other policy.

Additional diving insurance can also be useful for people living in Switzerland who dive abroad, as z. B. Hyperbaric chamber treatments abroad are not always covered by health insurance or accident insurance.

For professional divers, different rules apply, which are regulated in labor law.

See also

Portal: Diving  - Overview of Wikipedia content on diving

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Thomas Kromp , Hans J. Roggenbach , Peter Bredebusch : Practice of diving. 3. Edition. Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-7688-1816-2 .
  2. ↑ a b Norbert Gierschner: My illustrated chronology and bibliography of diving history . Diving information office (www.gierschner.de), Berlin 2007. Volume I: Timetables and pictures. ISBN 978-3-937522-16-6 . Volume II: Alphabetically and Systematic Bibliography. ISBN 978-3-937522-17-3 .
  3. ↑ Biography Cousteau , DER SPIEGEL, Issue 47/1989
  4. ↑ 945,000 certifications ( Worldwide Corporate Statistics 2013 (PDF;. 232 kB) Data for 2007-2012 PADI February 2013 filed by the original on November 2, 2013 ; accessed on November 1, 2013 (English). ) With a market share of 56%, ( Greg: . 2013 Market Share of Scuba Certification Agencies (PADI, NAUI, SSI) DiveBuddy.com, July 25, 2013, accessed November 1, 2013 (English). ) give a value of about 1.7 million
  5. ^ Dive Table Rules. NAUI , accessed March 1, 2019 .
  6. ↑ DEEP DIVING. Scuba Schools International , accessed March 1, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Deep Diver. Professional Association of Diving Instructors , accessed March 1, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Dive Leader. Do you want to extend your personal diving skills and plan and lead dives for others? British Sub-Aqua Club, accessed on March 1, 2019 (English): " The training also prepares you to dive to depths of up to 50 meters in a range of challenging conditions, following a series of post-qualification depth progression dives. "
  9. ↑ Plongée en bouteille. Plonger en bouteille et se former au sein de la FFESSM. Fédération française d'études et de sports sous-marins, accessed on March 1, 2019 (French): “ ... à partir de 18 ans: brevet plongeur level 3 (P3), autonomy à 60 m . "
  10. ↑ World's first wheelchair developed for scuba diving
  11. ↑ Harald Apelt: A question of teaching? (PDF; 747 kB) Children's diving. In: DiveInside. Taucher.Net GmbH, August 5, 2008, archived from the original on November 2, 2013 ; Retrieved November 1, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Dagmar Himmel: Workshop for educational diving. (PDF; 270 kB) TC-Aqua, March 25, 2008, accessed on November 1, 2013 .
  13. ↑ a b Honduran lobster and conch divers are working on developing a more sustainable fishery.
  14. ↑ James W. Miller, Ian G. Koblick: Living & Working in the sea . Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York 1984, ISBN 0-442-26084-9 , p. 28.
  15. ↑ Kellie Chouest: Navy Chief Submerges 2,000 Feet, Sets Record. US Navy, April 8, 2006, accessed November 5, 2013.
  16. ↑ STATUS 2012 - Statistics on non-occupational accidents and the safety level in Switzerland. bfu - Advice Center for Accident Prevention, Bern, p. 38 , archived from the original on December 2, 2013 ; Retrieved January 16, 2013 . ISSN 1664-6932 .  
  17. ↑ Diving from a sports medicine point of view - epidemiology. Münchner Verlagsgruppe GmbH, accessed on January 24, 2017 : “Overall, diving is a very safe sport. The Divers Alert Network (DAN) examined 940 accidents that occurred over a period of 10 years. The risk of a fatal diving accident was 4.7 out of 1,000,000 dives. ( The 2010 DAN Diving Fatalities Workshop. ) "
  18. ↑ Deaths from drowning in Germany in 2014. Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft eV (DLRG), accessed on January 24, 2017 .
  19. ↑ a b Everything about insurance for scuba divers . In: Diving , No. 3/97, March 1997, online at heintzmann.de. Retrieved December 2, 2013.
  20. ↑ a b daring - dangerous sports. Suva , accessed December 3, 2013 .