The Lure of Diving
The Lure of Diving
Some people take up diving for a specific purpose such as scientific investigation, underwater photography or salvage. But for the majority of persons taking up the sport, it is simply the thrill of exploring a new, alien and-from what they have been led to believe -fascinating world that lures them to take up diving. They will not be disappointed.
Almost two-thirds of the world’s surface is covered with water. While the abyssal depths account for the greater part of this, there are many millions of square miles of sea-bed which are within reach of the trained sports diver. Most of this is as yet unexplored. Even around the coasts of the densely populated British Isles, there are thousands of square miles of sea-bed which have yet to be visited by the diver. Surely the sea must be the earth’s last frontier and any di ver who is well-trained and suitably qualified can see a new and exciting realm that can never be adequately described, only experienced.
The pleasure of diving is many-sided and as diverse as the feelings of those taking part, but since it depends upon entry into a new en�vironment, it must first be anticipated, assimilated and understood before it can be enjoyed to the full.
Some aspects of enjoyment spring from the untypical experiences of the human senses underwater. Each time a diver sinks below the surface his whole world changes: the light dims and colours fade as the sun’s rays are rapidly absorbed by the water; normal hearing ceases, to be replaced by a vague awareness of slight sounds that cannot be located-sounds of sea creatures, stones rattling in the waves’ thrust and surge, the gurgle of a demand valve. Taste and smell are virtually non-existent, and the feel of the water is all� encompassing. The surrounding water imposes its presence in many ways: its coldness and wetness in direct contact with the skin, the increasing pressure as thee diver descends and the weightlessness when one is neutrally buoyant.
The experienced diver who is at home in the water has learned to understand these previously unaccustomed and frightening perversions of his senses. He has come to recognise the features of being underwater: the silence, the calm, the caress of the water as it supports his weight-laden body. No longer are his senses distressed. They have re-awakened in a new world with a new set of values and expressions, and they have engendered a self-reliance, an awareness of things and of their significance. The diver has become one with the underwater world and has learned to love it.
On every dive, whether in the sea, rivers or quarries, whether the visibility be good or bad, the current fast or slack, the experienced diver makes renewed contact with a world that he has made-in -his own. But there is one thing that stands out above all others: sublime joy that the diver experiences at the instant of breaking surface. The shades of the underwater world are gone, light b in on the senses, hearing returns and the wonder, perhaps awe, compelled creatures to emerge from the seas millions of years a experienced.
The aims of diving are, therefore, two-fold: to explore and uncover the unknown, and then to return to the familiar with an ad appreciation of its beauties. So that a diver may immerse himself in this new environment, and for a time become part of it, he must rid himself of cares and worries about the functioning of his diving equipment and of his ability to use it. Of course, the problems diving, and the fundamental necessity of returning to the surface’ breathe when the air supply is exhausted can never be forgotten, b the diver should acquire a complete self-assurance in the use of diving equipment so that any actions underwater become instinctive. Thought, time and energy spent on the technicalities of diving then reduced to a minimum, and the diver can devote his energies and interest to other ends.
Such familiarity and confidence in diving equipment can only come after an adequate programme of training and no-one should attempt to explore the seas without first receiving proper instruction and training. The sea frowns on the foolish intruder and although professional divers may undertake deep or dangerous dives under controlled conditions for the sake of their livelihood or the needs of the job in hand, the sports diver has no cause to put his life unnecessarily in jeopardy, and even when fully-experienced with his diving equipment, it should always be used sensibly.