Top 5 Things You Need to Do Before You Try Scuba Diving

Learn what skills you should develop before you practice SCUBA Diving and how to get the best experience getting a diver certification. How to choose a good dive shop? Is Scuba diving hard to perform? Get your answers here.

1. Practice Swimming

It may sound very logical, but there’s a lot of people who think this is not necessary: to be able to swim and they are right. It is not mandatory but, it is important? While it is true that everyone can move around the water but when you know how to swim you have acquired confidence in the water which is very important when the time to learn underwater exercises comes. Also, you have learned techniques on how to move without wasting essential energy. You should remember all the time that SCUBA Diving is a high-performance sport, so you should be in very good shape, and practicing swimming constantly will keep you healthy and mentally activated. These are skills that regular swimming grants, so you already know why it is highly recommended before SCUBA Diving. Basically, you will feel safer and calmer underwater.

2. Go Snorkeling

How is similar snorkeling with Scuba diving? – Snorkeling is a really easy activity that everyone can perform. Even if you don’t believe this activity will give you the first steps to start with the scuba, such as:

Use of the snorkeling tube: With a tube in your mouth, you are switching your breathing mode: from your nose to your mouth so you don’t have problems when you should breathe with a regulator on your mouth or when you must switch between regulator and snorkeling tube in your SCUBA diving openwater course. This will get you more confidence breathing with your face underwater.
Use of mask: This part is not equal to using swimming goggles because a mask covers your eyes and nose, and this could be uncomfortable for some people besides breathing with the tube.
Use of fins: Maybe you think fins give power to your legs to swim like a shark, and that is true, but you need to consider that it involves carrying extra weight and it may result in cramps.
Snorkeling will give you the confidence to feel safe surrounded by water.

Remember Ko’ox Adventures can take you to discover the most famous cenotes by snorkeling

3. Read, Watch and Study – at Home

This looks kind of boring, you are thinking why should I read if I just wanna have fun underwater?
It’s true, scuba diving is a really fun and relaxing activity, but you always need to keep in mind that water is not the regular human habitat, even if you can swim faster than the world champions, you just cannot breathe underwater. So breathing is the thing you must be careful with the whole protocols to perform a dive. To mention again, this is a high-performance sport, so you need to link your mind and body to react in any situation, this is the main topic for reading about scuba diving experiences, books, magazines, even videos. Maybe you will have some questions and there will be so many things you won’t understand, but do not worry, write them down and you will clear out when you start your course.

4. Book a Try Dive

Now you know all the skills you need to develop before trying Scuba diving but maybe you are not really sure to become a scuba diver, what if I can tell you that it is possible to have a trial before starting a full scuba diving course. There is a mini-course called Discover Scuba Diving which you can learn all the basics skills to become a certified diver. You will learn how scuba gear works, how to set the gear by yourself, how to enter safely into the water, how to put your gear on into the water, how to breathe and switch regulator, control your buoyancy and trim, between other things, basics to perform a dive. After some hours you can choose if you want to upgrade the course to a full certification, where you become an independent diver, and you can show your ID in any shops in the world to try the different adventures that scuba diving offers.

5. Find a Good Dive Instructor / Dive shop for Your Open Water Course

At this stage, surely you are impatient to go into the water, maybe you have read a lot of information about scuba diving and you feel like you are ready to spend more time surrounded by fishes. Just get relaxed and take a minute to make a cup of coffee, you will need it to formally start a diving certification. If you have read about the scuba diving courses you already know that you should start with an open-water course, as a beginner you need to find a really good dive shop. Take some minutes to choose your best option. You should look at the experience of the instructors, reviews, recommendations from other divers/students, certifications by recognized institutions. You can find all these features at Ko’ox Adventures Dive shop, where you can find all kinds of diving courses from beginners to professionals, even technical diving and underwater photography.

Once you have chosen a dive shop and started your course you are free to ask your teacher as many questions as you could have about scuba diving because they are responsible of your safety and at the end, they will certify you as a scuba diver, so if you don’t feel safe you are in totally free to end the course. So remember to take your time to choose your best dive shop.