What is Scuba diving? Officially, SCUBA is an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. In short, scuba diving is an underwater activity practiced with the help of a system or an apparatus (usually a tank and air pressure regulator) able to provide a reserve of gas (usually air) in order to allow the diver to breathe air during the immersion. I do not think that this technical explanation is the description or image most divers would recall to themselves or others when asked to describe scuba diving. Scuba diving means different things to different people.

For some, scuba diving is an activity that happens in warm water while on vacation at a tropical resort once or twice a year. The diver reserves their dive vacation online while at home going about their daily lives. Bringing their personal dive effects like their own mask and fins, the diver anxiously awaits their first trip on the boat that will take them to their destination out at sea or on the ocean. Under the warm sun, they marry their aluminum 80 cubic foot tank with their buoyancy compensation device they received as part of their dive package with their dive operator for today. The buddy team checks on each other and listen to the dive master review the details of today’s dive. The steep life-filled wall, the multi-colored reef, the diverse sandy bottom, or the relaxing drift dive is visualized by the diver. The diver and their buddy then take a giant stride off the back of the boat into the warm, crystal clear water and begin their 45 minute adventure underwater with the fish, sea life and other inhabitants of their underwater microcosm.

For others, scuba diving is an activity that is a part of their daily lives. The diver has all their own gear and even extras of many pieces just in case. They are diving at local dive sites once or twice a week with their buddy or dive team. The diver visits their local dive shop to fill up their tank with gas for the dive and heads out to the dive site to prepare. They assemble and don their familiar scuba equipment and head out to their planned destination to execute the dive. The dive may be a training dive today, or perhaps it is a dive set on exploration of a familiar site. The diver prospects the underwater world for new treasures or works with their teammate on some diving techniques that need practice. Often, this diver reserves scuba diving trips online to foreign destinations around the world to put into practice their diving skills at exotic or challenging dive destinations. They pack their own gear, plan their own dives and make use of the dive operator’s amenities to accomplish their underwater explorative goal at their dive destination of choice.