Dive Instruction Archive

Wreck Penetration

Wreck diving has to be one of the best types of diving. Each wreck is unique, it’s history always interesting and normally a haven for marine life. It has without doubt got a lot going for it. I will venture to say that wreck diving in good visibility is much more enjoyable, at least for [...]
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The Hazy Line Between Recreational and Technical

Has anyone else noticed that the ‘Technical’ goal posts keep moving as us mere mortal recreational divers are allowed to play with more and more advanced equipment, techniques and gases. It wasn’t that long ago that Nitrox was considered to be a Technical gas after all. There are lots of ideas and opinions as to what [...]
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Why We Should Not Teach Rescue Diving

The problem with rescue skills are they are rarely practiced to a sufficient level to be effective. Even instructors rarely practice the drills apart from when they teach a rescue course. So we have a situation where people are learning from people who are not practiced. Generally an instructor will operate a 1 in 3 [...]
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How To Fit A Dry Suit Neck Seal

As UK divers, our dry suits are a vital piece of our dive kit. In my experience, its also the piece of kit that needs the most maintenance. I have had my Typhoon ProSport suit for about 6 years now and have had to replace the neck seal 3 or 4 times. That time has [...]
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Caring For Your BCD

The BCD may seem to be a relatively simple thing that we constantly rely on but in reality it is a incredibly complex piece of equipment when you take into the number of mechanisms and features that are crammed into them these days. It is also the piece of kit that is probably most neglected [...]
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Why are AIRs not more popular?

AIRs or alternate inflator regulators are essentially octopus second stages built into the inflator mechanism of your BCD. In an out of air emergency you swap to this and pass your out of air buddy your primary second stage. Traditionalists are always keen to stick to the most common configuration of primary second stage and [...]
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Why not to dive with your dive knife on your leg

It still remains common practice for divers to strap their dive knife to the outside of their calf. I am going to explain why I believe this to be a really bad idea. The outside of your calf presents several problems for me. Firstly this tends to be the location most new divers put their knife. [...]
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What is an overbalanced regulator?

In follow up from my post “Should I dive with an unbalanced regulator?” I thought it would be worth discussing the overbalanced regulators, the other end of the scale so to speak. We get a lot of enquiries about overbalanced regulators, this post is to discuss the pros and cons of using this style of [...]
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Should I dive with an unbalanced regulator?

When buying a regulator the first thing the dive assistant tells you is that you want a balanced one. (If you are interested in knowing how they work view our choosing regulators advice page.) First of all let’s clarify what a balanced regulator offers; continuous air flow regardless of depth and/or tank pressure. No brainer, [...]
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Doing it Side Ways

Back in February 2010 I attended a Dealer seminar hosted by Oceanic, an annual event for Oceanic to showcase their new products from all their brands for the upcoming year. 2010 was an especially interesting year as they introduced the Aeris and Hollis lines to the UK, Hollis being their technical, high end orientated products. There [...]
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