Diving Techniques For Beginners

The following diving techniques for beginners are applicable to just about anyone who wants to take their submerging abilities to the next level. Diving, which has become a pretty popular activity among outdoor enthusiasts, is more or less an intuitive activity. For most people, the basic bodily motions that help you travel to deeper depths come almost naturally. Nevertheless, there are a few tips and techniques that beginner divers can use to improve their abilities.

1. If you have a snorkeling apparatus, use it properly. Beginning divers often pick up the activity for a chance to observe the fascinating features beneath them, which snorkeling is perfect for. Fortunately, using a snorkel for diving isn’t all that complicated. You simply swim with your head submerged and the snorkeling tube out of the water, scanning the bottom for interesting features while still being able to breathe. When you see something cool, take a breath, hold it, and dive down. After resurfacing, you don’t even need to bring your head out of the water to breathe again. Just give the snorkel a good blow, forcing the water out of the tube.
2. For beginner divers, the headfirst diving technique will give you maximum depth. To perform it, simply bend at the hips while you’re on the surface and invert yourself so you’re upside down in the water. Next, use your arms to go straight above your head and make an outward “V” style motion. Keep your hips in line with your upper body, and kick your feet methodically to increase speed. Though this technique does come naturally for many beginning divers, it takes some practice to really perfect.
3. For shallow dives, beginners can also use a feet first diving technique. For the initial phase of this method, you’ll want to exhale so that air escapes from your lungs and your body’s buoyancy decreases. As you naturally begin to sink, bring your arms out from your sides and spin them in a clockwise motion, keeping your palms flat from the six to twelve o’clock positions. The resistance will give you downward acceleration with each turn.  Though not as speedy or efficient as headfirst diving, the feet first dive is useful for leisurely observers and snorkelers.
4. Beginner divers can reduce pressure problems with equalization techniques. As you go on your first few dives, you’ll likely find that your depth reaching capabilities are limited by the buildup of pressure in your ears. Though not especially dangerous for shallow skin divers, pressure problems are certainly limiting and sometimes painful. To help reduce these problems, there are a few ways to equalize that pressure buildup as you dive. The first can be done while you’re still on the surface. Simply dip your head and shake it underwater, allowing water to seep into your ear canals and mitigating future pressure problems. Additionally, you can use your throat muscles to swallow as you dive deeper, without opening your mouth. Finally, you can pinch your nose as you die and make an exhalation effort with it closed, which should widen the tubes in your inner ear and allow the building pressure to equalize.