Diving
Fitness to Dive: Why the Medical Form Is Not a Formality
PFO, asthma, diabetes and certain medications can all change whether diving is safe. Here is why the medical questionnaire before a course matters.
Jan 27, 2025
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39 stories for“fitness to dive”
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Diving
Wetsuit Thickness, Fit and Neoprene: a Buying Guide That Starts With the Water Temperature
A wetsuit that fits badly is a wetsuit of any thickness that does not work. Match millimetres to the water, check the fit at the neck, the small of the back and the wrists, and know which neoprene you are paying for.
Apr 7, 2026
Diving
Equalisation: Why Ears End Most Freedivers' Progress
Frenzel and mouthfill solve the one problem that stops more beginner freedivers than fitness or fear ever does: equalising the ears under rising pressure.
Dec 5, 2024
Diving
GUE: The Agency That Will Fail You, and Thinks That Is the Point
Global Underwater Explorers standardises equipment, teaches in teams, tests fitness, and hands out provisional passes rather than certificates. It is the most divisive system in diving, and the most internally consistent.
Aug 12, 2026
Diving
The Mammalian Dive Reflex: A Human Body on One Breath
Submersion triggers an ancient reflex that slows the heart, redirects blood, and quietly reshapes what a trained freediver's body can survive underwater.
Sep 18, 2024
Diving
Most Divers Who Cannot See Solve It the One Way an Eye Doctor Would Not
Glasses do not fit under a mask, so the default answer is contact lenses. Eighty-five per cent of cases of a rare blinding corneal infection occurred in lens wearers who swam or dived in them, and there is a better option most divers never price.
Aug 20, 2026
Diving
Mask Clearing Is the Skill to Overlearn: Why Water in the Eyes Ends More Dives Than Anything Technical
A flooded mask is a nuisance to a diver who has cleared a hundred and a crisis to one who cleared three on the course. The difference is not technique. It is how many times the reflex has been overridden.
Oct 10, 2023
Diving
DAN's Safety Guidance, Condensed: What the Research Body Actually Recommends
Divers Alert Network is not a training agency and issues no certifications. It collects the injury data, then publishes guidance based on it. Here is that guidance, in the order it matters.
Aug 12, 2026
Diving
Shallow Water Blackout: The Mechanism That Kills Competent Freedivers
Shallow water blackout does not warn its victim first. Here is the physiology behind it, why it strikes trained divers, and why solo breath hold diving is never safe.
Jun 10, 2024
Diving
Is Scuba Diving Safe? A Beginner's Honest Answer
Scuba has real hazards, but recreational diving within training and conditions is a managed-risk activity, not the extreme gamble suggested by rare accident headlines.
Jul 25, 2026
Diving
Before Booking a Liveaboard, Ask These Safety Questions
DAN warns that remote liveaboard incidents rose sharply in 2024-2025. Divers can reduce risk by checking oxygen, drills, charging rules, exits and evacuation plans before sailing.
Aug 2, 2026
Diving
Dive Computers and Algorithms: What They Cannot Know About You
A dive computer tracks pressure and time with precision, but the model behind it cannot see the diver wearing it. Here is what that gap actually means.
Mar 19, 2026
Diving
When Scientists Dive, Credentials Do Not Remove the Risk
Research divers work under formal scientific diving safety standards, but a marine science background does not make deep or technical diving inherently safer to attempt.
Jun 14, 2026
Diving
Gozo Makes a Strong Case for Europe's Most Practical Dive Week
Compact geography, shore access, wrecks and a new six-person hyperbaric unit make Gozo an unusually practical Mediterranean base for a mixed-experience dive trip.
Jul 25, 2026
Diving
NAUI: The Agency That Lets the Instructor Decide
Older than PADI, structured as a non-profit membership association, and built on a principle almost nobody else uses: the instructor may exceed the standards, and is expected to.
Aug 12, 2026
Diving
In a Current You Are Not Swimming Anywhere, and the Skill Is Knowing That Early
Drift diving turns a dive from a route into a ride. The techniques that make it safe are mostly about the surface and the boat, and the mistake that kills people is trying to fin against water that is stronger than they are.
Sep 5, 2026
Diving
Cold Water Diving: Where the Wetsuit Stops Working, What a Drysuit Changes, and Why the Hands Go First
Below about 15 degrees a thick wetsuit keeps a diver alive but not warm, and cold is a safety problem before it is a comfort one: it thickens judgment, wastes gas and makes the hands useless. The drysuit is a different way of diving, not a thicker suit.
Feb 4, 2025
Diving
Aluminium or Steel Decides How Much Lead You Carry, and Almost Nobody Is Told Why
The standard aluminium 80 is negatively buoyant full and positively buoyant empty, which is why safety stops go wrong at the end of a dive. Steel behaves differently, and the valve and testing rules differ too.
Sep 5, 2026
Diving
PADI, SSI, NAUI, IANTD or GUE: Which Certification Actually Matters
The agencies argue endlessly and the accident data barely distinguishes between them. Here is what genuinely differs, what does not, and the questions to ask a dive centre before you pay.
Aug 13, 2026
Diving
The Ear Problem Nobody Teaches You Is the One That Happens on the Way Up
Descent equalisation is drilled into every open water student. Reverse block, where expanding gas cannot escape the middle ear or sinus on ascent, gets a sentence in the manual and is considerably harder to manage.
Sep 5, 2026
Diving
One Company Now Owns Aqualung, Apeks, Mares, rEvo and a Training Agency
HEAD rescued Aqualung out of receivership with a 50 million euro package. The result is a single group holding four of diving's best known equipment names and SSI, the agency that certifies divers to use them.
Aug 18, 2026
Diving
Freediving Breathing: What Helps, What Does Nothing, and What Can Kill You
Breathe-up, diaphragmatic breathing and the recovery breath are the three that matter. Hyperventilation is the one that removes your warning that you are about to black out.
Aug 10, 2026
Diving
What Divers Alert Network Membership Actually Covers
DAN is a name every diver knows, but membership and dive accident insurance are not the same thing. Here is what each one actually buys you.
Jun 30, 2025
Diving
Deep Dive Dubai: 60 Metres of Water and No Weather at All
The world's deepest pool holds 14 million litres at a constant 30C, with a sunken city at the bottom. What it removes from diving turns out to be the interesting part.
Aug 6, 2026
Diving
Decompression Sickness: What Happens in the Body, and Treatment
Divers call it the bends. Doctors call it decompression sickness. Here is what nitrogen bubbles actually do to tissue, and how hyperbaric treatment reverses it.
Feb 14, 2024
Diving
WHO’s New Drowning Plan Moves Safety Beyond Swim Lessons
The PROTECT package treats drowning as a systems failure involving childcare, transport, infrastructure, rescue and climate preparation, not a single bad choice.
Jul 23, 2026
