Scuba Headlines:Air travel in the tropics is worse for climate
A typical flight to the tropics has a greater impact on global warming than a flight in temperate latitudes. As well as producing carbon dioxide and contrails, planes also produce nitrogen oxide, which triggers both the creation of the warming gas ozone, and the destruction of another greenhouse gas, methane. In mid-latitudes, these ozone and methane reactions cancel each other out and you get zero net warming from nitrogen oxide emissions. But the brighter sunlight in the tropics is very efficient at converting nitrogen oxide to ozone - in fact it creates ozone five times faster than in the air of mid-latitudes
Issue 98 of SCUBA News Now Online
In this issue: Red Sea competition results, ocean facts, diving news from the Med, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and Britain plus the latest underwater research findings.
ROV Finds New Coral Species
Researchers on the third-largest atoll in the world, the Saba Bank in the Netherlands Antilles, have discovered and collected two new species of soft corals (gorgonians) and documented severe anchor damage with the aid of a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) from Seabotix. Experts collected 40 species of soft corals, seventeen of which were collected using the ROV.
There are about 1,900 professional scuba dive centers in North America alone and your local ones should definitely be checked out. Most will run basic certification programs on a regular basis. These centers or shops should be listed in the yellow pages and you can also check with web sites of some of the major scuba diving certification agencies such as PADI or NAUI as they will also have listings. Sometimes
courses are offered at universities too.
Make sure that the course you are interested in taking as well as its instructor are certified with one of the major scuba diving training agencies. This will ensure that you get proper,safe training for both the technical background knowledge and practical skills required for certification as a scuba diver.You also want to end up with an internationally recognized certification card if you want to go
at various locations around the world.
Some vacation resorts offer 'resort' courses lasting a day or two which offer beginners some very basic training in order to try out scuba diving. These are not certification programs. Full certification programs involve classroom work, exams, practical skills sessions at a pool and usually about four open water dives in the sea (lake or ocean). The duration of the classroom work and pool sessions vary from a very intensive weekend (with advance reading) to once a week over several weeks. The open water dives will usually take two more days. Dive centers located in the tropics also offer basic certification programs that last several days to a week. Although the intensive weekend programs are quite feasible, many feel that basic scuba diving courses spread out over a few weeks will help beginners learn the skills better.
does involve new skills and to learn them all during one full weekend may be too much for some people.
As for which
certification training agency is the best, there isn't any one recognized organization that is better than another. PADI is the most popular in the world but not necessarily better than NAUI or SSI. NAUI course are often more technical in the classroom than those offered by PADI but both will adequately train you to be a scuba diver. The more important factor would be the individual instructor and your own effort during training/studying. In fact, many scuba diving instructors have certifications from several training agencies.
For people living in the more northern regions, there are a few possible routes to take in order to obtain certification. One can travel down south to the tropics and do the entire basic certification course down there in warm weather. However, this will take up a good portion of a vacation since reading,classroom, pool sessions and open water dives all must be done during that time period. A second option is to take the entire course including the open water dives back in home territory.This usually offers beginners the most time since courses can be spread out over a few weeks. However, the water up north is not as warm as in the tropics and the
could be seasonal. A third option is to take all the classroom and pool sessions back home and then go down south to do the open water dives in warm waters. Many people have taken this route. Your instructor back home will give you a referral letter to bring down to an instructor located down south who will oversee your open water dives. This is a good combination of taking ample time back home to practice the skills in the pool plus getting the classroom work out of the way followed by having nice warm water to dive in for the open water dives. One thing to be aware of if considering this option is to make sure that your travel to the tropics for your open water dives is not too delayed after finishing up with your pool sessions at home. If too much time has elapsed, one could easily forget the skills learned in the pool by the time a vacation comes along.
The underwater world has so much to offer and only a small percentage of the world's population will ever have the privilege to see it in person rather than on television. Become one of these individuals who will have the honor of exploring the oceans by getting certified in scuba diving.
About the author:Clint Leung is a NAUI certified Master and Rescue Scuba Diver.He is also owner of Free Spirit Active wear(http://www.FreeSpiritActivewear.com), an online retailer and designer specializing in premium quality active wear with specialty sports themes including scuba diving, skiing,snow boarding and martial arts. Free Spirit Active wear has information resource articles on selected specialty sports as well as free eCards.
