Three-day course to underwater paradise
BELLHEIM, Germany: Only millionaires can afford a trip into space. The world beneath the waves, nearly as exotic, is a far cheaper destination. While perhaps not as romantic as a half century ago - the heyday of French ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau and Hans Hass, the Austrian marine biologist - advanced scuba diving technology has made going there a lot easier.
But before heading to that dream ocean location and renting the necessary gear, you need a scuba diving certification nowadays - worldwide.
The two most important diving organizations are the California-based Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) and the Confederation Mondiale des Activites Subaquatiques (World Underwater Federation, CMAS), whose headquarters are in Rome.
Scuba diving lessons are offered by diving clubs as well as professional diving schools. Taking lessons at clubs belonging to the VDST is a cheaper option than the schools. The clubs have volunteer instructors who teach weekly courses lasting six to eight weeks.
A beginner's course at a diving school costs about 300 euros ($408), sometimes less.
The theoretical part of the course deals with fundamental diving techniques, the physics of diving and diving medicine. Pupils learn how to use a mask, flippers and breathing regulator in a pool as well as in the ocean.
Would-be divers not keen to spend time under palm trees studying gas laws, inner-ear anatomy and burst-lung theory should get that out of the way at home.
A prerequisite for successful completion of a diving course is a doctor's certification of physical fitness sufficient to meet diving's demands. A diver, after all, enters an environment for which humans were not created.
A doctor performing a diving fitness examination should x-ray the examinee's lungs and look at the ears, nose and throat. An EKG should also be done, preferably during physical exertion. Would-be divers must pay for the examination in addition to their training, notes Peter Mueller, a diving medicine physician from the German town of Bellheim, and secretary of the Society for Diving- and Hyperbaric Medicine.
Before signing up for scuba diving lessons, Wotte says, people should talk at length with the instructor and do a sample dive. This is the best way to see whether the instructor is responsive to one's problems and fears, and can provide solid training, he says.
DPA
(China Daily 06/14/2007 page19)
