3 Things You Should Know About Recreational Diving

“Recreational Diving”: these are 2 words of the diving world that are worth an explanation. In this article, we tell you what recreational diving is, its types, its limits, and how important it is to keep on learning.

Do you dive just for pleasure? Does your certification level not allow you to go deeper than 40 meters/ 130 feet? Are you just an Open Water Diver? If your answers are yes, you are a recreational diver.

Among the branches of diving that exist today, recreational diving is the one that is practiced only for fun. So, the big difference between recreational diving and professional diving is the same as between you and your dive instructor. While you dive for pleasure, a PADI Instructor has found a way of living in our favorite sport.

Nor should we confuse recreational diving with technical diving. Although both kinds of divers enjoy diving, technical diver’s experiences are much more extreme, so that they require more specialization and training.

Thanks to the technical and procedural diving development, recreational diving has become very popular. In addition, it is also a very safe sport, so more and more people can enjoy it and meet the wonders of the underwater world.

There are two subdivisions within recreational diving. These are:

– recreational free diving. The diver dives only with the air in his lungs.

– recreational scuba diving. Where SCUBA stands for: Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, which is nothing more than the equipment that allows us to breathe underwater with compressed air cylinders.

Recreational Diving Limits

The fundamental limit of recreational diving is the maximum depth that can be reached by a diver: 40 meters / 130 feet. Besides, that depth is not suitable for all recreational divers, only for those with a highest PADI recreational certification level.

At this depth, divers are sensitive to gas narcosis, which is one of the reasons for this limitation. In addition, diving to no more than 40 meters/ 130 feet allows us to dive with only one tank without making decompression stops.

Decompression stops are another limit to recreational diving. If a diver needs to make one of these stops, this means he has exceeded the recreational diving limits; that is to say, he has been longer at a depth that he should and has surpassed the safety profile for his certification level.

Divers practicing recreational diving, are not allowed to go diving in environments where light from the surface is not visible either, for instance, in places such as caves or wrecks.

Training Benefits In Recreational Diving

PADI  is a well-known diving agency worldwide, although there are other dive agencies such as SSI, CMAS, that also offer training and diving courses.

If you are a certified diver, and you are wondering about the best way to progress and learn more about diving, you have two interesting courses you can take advantage of and become an Advanced Open Water Diver or even a Rescue Diver. Stop hesitating and take action because:

– continuing your training, you will improve your skills and safety as a diver (buoyancy control, proper use of equipment, underwater navigation, deep diving, …)

– you will be able to increase the depth you can dive at since an Open Water Diver can only independently dive to 18 meters;

– You will be a better dive buddy.

– you will be able to better solve emergencies that could happen (rescue and self-rescue skills).

Are you interested in expanding your training within recreational diving? Contact us.