Fun and interesting facts about scuba diving
Mention Scuba Diving to non-divers and they will be intrigued to hear some of your stories from beneath the waves and will usually have a few questions of their own. How deep can you go? Have you ever seen a shark? Are there any Jellyfish? Scuba Diving is such an amazing hobby and lifestyle which touches so many cool and interesting areas it hard not to be obsessed with it. Here are some fun facts about scuba diving that you may not know.
What does ‘scuba’ mean?
It stands for ‘Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus’. The first aqualung was invented in 1943 by Jacques Cousteau.
Things look bigger underwater?
Did you know that through a Dive Mask, Objects look about 33% larger due to the flatness on the mask’s lens, a light refraction error?
We have explored less than 10% of the world’s ocean floor.
We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of the ocean.
What’s the suit all about?
You must have noticed that scuba diving involves wearing a wetsuit. There are two main functions of the clothing. First, it keeps the divers warm. The second purpose is to make them more buoyant and gain more control under water.
Water absorbs light.
The color that is absorbed the quickest is red, hence the red filters for the underwater cameras. Red is followed by the rest of the colors of the spectrum. Dive lights allow you to see in true color.
How much time takes the longest dive?
Richard Presley holds the world record for the longest scuba diving having stayed underwater for a whopping 69 days and 19 minutes, a feat which he accomplished in the United States in Florida back in 1992. While the record is by no means the deepest, it is indeed the longest ever accomplished by a human.
The world deepest Scuba dive was more than 300m.
Going down is the easy part, It will only take 15 mins to get down to those depths but about 15 hours to come up. Ascending from a world record scuba dive would also require a large support team of safety divers and other highly experienced Technical Divers.
Sound travels four times faster in water than it does in air.
When hearing a sound underwater, it is not as easy to know which direction the sound is coming from as the sound waves move much quicker through the denser medium of water.
Scuba diving is great fun for all of the family and definitely an excursion that you should consider if you are holidaying by the sea. Take a one-day try-dive experience and see for yourself or take PADI scuba diving courses.
