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Wreck Diving
Wreck diving is recreational diving where the wreckage of ships, aircraft and other artificial structures are explored. Although most wreck dive sites are at shipwrecks, there is an increasing trend to scuttle retired ships to create artificial reef sites. Diving to crashed aircraft can also be considered wreck diving. The recreation of wreck diving makes no distinction as to how the vessel ended up on the bottom. Some wreck diving involves penetration of the wreckage, making a direct ascent to the surface impossible for a part of the dive. Reasons for diving wrecks A shipwreck may be attractive to divers for several reasons: * it serves as an artificial reef, which creates a habitat for many types of marine life * it often is a large structure with many interesting parts and machinery, which is not normally closely observable on working, floating vessels * it often has an interesting history * it presents new skill challenges for scuba divers to manage the risks associat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silt Out
A silt out or silt-out is a situation when underwater visibility is rapidly reduced to functional zero by disturbing fine particulate deposits on the bottom or other solid surfaces. This can happen in scuba and surface supplied diving, or in ROV and submersible operations, and is a more serious hazard for scuba diving in penetration situations where the route to the surface may be obscured. Causes The most common cause in scuba diving is when a divers' fins are used too forcefully or in the wrong direction; disturbing silt, particularly in caves, wrecks or in still fresh water environments. Specific non-silting underwater propulsion techniques are taught as standard on cave diving and technical-level wreck diving penetration courses; such as the Frog Kick, Modified Flutter Kick, Helicopter Turn, Pull-and-Glide, Finger Walking and the Back / Reverse Kick. Another common cause when wreck diving is from exhaled bubbles from scuba gear disturbing overhead surfaces and making loose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guide Line
A distance line, penetration line, cave line or guide line is an item of diving equipment used by scuba divers as a means of returning to a safe starting point in conditions of low visibility, water currents or where pilotage is difficult. They are often used in cave diving and wreck diving where the diver must return to open water after a penetration when it may be difficult to discern the return route. Guide lines are also useful in the event of silt out. Distance lines are wound on to a spool or a reel. The length of the distance line used is dependent on the plan for the dive. An open water diver using the distance line only for a surface marker buoy may only need , whereas a cave diver may use multiple reels of lengths from to 1000+ ft (300 m). Reels for distance lines may have a locking mechanism, ratchet or adjustable drag to control deployment of the line and a winding handle to help keep slack line under control and rewind line. Lines are used in open water ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gary Gentile
Gary Gentile (born 1946) is an American author and pioneering technical diver. Diving Gary Gentile is a wreck diver. It has been suggested that Gary Gentile may be the most experienced wreck diver in the world. He has dived on the wreck of the ''SS Andrea Doria'' (sometimes referred to as the "Mount Everest" of SCUBA diving) over 190 times, and was the first diver to penetrate the first class dining room of the vessel. He was also part of the team of divers, along with Bill Nagle, who recovered the ship's bell in 1985. During the early 1990s, Gentile pioneered the use of mixed gases in wreck diving. He has also participated in expeditions to the ''SMS Ostfriesland'' at a depth of , which would serve as the impetus for greater exploration of deep-water shipwrecks, and the ''RMS Lusitania'' at a depth of . He achieved fame within the diving community with his publication of ''The Advanced Wreck Diving Guide'' in 1988. He also published the first book on technical diving, ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decompression Buoy
A surface marker buoy, SMB, dive float or simply a blob is a buoy used by scuba divers, at the end of a line from the diver, intended to indicate the diver's position to people at the surface while the diver is underwater. Two kinds are used; one (SMB) is towed for the whole dive, and indicates the position of the dive group throughout the dive, and the other, a delayed surface marker buoy, DSMB or decompression buoy, is deployed towards the end of the dive as a signal to the surface that the divers have started to ascend, and where they are going to surface. Both types can also function as a depth reference for controlling speed of ascent and accurately maintaining depth at decompression stops. Surface marker buoys are also used by freedivers in open water, to indicate the approximate position of the diver when submerged. They may also be used to support a catch bag or fish stringer by underwater hunters and collectors. A DSMB is considered by recreational scuba divers and serv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shotline
A diving shot line, shot line, or diving shot, a type of downline or descending line (US Navy), is an item of diving equipment consisting of a ballast weight (the shot), a line and a buoy. The weight is dropped on the dive site. The line connects the weight and the buoy and is used by divers to as a visual and tactile reference to move between the surface and the dive site more safely and more easily, and as a controlled position for in-water staged decompression stops. It may also be used to physically control rate of descent and ascent, particularly by surface-supplied divers. A "lazy shot" is a shot which is suspended above the bottom. It may be tethered to the main shot line at a convenient depth. It is used for decompression and frees the main shot line for other divers. The lazy shot's line does not need to be longer than the decompression depth and is often only deep enough for the longer stops. It only needs a weight heavy enough to provide diver buoyancy cont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα (ankȳra). Anchors can either be temporary or permanent. Permanent anchors are used in the creation of a mooring, and are rarely moved; a specialist service is normally needed to move or maintain them. Vessels carry one or more temporary anchors, which may be of different designs and weights. A sea anchor is a drag device, not in contact with the seabed, used to minimise drift of a vessel relative to the water. A drogue is a drag device used to slow or help steer a vessel running before a storm in a following or overtaking sea, or when crossing a bar in a breaking sea.. Overview Anchors achieve holding power either by "hooking" into the seabed, or mass, or a combination of the two. Permanent moorings use large mass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grapnel
A grappling hook or grapnel is a device that typically has multiple hooks (known as ''claws'' or ''flukes'') attached to a rope; it is thrown, dropped, sunk, projected, or fastened directly by hand to where at least one hook may catch and hold onto objects. Generally, grappling hooks are used to temporarily secure one end of a rope. They may also be used to dredge for submerged objects. The device was invented by the Romans in approximately 260 BC. The grappling hook was originally used in naval warfare to catch ship rigging so that it could be boarded. Design A common design has a central shaft with a hole ("eye") at the shaft base to attach the rope, and three or four equally spaced hooks at the end, arranged so that at least one is likely to catch on some protuberance of the target. Some modern designs feature folding hooks to resist unwanted attachment. Most grappling hooks are thrown by hand, but some used in rescue work are propelled by compressed air (e.g., the Plu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frog Kick
Finning techniques are the skills and methods used by swimmers and underwater divers to propel themselves through the water and to maneuver when wearing swimfins. There are several styles used for propulsion, some of which are more suited to particular swimfin configurations. There are also techniques for positional maneuvering, such as rotation on the spot, which may not involve significant locational change. Use of the most appropriate finning style for the circumstances can increase propulsive efficiency, reduce fatigue, improve precision of maneuvering and control of the diver's position in the water, and thereby increase the task effectiveness of the diver and reduce the impact on the environment. Propulsion through water requires much more work than through air due to higher density and viscosity. Diving equipment which is bulky usually increases drag, and reduction of drag can significantly reduce the effort of finning. This can be done to some extent by streamlining divi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rule Of Thirds (diving)
In scuba diving, the rule of thirds is a rule of thumb used by divers to plan dives so they have enough breathing gas remaining in their diving cylinder at the end of the dive to be able to complete the dive safely. This rule generally only applies to diving in overhead environments, such as caves and wrecks, where a direct ascent to the surface is impossible and the divers must return the way they came. For divers following the rule, one third of the gas supply is planned for the outward journey, one third is for the return journey and one third is a safety reserve. However, when diving with a buddy with a higher breathing rate or a different volume of gas, it may be necessary to set one third of the buddy's gas supply as the remaining 'third'. This means that the turn point to exit is earlier, or that the diver with the lower breathing rate carries a larger volume of gas than he alone requires. Reserves are needed at the end of dives in case the diver has gone deeper or longe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breathing Gas
A breathing gas is a mixture of gaseous chemical elements and compounds used for respiration. Air is the most common and only natural breathing gas, but other mixtures of gases, or pure oxygen, are also used in breathing equipment and enclosed habitats such as scuba equipment, surface supplied diving equipment, recompression chambers, high-altitude mountaineering, high-flying aircraft, submarines, space suits, spacecraft, medical life support and first aid equipment, and anaesthetic machines. Oxygen is the essential component for any breathing gas, at a partial pressure of between roughly 0.16 and 1.60 bar at the ambient pressure. The oxygen is usually the only metabolically active component unless the gas is an anaesthetic mixture. Some of the oxygen in the breathing gas is consumed by the metabolic processes, and the inert components are unchanged, and serve mainly to dilute the oxygen to an appropriate concentration, and are therefore also known as diluent gases. Most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deep Diving
Deep diving is underwater diving to a depth beyond the norm accepted by the associated community. In some cases this is a prescribed limit established by an authority, while in others it is associated with a level of certification or training, and it may vary depending on whether the diving is recreational, technical or commercial. Nitrogen narcosis becomes a hazard below and hypoxic breathing gas is required below to lessen the risk of oxygen toxicity. For some recreational diving agencies, "Deep diving", or "Deep diver" may be a certification awarded to divers that have been trained to dive to a specified depth range, generally deeper than . However, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) defines anything from as a "deep dive" in the context of recreational diving (other diving organisations vary), and considers ''deep diving'' a form of technical diving. In technical diving, a depth below about where hypoxic breathing gas becomes necessary to av ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
