Lesson 126

Lesson eight: Skin Diving Skills

Course Complete

Skills Overview

Your instructor will demonstrate skin diving skills (diving with mask, fins and snorkel, but no scuba – sometimes called “free diving”) and have you practice them. Skin diving skills are useful for scouting potential dive sites from the surface without wasting time and air compared to scuba, diving in places where scuba equipment isn’t available, and quickly going to someone’s assistance in the water at the surface. You may also need to use skin diving to see some types of aquatic life, such as whales and whale sharks. And, being comfortable while skin diving can simply add to your enjoyment of the underwater world by giving you more opportunities to experience and explore. Proper breathing helps you hold your breath longer.

Breathe from your diaphragm before making a breath-hold dive. This is sometimes called “stomach breathing,” because your diaphragm is the muscle over your stomach. To do this, breathe so your stomach area expands.
Hyperventilation (breathing deeper and/or more rapidly than normal) is no longer preferred as a breath-hold technique because it can lower carbon dioxide levels so low that your body can run out of oxygen before you get the urge to breathe. If done improperly, it can cause you to lose consciousness and drown.

Although some divers do this by limiting hyperventilation to only 2 or 3 deep breaths, it is better to breath-hold using relaxed diaphragm breathing, which allows you to hold your breath just as long (some evidence suggests longer).

After returning to the surface, rest until your body restores normal oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.
Breathe normally from your diaphragm – a strong exhalation after surfacing from a long breath hold can cause you to become faint.
If you feel dizzy or lightheaded, or feel tingling in your hands, arms or feet, stop diving down. Rest, relax and breathe at the surface.

Buddy Contact

When skin diving, your buddy remains on the surface when you dive down, and vice versa.
The one-up, one-down technique allows your buddy to come to your aid if you need help.

Besides practicing the previously learned blast snorkel clearing method, you’ll learn and practice displacement snorkel clearing on ascents.

When you ascend, look up and reach up as you come up. Rotate for a complete view as necessary.
As you ascend, you can clear your snorkel by using displacement.
While looking up, the tip of your snorkel is lower than the mouthpiece.

Begin exhaling as you ascend through the last metre/few feet or so.
Your exhalation displaces the water, pushing it out the tip.
Continue to exhale as you roll your head forward into a surface swimming position. Your snorkel should be free of water but inhale cautiously as you’ve learned earlier just in case.

Some snorkels with self drain valves may not clear well with this method. In this case, simply use the blast method that you learned in Confined Water Dive Two. Some divers just prefer the blast method.

These skin diving skills apply to casual breath-hold diving no deeper than approximately 10 metres/30 feet and for breath-holds of about a minute or less. Deeper, longer, more serious free dives involve more sophisticated techniques to avoid hazards and to improve performance. If skin diving deeper than 10 metres/30 feet and/or with breath-hold times longer than a minute interests you, see your instructor about specialized training.

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