Diving after smoking cessation

[Wathdoc]

Early after stopping mucus viscosity can increase, but that should be improving . Some measures of cardiovascular risk improve quickly. You are going to have to wait years for your lungs to fully return to normal. However, you have made the correct decision for your long term health. You will be fine to dive.

 

[Celt]

You definitely won’t be able to smoke while actually diving, but before and after no problem. I did smoke but gave them up as I got older. The biggest problem I had with smoking was trying to light up at sea in bad weather with wet hands. But let’s face it smoking is a bad habit as you get older.

 

[Alucard483]

At this point you made all of us very curious: can you post (or link) that article here?​

Absolutly

The Best Spots For Scuba Diving In Malta

Discover Malta from underwater: read our guide to the perfect locations for dives in the clear waters of the Mediterranean surrounding the archipelago.

theculturetrip.com

Symbayosis

Anemone and anemone fish shows us one of the best partnerships in marine world. They always co exists and benefits from each others company. This one was shot during a trip to Philippines.

www.scubadiving.com

Junkers Ju 88 (North) wreck - Malta Dive Sites

Junkers Ju 88 is WWII airplane wreck dive in Malta. Junkers 88 was German twin-engine bomber. Wreck is 55m deep off Bahar ic-Caghaq.

maltadives.com

While the first two are obviously travel articles, I found the third site (which is actually quite nice, it just so happens to be written for people, by people, that know more than the average joe) by looking up dives from the first two articles, and it casually mentions another Junkers along with some other technical dives. The first two articles, along with their dives, now that I know more, are not TOO unreasonable, but are still kinda advanced. It was the way the third one just sort of went "Oh and here are a few others you might like to go see" that got that 106m dive into my head. It just assumed I knew just how deep that actually was.

And yes, having everything I look at flip between feet and meters is not exactly the easiest thing in the world. For instance I was under the impression that the Edmund Fitz was under 560 some METERS of water, while it is actually in 560 some FEET of water averaging out to about 160m deep. And I think that initial misconception is what threw everything off because I was like "100m? That cant bee two bad, I think the EF at the bottom of whitefish bay is more than 500 so, so 100 sounds kinda doable"

Again though, I cannot thank you all enough for being realistic with me and taking the time to lead me right

 

[ginti]

Again though, I cannot thank you all enough for being realistic with me and taking the time to lead me right

Out of curiosity, are you still interested in trying diving and, eventually, something technical? Do you think you will do it?

 

[Alucard483]

Out of curiosity, are you still interested in trying diving and, eventually, something technical? Do you think you will do it?

Ideally I would like to, however I now know that it will take far more time and training than I had initially anticipated, as well as probably never make that 100m mark. But as people said earlier, tech diving isn't all deep dives, I would still very much be interested in reaching that rating even if I never end up going deep. There are lots of skills and classes at that level, such as UW photography that seem fun and don't require me to risk my life.

 

[Joris Vd]

You're not a heavy smoker so honestly just quit before you hit that pack a day mark, because after it becomes difficult.

But... at the risk of making enemies here: there is no reason it should inhibit your diving.

Should you stop? Yes. But there is no reason it should or would inhibit your goal of reaching 100 meters.
The main issue into getting to 100 meters is money, not your smoking.

Doing a zero to hero course is definitely possible , but realistically it's not something you can do within a year or so after diving.
Purely because of the bulk of diving you have to do to get ready for the course.

Smoking does put you at a higher risk: higher blood pressure, narrowed blood vessels, less physical condition -> more chance at getting a decompression accident or a health issue under water. I know plenty of smokers who dive.
It's just as with any activity, smoking makes it more risky. But it won't inhibit you from doing the activity itself.

if you want longevity from your diving or anything in life, smoking cannot be a part of it, simple as that.

I used to be a similar 2 pack a week kinda guy, then my job got really stressful and before I knew it, I was smoking 5 cigarettes on my drive to work 2 during my 15 minute break and then another 10-15 in the evening.

I quit smoking for diving, but I have rebounded once or twice and it's very simple : as soon as I start again, I get tired faster, out of breath faster and you're putting yourself at unnecessary extra deco risk, so if you want to take diving 'seriously' you should probably quit, but if you smoke, will you die during diving? Nope.

I know plenty of guys who have done 1000-2000+ dives while chain smoking. I also know plenty of these guys have had deco accidents while following their computers on conservative settings to the T. Most of them also dive less and less as they age because of health issues. Are they smoking related? I can't prove that. But fact is, it's deteriorating your health at an extra speed and you're increasing your risks in an already risky sport (especially when you're going deeper with helium mixes where flushing your system becomes really important.)

 

[ginti]

Ideally I would like to, however I now know that it will take far more time and training than I had initially anticipated, as well as probably never make that 100m mark. But as people said earlier, tech diving isn't all deep dives, I would still very much be interested in reaching that rating even if I never end up going deep. There are lots of skills and classes at that level, such as UW photography that seem fun and don't require me to risk my life.

Anyone has a different motivation, and if your inspiration is to get various certifications, no problem with that. But, for most people, diving is not about certification - it is about emotions.

You could feel well just hovering underwater.
You could love fish and marine life.
Maybe it could be about wrecks.
Or caves.
The technical challenges.
Or a combination of these things.
Or other stuff.

I'd suggest you try scuba diving without thinking necessary about going deep. Find a good instructor, and since depths and wrecks have such fascinating power on you, maybe it is a good idea to find a tech instructor or a rec-instructor with tec experience for your discovery. But don't get fixated on advanced stuff; just try how it feels.

Good luck!

 

[Alucard483]

You're not a heavy smoker so honestly just quit before you hit that pack a day mark, because after it becomes difficult.

Should you stop? Yes. But there is no reason it should or would inhibit your goal of reaching 100 meters.
The main issue into getting to 100 meters is money, not your smoking.

Doing a zero to hero course is definitely possible , but realistically it's not something you can do within a year or so after diving.
Purely because of the bulk of diving you have to do to get ready for the course.

You have hit the nail right on the head. I am not a heavy smoker, but things do fluctuate with work like you pointed out. I know its bad for me, I had always known I should stop, but the motive of "just being more healthy" never did it for me. Smoking never kept me from doing anything and so there was never any tangible reason to stop. But now that I have found something that DOES, I now have a physical goal and standard to work towards, instead of just pleasing my inner self it makes everything just so much more... real? It takes away an invisible goal with no time constraints and replaces it with an actual goal with real world standards that need to be met. The difficulty was never an addiction per se, but more that if I did not smoke, I would never get a break at work. Now I have something that I want more than that 10 minutes of peace.

 

[RobPNW]

Kind of hard to believe this is going on 7 pages... damnit I added another post

 

[dmaziuk]

The main issue into getting to 100 meters is money, not your smoking.

Have you seen how much cancer sticks cost these days?