Fitness or "fitness to dive" - not necessarily the same thing, and how does one describe "fitness" anyway? In the RSTC medical for recreational divers it says "inability to perform moderate exercise - e.g. walk 1 mile within 12 minutes." It is therefore not really required to be superman to go diving, although it's best if divers are slightly more athletic than Jabba the Hutt.
Last year I dived with an athlete who trained for the Olympics - poor air consumption (really poor), poor technique, poor dive skills, poor knowledge retention, generally a rubbish diver. He was, however, very fit. And also very tired after dives.
Transpose that to the diving instructor - rubbish diver, bad instructor, but very fit. Or the other guy - not Jabba, not Superman, but knows his stuff, has the wit and personality, authority, charisma and talent to teach diving properly. Which instructor would you like to teach your grandmother?
Some level of physical fitness is required - diving all the time develops that, trust me. I am not going to enter a marathon tomorrow because I will fall over before I reach the starting line, but I reckon I could keep finning far longer than most of the folks with whom I dive.
As for the smoking? Some people like smoking; some people don't like smoking - cool. I smoke, I try to respect the fact that others don't like it, and try to divert the smoke from their direction. But for people that have the opinion that a smoking instructor is somehow related to the spawn of the devil and can't be taken seriously is rubbish. If I pick 4 other instructors with whom I regularly socialise, we all smoke (20 a day, ish, in my case), we have a combined teaching experience of about 50 years, a combined number or dives bordering on 25,000, and not one smoking related illness or dive accident. Imagine that! We also drink beer, and have probably all had pre-marital relations (girls included), and yes, when I was a younger man, I inhaled. I really did, and I loved it. I am not overweight, but for sure I could be in better shape.
For certain types of diving in more challenging conditions, then for sure a much higher level of personal fitness is required but for your average tropical recreational diver - who represents a huge percentage of the diving community - being able to stroll a 12-minute mile without falling over is sufficient.
I understand there are risks associated with smoking and diving, or having a few beers after the diving day is ended, and since a friend of mine got bent having underwater pre-marital relations with his girlfriend (seriously, true), there are also clearly inherent risks in vigorous underwater activity.
There are also risks associated with the simple process of breathing and diving. If you breathe a mixture of compressed gases underwater, there is a very real statistical possibility that you might die.
Probably, however, you won't.
I wish I had a font for the levity I am trying to inject into this post....
Live and let dive, folks
C.
Last year I dived with an athlete who trained for the Olympics - poor air consumption (really poor), poor technique, poor dive skills, poor knowledge retention, generally a rubbish diver. He was, however, very fit. And also very tired after dives.
Transpose that to the diving instructor - rubbish diver, bad instructor, but very fit. Or the other guy - not Jabba, not Superman, but knows his stuff, has the wit and personality, authority, charisma and talent to teach diving properly. Which instructor would you like to teach your grandmother?
Some level of physical fitness is required - diving all the time develops that, trust me. I am not going to enter a marathon tomorrow because I will fall over before I reach the starting line, but I reckon I could keep finning far longer than most of the folks with whom I dive.
As for the smoking? Some people like smoking; some people don't like smoking - cool. I smoke, I try to respect the fact that others don't like it, and try to divert the smoke from their direction. But for people that have the opinion that a smoking instructor is somehow related to the spawn of the devil and can't be taken seriously is rubbish. If I pick 4 other instructors with whom I regularly socialise, we all smoke (20 a day, ish, in my case), we have a combined teaching experience of about 50 years, a combined number or dives bordering on 25,000, and not one smoking related illness or dive accident. Imagine that! We also drink beer, and have probably all had pre-marital relations (girls included), and yes, when I was a younger man, I inhaled. I really did, and I loved it. I am not overweight, but for sure I could be in better shape.
For certain types of diving in more challenging conditions, then for sure a much higher level of personal fitness is required but for your average tropical recreational diver - who represents a huge percentage of the diving community - being able to stroll a 12-minute mile without falling over is sufficient.
I understand there are risks associated with smoking and diving, or having a few beers after the diving day is ended, and since a friend of mine got bent having underwater pre-marital relations with his girlfriend (seriously, true), there are also clearly inherent risks in vigorous underwater activity.
There are also risks associated with the simple process of breathing and diving. If you breathe a mixture of compressed gases underwater, there is a very real statistical possibility that you might die.
Probably, however, you won't.
I wish I had a font for the levity I am trying to inject into this post....
Live and let dive, folks
C.
