Scuba diving benefits
Underwater diving is an excellent sport with various benefits to your physical and psychological health.
Physical Health Benefits
If you are going to scuba dive, you need to pass a physical exam before you may be certificated, and as you dive your fitness will improve and you'll develop good muscle tone and powerful lungs.
When I made a decision to do underwater diving coaching around twenty years back, the prerequisites for beginning the course were much harder than they are today, and you needed to be actually fit to pass the physical. I prepared for the physical examination by cycling to the pool each afternoon ( about twenty km / 12.5 miles ), swimming a hundred laps, and then cycling home. I got slot in no time.
I am pleased I had to get into shape before the course, because I'm quite little and found the gear quite heavy initially. This is fine on a ship dive, but many times dives from the shore comprised going down a cliff, doing the dive, and then climbing back up the cliff when I was tired. If I had not been fit, I could not have done that, and I had some great dives around reefs close to shore.
Mental Health Benefits
Scuba swimming means you want to learn how to be a trustworthy mate for other divers. You also need to learn how to be answerable for yourself and to look after your own safety. You'll learn how to stay calm at all points, and that helps you in challenging scenarios on land, as well as in the ocean.
Especially when you're learning and going on your first dives, you'll also need bravery. I recollect my first ship dive off Cronulla, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. I was one of the first in the water and seized the anchor chain, and looked down. The water was clear, and I got a unexpected fear of heights! Down at the bottom and looking up, it appeared a good way to the surface.
You want bravery on night dives too, particularly your first one.On my first night dive, there were the secretive shapes of gray nurse sharks circling us, possibly interested by the lights. It was no place for the faint-hearted. Once you are more experienced, you'll find scuba swimming physically and psychologically relaxing, and you'll be so captivated by what you are seeing the time will just fly. It takes you totally out of yourself, and you become soaked up by the world around you. Your cares just drift away.
Social Benefits
Scuba divers are a great bunch of folks. They're fit, healthy, venturesome and brave, and you'll make friends among them. You'll find a feeling of community among divers. Being a scuba diver also implies you will always have something fascinating to chat about. Scuba divers see proof of pollution and environmental degradation that landlubbers don't see, and have a tendency to become more environmentally aware on land due to that.
Educational Benefits
Scuba swimming an challenge you to grow your abilities and try new things. There's always another scuba course to do, and always something new to learn, whether it's about scuba diving itself or about the underwater world. Underwater diving broadens your horizons, and changes your world view, as you are exposed each dive to part of this world that few folk start to know. It is a great sport, with various benefits.