Today technical diving is more accessible than ever. But is it for you? Do you share the characteristics of successful technical divers? This should help you decide.

When you dive in the Asia Pacific region, you expect clear blue water, beautiful corals and clouds of colourful fish and usually that is what you will get. But sometimes, your diving experience may be very different. You may find yourself muck diving. What’s a muck dive? What’s it all about? Is it worthwhile? Oh yes it is...

Stress is a bad thing. Everyone knows this and most of us have adopted strategies to avoid or reduce stress in our working and social lives. However, conventional scuba diver training does not really teach divers how to minimise stress underwater.

This is a significant omission as potential stressors are present on almost every dive we make. If you don’t manage your stress properly, you can feel that you are no longer in control of your dive and this will make you anxious, a feeling that can easily lead to panic.

It was a beautiful Caribbean day and the water conditions were excellent, but Anna was feeling confused. Water had started to seep into her mask and, although she knew very well how to clear it, somehow she was unable to get the water out.

Sensing the onset of anxiety, she started to ascend. Concerned, the divemaster followed her up, signaling to Pauline, the other diver in his charge, that she should wait there on the seabed and he would come back.

Technical divers refer to any part of your diving equipment that can break or go wrong as a “failure point”.

On a regulator, failure points include the o-rings at both ends of your intermediate pressure hose and the cable tie on your second stage mouthpiece. On your mask, the most significant failure point is the strap.

The concept of failure points is rarely discussed in mainstream scuba diving, but it is nevertheless highly relevant. Here is a story that shows how important it can be.

This is a question that is frequently debated when scuba divers gather - are you always safer diving with another person or are you sometimes actually better off diving alone?

There is a good reason why instructors tell their students not to go into deco and why dive computer manuals warn you about it in bold CAPS.

Like most sport divers, you probably only carry one air source when you dive, the cylinder on your back. If you run out of air or suffer a rapid loss of air supply, for example because of a regulator free flow, a blown o-ring or a split hose, then, unless you have an alert, calm and capable diver nearby who has enough air and is both equipped and willing to share it with you, the only survival option you have is to make a slow controlled ascent directly to the surface.

And, if you have not exceeded your no-decompression limits, you should be able to make it. You will not be able to make a safety stop on the way up but that is not going to be life threatening. After all, a safety stop on a no-decompression dive is a luxury rather than a necessity.

On the other hand, if you have gone into deco and your computer is showing required decompression stops, then going straight to the surface and missing those stops is definitely a health risk.

Have you ever wondered if you have what it takes to be a scuba diving professional? Or even just start a weekend scuba side hustle in addition to your regular job?

First, a warning: if you are a diver, walk into a dive centre and say you are thinking of “Going Pro”, nobody will discourage you or turn you away. Nor will there be an interview.

When you tell a dive centre you want to become a scuba instructor, you are not applying for a job you are buying a product. And the diver training agencies are very good at delivering this product. Very few people fail their instructor course.

Have you ever dreamed of living right on top of one of the world’s best dive sites, starting the day by pulling on your wetsuit, slipping into your dive gear and dropping into the clear, warm ocean above a coral reef teeming with fish all waiting to wish you good morning?

This is the dream made real by liveaboard dive boats, which have been multiplying in recent years in response to demand from divers with busy lives who want to make the most of the leisure time they have.

What is a deep dive? For a new diver, 21m (70ft) is deep. For a technical diver, 21m (70ft) is just a decompression stop. Every diver you speak to will have a different idea of what they think is deep. For most people, “deep” really means “a point at which I don’t feel totally comfortable.”

We are all told about nitrogen narcosis when we first learn to dive.

Recent research by scientists in Europe suggests that much of what we are told is wrong.

Everyone is mentally and physically affected by nitrogen narcosis to some extent when they dive deep, whether they are breathing air or Nitrox. Responsiveness can differ from person to person, but...

When you first learn to dive, there seems to be so much to think about that it can all be overwhelming. It's often hard to separate what is very important from what is not so important. As you start doing more diving, these are the top three things that you should work on more than anything else. Get them right and everything else will fall into place.

Scuba diving is a team sport. When you first start diving you are taught about the buddy system and told that you should never dive alone.

This is good advice. There are definite benefits to diving with another person or in a team. Human beings are social animals, after all. We like to share our experiences and we derive emotional security from the company of others.

But, the buddy system is a concept that is much misunderstood

Shipwrecks are all about history and the romance of the sea. They offer excitement and adventure to thrill-seekers. They also appeal to fish fanatics as they provide excellent gathering points for marine life.

It is not surprising therefore that many divers get a little obsessed by wreck diving. However, if you are thinking of going inside these sunken ships, be aware that wreck diving carries additional risks and requires special skills.

If you want to improve your dive skills and are up for a challenge that is both mental and physical, think about taking an ice diving course.

If you are claustrophobic then diving in a location where your only access to the surface is via a hole in the ice is not for you. But, if the idea of this does not freak you out, if you have good skills and are very comfortable in the water, then you may find learning to ice-dive one of the most fulfilling and rewarding experiences of your diving life.

The answer will depend on a number of factors, including the type of person you are and the sort of diving you do.

This short discussion should help you decide.

There are many reasons for carrying a dive light on every dive you do, for reasons of both utility and safety – as I list here - but the fact is that the question these days really is not "why should you?" but "why wouldn’t you?"

In my book for beginners, Scuba Fundamental, I advise new scuba divers not to buy their own BCD before they take their first course.

In fact, you really shouldn’t even think about buying one before you have graduated and done at least a few dives. After all, a BCD is an expensive piece of equipment and, if you buy one too early and then decide that scuba diving is not for you after all (it happens), you will be stuck with something that really doesn’t have any alternative application.

The time to buy your first BCD is once you realise that you have caught the diving bug. You are a diver and you will probably always be a diver. Now is the time to invest in your specialist scuba kit – regulator, computer, BCD etc.

But, how do you choose a BCD from the vast range available? Let me try to simplify things a little by helping you narrow your choice.

The other day, I came across a question on a divers’ chat room.

The question was: “My boyfriend is doing a nitrox course. Should I do the course with him? I don’t need it as I always have at least 1500 psi left in my tank at the end of a dive when he is down to 500psi.”

There is so much to unravel in this question.