Kayak Scuba Diving Qualifications

Series Summary

Scuba diving will be one of the most exhilarating experiences of your life. You will actually be swimming with sea creatures in their own habitat. Sure, snorkeling is fun, but scuba diving is the real deal: total immersion in an alien environment. “Scuba” is actually an acronym for “Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.” Scuba equipment usually consists of a tank of breathable air, a tube leading to the mouth piece, fins worn on the feet to propel the diver, a diving suit, and sometimes a DPV (diver propulsion vehicle) or “scooter” used to move the diver around quickly. The term “scuba” was first used during World War II and referred to combat frogmen’s oxygen rebreathers (both semi-closed circuit and closed circuit).

Scuba diving is made even more exhilarating when a dive is made from a small kayak. In this free video series our expert rescue diver will show you how to kayak scuba dive. This strenuous sport should only be taken on by experienced scuba divers with a lot of physical strength. You will learn how to pick out a scuba kayak and made necessary modifications. You will also learn how to pack and load kayak scuba diving gear, launch your kayak and paddle out to your diving destination. Get tips on gearing up in the water and returning from your dive. If you love scuba diving and want to try something new, let our expert teach you all about kayak scuba diving.

Video Transcript

"Before you kayak dive it's very important you're scuba certified. Have a trained agency, trained instructor teach you about the fundamentals of scuba diving. It's also important you're a good beach diver. It's pretty strenuous stuff out there. It's going to really take a lot out of you, and in southern California the water's pretty cold. The surf is kind of rough today so it's good to be wearing a thick wet suit for the conditions you've got. It's about 50 to 55 degrees in the water. So with all that neoprene you've got to wear you've got to do about 20 pounds of weight to counteract that. This is about 8 pounds right here. Altogether the weights add up to about 80 pounds in the kayak that you're taking out with you into the ocean. Other gear will include a bag to keep your fins, your mask, gloves and hood in. Other gear you might have like a camera, knives perhaps, other accessories you want to take with you. You also have your scuba unit set up. You BC, your regulators and your tank all ready to go. You also use a dive flag so people know that you're actually in the water and not abandoning your kayak out in the middle of the ocean. You also have a paddle here, and you also have an anchor that you take to clip onto a line to throw down to make sure you're not going too move too far when you're going diving. It's also important to have a buddy to go with you to make sure that someone is there to protect you and make sure you're safe and in case there's any trouble they can help you get out of that. Also it just makes things much more fun."