Scuba Skills:
Improve Buoyancy, Control, and Confidence
Core Diving Skills: The Foundation of Safe, Comfortable Diving
Buoyancy & Weighting: How to Calculate Proper Weighting for Scuba Diving
Before you can control your buoyancy, you need to get your weighting right. This guide walks through pre-dive and post-dive weight checks, how to calculate your exact ballast needs, and how improper weighting affects everything from your gas usage to your ability to hold a safety stop.
Trim and Body Positioning for Scuba Divers
Get your body flat, your fins up, and your balance dialed in. Trim isnât about looking goodâitâs about diving smart and staying stable.
Controlled Descents: How to Start Your Dive Smoothly and Safely
Donât crash to the bottom. This guide covers slow, steady descents with early equalization, proper trim, and team awareness.
Recreational Decompression & Safety Stops
Every dive involves decompressionâwhether or not you have a stop obligation. This guide explains why âno-decompression diveâ is a misleading term, how safety stops and staged ascents reduce DCS risk, and why a slow, disciplined ascent matters on every dive.
How to Perform a Proper Safety Stop
A solid stop finishes the dive with control. Hereâs how to hold 15â20 feet without bobbing, finning, or grabbing a line.
How to Share Air While Scuba Diving
In an out-of-air situation, you need to act with clarity and control. Learn both major air sharing methods and when to use them.
Mask Clearing and Regain Control Without Panic
A full guide to clearing your mask while hovering in trimâplus what to do when your mask floods completely or gets kicked off.
Adopting DIR Principles in Recreational Diving
You donât need to be a tech diver to benefit from the DIR approach. This guide covers how recreational divers can apply DIR principles like standardization, streamlined gear, strong buoyancy and trim, and structured gas planning to improve safety, control, and team coordination on every dive.
Balanced Rig: Understanding Proper Weighting
A Balanced Rig means youâre carrying only enough weight to offset your gas useâso even if your BCD fails, you can swim up without ditching anything. This guide explains how to calculate proper weighting, when ditchable weights make sense, and how to think about real-world gear limitations when building a safe, streamlined setup.
Teamwork & Communication: How to Dive Better Together
Basic Scuba Diving Hand Signals
A selection of the most common hand signals used in scuba diving that every diver should know.
Why Teamwork Matters in Diving
Good teams donât just make dives saferâthey make them calmer, smoother, and more fun. This page explores what makes a strong team, why consistency matters, and how clear roles and awareness create better outcomes for everyone.Assigning Roles and Responsibilities
When roles arenât assigned, confusion creeps inâespecially under water. Learn how to assign leadership, navigation, task management, and buddy support in a way thatâs flexible, fair, and effective for 2- to 4-person teams.Situational Awareness & Mutual Support
Diving safely means staying awareânot just of depth and gas, but of your teammates, conditions, and changes over time. This guide explains how to maintain mutual awareness, recognize subtle signs of trouble, and support your teammates without micromanaging.Team Ascents and Safety Stops
Getting to the surface safely takes more than a slow ascent. Learn how to ascend as a team, maintain position and spacing, and support each other through the safety stopâespecially in open water or low visibility.Light Use for Communication
Your dive light isnât just for seeingâitâs for speaking. This page covers how to use light signals to communicate effectively, avoid confusion, and keep your team connected, especially when hand signals arenât practical.Calling the Dive: How to Speak Up and Support It
Anyone can call any dive for any reasonâno questions asked. This guide shows how to normalize that culture, why hesitation leads to risk, and how to support teammates who speak up. Includes personal examples and Human Factors insight.Task Loading and Shared Responsibility
When divers take on too much, they lose awareness and make mistakes. Learn how to divide navigation, gas checks, and other tasks across the teamâand how to spot the early signs of cognitive overload before it causes a problem.Team Communication in Limited Visibility
Low visibility changes everything. This page shows how to stay close, signal with lights, confirm contact, and manage formations when visibility dropsâwhether in a quarry, at night, or inside a wreck.What to Do if the Team Gets Separated
Separation happens, even to experienced teams. This article covers how to prevent it, what to do if you lose contact, and how to reunite safely. Includes a personal story and why solo continuation after separation is never okay.Ending the Dive as a Team: Exits, Gear Removal & Final Checks
The dive isnât over until every diver is safely out and accounted for. Learn how to exit together, assist with gear, check for fatigue or stress, and complete final safety checks before packing up. Includes cold-water and post-dive self-assessment guidance.Entry & Surface Skills: Start and End Every Dive with Confidence
Giant Stride Entry
The go-to entry from most dive boats and docks. Learn how to do it cleanly, keep your gear protected, and recover smoothly on entry. Covers common mistakes like poor hand placement, unstable gear, and failing to check water clearance before stepping off.
Back Roll Entry
Used from RIBs, small boats, and sometimes even low piers. Covers timing, posture, group coordination, and how to manage a clean back roll without slamming your tank or losing your mask â especially when guided by a divemaster.
Seated Controlled Entry
Stable, low-impact entry used from floating docks, low piers, or pool edges. Learn how to keep your gear clear, stay balanced, and enter the water without awkward scrambles or losing control. Ideal for calm water, training environments, or anytime you want a clean, deliberate entry without standing.
Shore Diving
A different skillset from boat diving. Covers walking in with fins, navigating uneven bottoms, and dealing with waves, surge, or slippery rocks. Also includes how to time your entries and exits, and why pre-dive path planning matters everywhere from ocean coves to inland quarries.
Inflating and Deflating Your BCD at the Surface
Surface buoyancy is a safety skill, not a comfort option. Learn how much air to add (and when), why overinflation can make you unstable, and what to do when your power inflator fails â no matter where youâre diving.
Surface Swimming Techniques
Whether you're crossing a calm spring basin or heading for a downline in current, swimming on the surface takes real technique. This section covers posture, efficient kicking, cramp prevention, reg vs. snorkel, and how to move without wasting energy.
Using a Snorkel at the Surface
Snorkels have their place â but that place is limited. Learn when theyâre helpful, when theyâre not, and why keeping your reg in is often the smarter, safer option in real-world surface conditions.
Tired Diver Tow
If your buddy canât make it back under their own power, do you know how to help? Learn push tows, valve tows, and underarm support â with clear criteria for when and how to use each. Includes real-world guidance on reg control, body positioning, and what not to do.
Surface Signaling (Hand Signals, SMBs, Whistles)
Visibility and communication are everything once youâre on the surface â especially in low vis or open water. Learn what works (and what doesnât), how to signal for help, and why some gear is more useful in theory than in practice. Also: the truth about mask placement.
Exiting the Water (Ladders, Shore, RIBs)
More divers get hurt exiting the water than entering it. Learn how to get out cleanly, whether you're climbing a boat ladder, scrambling up rocks, or pulling yourself into an inflatable. Covers three-point contact, spacing, reg safety, and how to avoid falls â especially when you're tired or top-heavy.