Talk the Talk
The Beginner's Guide to Dive Lingo
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Like any good sport, diving has a language all its own. Here's the insider's guide to some of the more confusing bits of dive speak. After all, you may be a newbie (see below), but you don't have to sound like one.
{MASK, NOT GOGGLES} Swimmers wear goggles; divers wear masks. The difference? Masks cover your nose and allow you to equalize the pressure on your ears when you go underwater. {THE POOL} General reference to any body of water you're about to dive; collective reference to the two-thirds of the planet that's covered with water. As in: "That completes our dive briefing. The pool is now open." {C-CARD} Stands for certification card. It's a wallet-sized photo ID that serves as your all-access pass to the adventure of diving. To get a C-card you'll need to pass... {OPEN-WATER CERTIFICATION} The official name for scuba lessons. Open water certification is like Scuba 101-it covers everything you need to know to have unsupervised fun. When you're certified, it also means you're a full-fledged member of the club. The last step of certification is your...
{RESORT COURSE} Scuba with training wheels, but a great introduction to the sport. Typically offered by hotels and resorts as a half-or one-day poolside activity. You'll get a quick overview, then suit up and give it a go in highly supervised, controlled conditions.
{FINS, NOT FLIPPERS} Never say flippers. Real divers use fins.
{INSTRUCTOR/DIVEMASTER/MASTER DIVER} Three very different people. An instructor is a specially trained teacher of diving and he's pretty much at the top of the scuba food chain. A divemaster is a professional in-water guide who leads tours of reefs and wrecks. Finally, a master diver is a recreational diver who has completed a demanding schedule of advanced training courses and demonstrated a high level of proficiency at diving.
{NEWBIE} Term of endearment for divers in training or newly certified divers
{OPEN-WATER EVALUATION DIVES (Check-out Dives)} The graduation walk of your basic dive training. You dive as an equal with your instructor and demonstrate what you've learned so he can sign off on your C-card. From then on, the pool is open. Trust me on this: No matter what you do with diving later, you'll always remember these five dives. {REGULATOR} The bubbly thing you breathe from under water. {OCTOPUS} An older design for a backup regulator, attached to your cylinder in case you need to share your air supply with another diver (the object is to never use it). {CYLINDER (Tank)} A pressurized aluminum or steel cylinder containing a diver's breathing gas - usually compressed air. Don't call it an oxygen tank. Just call it a cylinder or scuba cylinder. {GIANT STRIDE/BACKROLL} They may sound like painful yoga positions, but in reality they're just two ways divers enter the water. The giant stride is an exaggerated feet-first step into the water from a platform. The backroll entry is a tank-first fall off the side of the boat. {DEFOG} A SOLUTION THAT WHEN APPLIED TO YOUR MASK, HELPS KEEP IT FREE OF FOG DURING A DIVE. {VIS} Dive slang for visibility, a measure of how far you're able to see underwater, given water conditions and the degree of fogging of your mask. {NDL} Acronym for no-decompression limit, the amount of time you can safely stay under water. {Split Fins} A revolutionary design of fin that makes your kick more efficient.
{BC} Stands for buoyancy compensator. It's the inflatable vest divers wear to hold tanks on their backs. Put air in to float on the surface. Let the air out to go under water.
