Recently in Scuba Diving - Tips & Tricks Category

Could you do with losing a few kilos while you dive? Removing weight can improve your air consumption, reduce the amount of air going into and out of your BCD and give you a more relaxed, streamlined dive. Take some tips from the Hurghada Team on how to descend with your optimum weighting.

by Daniele Zanoni

Nowadays there are quite a few divers using "Nitrox", and the numbers are increasing all the time. Some of them dive on a regular basis and have therefore mastered the technique used to analyse the blend correctly. Others do not dive very often and tend to forget some critical steps that will give the correct reading without damaging the oxygen analyser. So, let's revisit what you should do before you dive with Enriched Air Nitrox.

Report by dive guide, Daniele Zanoni

Ear damage

The human ear is capable of hearing sounds in the range of 20Hz and 20KHz. In the inner ear, inside the cochlea, there are several microscopic hair cells. These cells respond to mechanical sound vibrations by sending electrical impulses to the auditory nerve. The brain then processes the information and lets us "hear" the sound. Different cells are responsible for different frequencies. Over time, a part of these cells may get damaged or broken. If the damage is extensive, which means involving a large number of hair cells, hearing loss will result. The high frequency area of the inner ear is the one that is most often damaged by loud sound. In order to understand what loud means, we have to set up a scale and a threshold after which the noise/sound will become dangerous. Sound level is measured in decibels (dB). This number will tell you, in a way, how bigger the sound is compared to the threshold of perception of an average human (0 dB) and it is expressed in a logarithmic scale.