Skills in Dive Planning

• Buddy Diving or Buddy System
  When two Divers dive together, they are employing the Buddy System. This is commonly practiced so that they can give assistance to each other, especially in case help or rescue is necessary. For more information, visit our section on Buddy System.


• Use of Dive Tables
  Also called Decompression Tables, Dive Tables indicate the length of time that a Diver can stay on a given depth and the Decompression stops needed to avoid Decompression Sickness. A Decompression Stop is done at the end of the dive. This is a period of time when the Diver stays in shallow water in order to get rid of inert gases absorbed by the body during the dive.


• Use of Dive Computers
  Also called a Decompression meter, a Dive Computer is an electronic device that is useful for Divers in determining important information such as the current depth, dive time, maximum depth reached, time for no-stop dive, and water temperature. There are also Dive Computers which emit audible warnings to certain situations such as when your rate of ascent is too fast or you have exceeded the maximum dive depth.

A Dive Computer can give you a lot of information essential during your dive. But do not be complacent and rely mainly on this device. It is true that it will greatly help you in monitoring different aspects, but nothing beats proper Dive Planning and preparation before the dive.


• Use of a GPS receiver
  Make use of a Global Positioning System (GPS) device in locating dive sites.