5 things you want to keep in mind when you go Scuba Diving

 Absolutely Fit to Dive

While scuba diving is a recreational and non-competitive sport, it can only be truly enjoyed by understanding basic “fitness for diving” principles. The Ocean is dynamic and divers can be challenged occasionally by the sea or diving conditions.

5 Ways To Get Yourself Dive Ready

Here are 5 things that you can work on to dive safely and make your diving more enjoyable:

1. HEART & LUNGS: Cardio-vascular fitness is important to maintain stamina, reduce physical stress and help in better breathing when needed while diving in challenging conditions. Swimming, running or even climbing up and down staircases are simple ways to build this kind of endurance

2. CORE MUSCLES: Carrying scuba diving gear on or off boats, swimming in a stable and streamlined posture and maintaining “trim” are all challenges that a strong back and abdominal muscles help with. Crunches, Planks & Yoga are the best here.

3. HIP & THIGHS: Have no doubt; strong hip and thigh muscles will save the day, every day! Shore Diving, getting on & off boats or boat ladders, finning effectively through a mild current – all of these will be a whole lot easier to deal with when the thigh muscles have been paid attention to. Squats and swimming from the hip and thigh are some easy ways to get strong thighs.

4. CALVES: Go diving in the “Maldives” and sample their famous “Channel Dives” which are all about handling some seriously strong current. A good diver will always use the calves as much as the thighs (knees and ankles being weak areas to Fin from). Many divers can suffer cramps in calves due to improper finning techniques, dehydration (a Big No-No while diving) or even mineral imbalances. Staying well hydrated & replacing essential salts is critical to happy diving.

5. THE MIND: A healthy body and mind go a long way in diving safely. Keep your worries away before Diving and don’t dive when you don’t feel like it, simple. This is a recreational sport, not the Navy Seals! Undue stress, mental or bodily fatigue is all avoidable when diving. Stay sharp, connected and aware so you not only react better to not OK situations but also truly enjoy Diving for what it gives best – peace of mind and happy memories.

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About Us:

Absolute SCUBA is the brainchild of two seasoned Dive Industry professionals, Seemant Saxena and Siddharth Pujari. Between them, they share a collective experience of over 15 years in the Dive Training, Scuba Certification and Dive Travel business.

Want to experience SCUBA in the City? Book your spot here

Happy & Safe Diving always – Team Absolute

www.absolutescuba.in | info@absolutescuba.in | +91 9860003456 | +91 9970983456

Get your passport to the underwater universe – become a SCUBA diving professional

Becoming a SCUBA PRO

Day-dreaming of fish in a mundane office routine and need to break away? Already a certified diver and want to take your diving to the next level?

Take the plunge & GoPro!

The path to becoming a professional SCUBA diver is studded with friends (both on land & under the ocean’s surface), wisdom and a growing connection with nature.

SCUBA begins in the safety of a pool

As beginners, we all start off with the same first step, the PADI Open Water Diver course. Eager with anticipation, we sink into a world alien to most of us. Luckily, PADI courses are easy to pick up as they layer information and practice in order to make learning effective and fun. Over 04 days, students are taken through three modules which impart Knowledge, build skills in the shallows and finally dive in open water as deep as 18 meters or 60 feet! This begins the journey as an explorer of places unknown to the land-bound masses, places reached only with SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus).

Now with an internationally valid license to SCUBA dive for life, it is time to explore paradisiacal destinations and immerse ourselves into thriving marine ecosystems that make up the oceans and the seven seas. As we desire to delve deeper into the blue, PADI Advanced training programs become the next step in the ladder to being a dive professional.

PADI course flow chart

With greater depth, comes greater responsibilities and so, the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course builds comfort, confidence and introduces us to diving in new environments. This course takes us deeper to 30 meters or 100 feet & teaches us navigational techniques among a myriad of other adventure diving options. Some choose to search for treasures in sunken wrecks while some choose to drift along with the currents and watch the ocean pass by as if in a film. It’s up to you to pick and choose between the options. Earning your Advanced PADI certification opens up the proverbial door to some mind-boggling experiences like wreck, night and cave diving among others. Many choose to now follow their interests “in-depth” by signing up for PADI Speciality courses.

Rescue skills in practice

A few move on the next rung in the ladder, being trained as an Emergency First Responder and a Rescue Diver. Willing and wanting to be more able and ready for life in the sea, divers groom their abilities and ready themselves for emergency situations. Besides learning methods of rescue and resuscitation, divers are trained to be able to assess and anticipate situations prior to them becoming an emergency. Serious as the syllabus is, the PADI Rescue Diver course is perhaps one of the most fun courses I’ve ever taken. Compared to shining a diamond in the rough, this course ups the ante on what it means to be a responsible and aware diver and adds comfort & readiness to respond to any situation.

Is “Going Pro” the right choice for me? Here lies the crossroads. One path takes you to the pinnacle of a non-professional recreational diver by earning your Master SCUBA Diver license. The other begins your professional SCUBA life as a PADI DiveMaster.

Become a SCUBAPro

To summit as a non-professional recreational diver, the PADI Master SCUBA diver license requires getting to PADI Rescue Diver and completing at least 5 different types of PADI Specialities with at least 50 dives logged. Armed with knowledge, experience and an unquenched thirst for exploration, PADI Master SCUBA divers earn their right to dive & explore even some of the toughest destinations where conditions are tough but the rewards multiply.

If you are as mesmerized by the Seas as I was, “Going Pro” is the only option. The PADI Divemaster course initiates you into life as an Ambassador of the Ocean. Though the course is meticulous and takes a minimum of 3 weeks, each task completed leaves you brimming with joy, awe and sometimes even fatigue! Taken under the wing of PADI Instructors, aspiring students are guided through what it means to be a Professional, both physically and mentally. With the added responsibility of other divers’ lives in their hands, new initiates are carefully observed, corrected and even chastised to ensure they are up to PADIs international standards of safety & education. For those who make it, their PADI Professional license is like a new lease on a life full of Sun, Sand & the Sea!

Graduation time!

Being a PADI DiveMaster also allows one to be an Assistant Instructor; someone who can literally run an entire dive centre, assist the Instructor in training courses, take certified divers out for planned fun dives, maintain gear, train and supervise juniors in the Team. The last step in becoming a full-fledged Dive Pro is to eventually certify as a PADI Open Water SCUBA Instructor (OWSI). This is a hard-earned rating after substantial experience in being an Assistant Instructor and passing a month-long Instructor Development Course (IDC). Instructors take their love for SCUBA and pass it on safely to others who can discover the beauty of what lies under the surface of our Blue Planet.

Take the Go Pro Challenge! Live fast, Dive young!

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About Us:

Absolute SCUBA is the brainchild of two seasoned Dive Industry professionals, Seemant Saxena and Siddharth Pujari. Between them, they share a collective experience of over 15 years in the Dive Training, Scuba Certification and Dive Travel business.

Want to experience SCUBA in the City? Book your spot here

Happy & Safe Diving always – Team Absolute

www.absolutescuba.in | info@absolutescuba.in | +91 9860003456 | +91 9970983456

How to get SCUBA certified between your local inland dive centre and an open water destination

A Whole New World:

I'll be honest, at 37 I was pretty set in my routine of home, parenting and professional life. It was all going on comfortably till I found myself lacking in confidence even in day-to-day activities. And yet, nothing motivated me to break out of my misery. I didn't want anything to disrupt my daily grind, which was pulling me further into a depressing vortex. I realized it was time to shatter the glass bubble, one way or another.

Around this time, my husband had found joy in SCUBA diving. His accounts of training and diving with Absolute Scuba were filled with fascinating anecdotes of underwater and surface experiences. I was happy for him but secretly envied his newly-acquired skills. Probably sensing my state of mind, he encouraged me to try it too, but my challenge was more basic – I didn't know to swim.

Starting my swimming training was like going back to being a kid and learning to stop being scared of water. Keeping aside all embarrassment, I decided to train along with my six-year-old son. His coach taught me too! Within a few months, I felt a change in my attitude as I acquired a vital life skill. Next challenge was to try a dive for real.

The opportunity presented itself on holiday in Andaman Islands with a PADI Discover SCUBA dive. The experience left me wanting more, and a certification lured me. It was not hard to decide my next step, but the follow-through was a challenge. From understanding the science behind diving to preparing myself mentally, I had now started dreaming in shades of blue.

It was a big relief that the training was in a city pool, an environment I was familiar with. Seemant, my instructor, knew I was nervous and tried to stay calm while handling my worries! For the first time in my life, I was involved in an activity that genuinely challenged both my brain and body, requiring me to be focused and free at the same time. The best feeling in the world was almost within my reach. How do I describe the feeling of being submerged (even if it was a pool) with an overcast sky and the raindrops dancing on the surface? Watching the ripples from underneath was almost poetic! The successful pool training was my gateway to the sea.

I grabbed my opportunity hungrily. Mind you, I was still a bundle of nerves because the certification required that I demonstrate my pool skills in the open sea. After 15 years, I was travelling on my own. That in itself was a big step for me. On the overnight bus journey to Murudeshwar, my son called up from home and said, Mom, you can do this. Absolute Scuba's friendly atmosphere eased my worries and helped me concentrate on the task at hand.

After four dives, of which not all were easy, I finally got certified. The feeling indeed sank in when I got the PADI card in a month. SCUBA had set me free, gave me the confidence to try new things and be open to new experiences. The big blue always allured me. Now, I was ready to respond to its calling and truly immerse myself into a whole new world! The ocean has opened its arms to me, I have the key to the secret underwater world, and it whispers its joys and pains to me now. I reciprocate the love by continuing to dive and thanking the sea for changing my life forever!

Follow us on Instagram here: https://bit.ly/2GnUPGV | Like us on Facebook here: https://bit.ly/2Grt93T

About Us:

Absolute SCUBA is the brainchild of two seasoned Dive Industry professionals, Seemant Saxena and Siddharth Pujari. Between them, they share a collective experience of over 15 years in the Dive Training, Scuba Certification and Dive Travel business.

Want to experience SCUBA in the City? Book your spot here

Happy & Safe Diving always – Team Absolute

www.absolutescuba.in | info@absolutescuba.in | +91 9860003456 | +91 9970983456

10 points to bear in mind when you get serious about diving

10 Points to take your Diving to the Next Level

Recently certified as a PADI Open Water Diver? Want to take your diving to the next level? Enhance your skills or simply explore this Blue Planet a bit more. Here are 10 points that can take your diving to the next level

1. Sign up for PADI Specialties:
Whether you’re looking to simply improve your buoyancy control with a Peak Performance Buoyancy Speciality or straight out explore mysterious wrecks, PADI offers a massive range of Specialty options to choose from. Some personal favorite Speciality courses include EANx Diver (Enriched Air Nitrox), Digital Underwater Photography and the Night Diver Specialty. Check out the table below to figure out which ones call to the diver in you.

PADI Courses Flow Chart

2. Go deeper! Go for PADI AOWD
If you feel 18 meters is just a number, make sure to sign up for a PADI Advanced course. You must complete 5 different types of Adventure dives for this course out of which two dives are mandatory. A deep dive to 30 meters (100 Feet) is one such mandatory dive. The second is a Navigation Dive which sharpens our ability to successfully navigate underwater. For the remainder of the three Adventures dives, you have a bunch of options from learning more about Marine ecosystems to doing your first Night Dive. This is definitely a course worth doing if you have not yet.

Buoyancy Control Device

3. Get yourself some Personal Gear
With an adventure sport like SCUBA where your life depends on your Gear, it’s great to be able to trust it completely and there’s nothing better than having your own equipment. Start off with a Mask that fits your face well. Move on to getting yourself some Fins after trying a few types. Next, a wetsuit or drysuit for personalized fit and hygiene.  Take your time and ask for professional guidance while looking for a BCD, Regulator and Dive computer to make sure you get something that suits your style.

4. Learn to be an Emergency First Responder
It’s highly comforting when your dive buddy is trained as an Emergency First Responder. This course takes you through emergency responses like CPR and Rescue breathing as well as Secondary Care like managing cuts, fractures and choking. What’s awesome about this course is that it’s handy in non-diving related situations as well. Also, you don’t even have to be a certified diver to sign up!

5. Take some far out dive trips to more challenging dive destinations
It’s more than likely that beginner divers start off at slack diving conditions like a lagoon or a shallow reef. However, the Oceans and seas are diverse and as you clock more dives and confidence; it’s time to venture out to some of the more challenging and rewarding dive destinations. These places may have stronger and sometimes unpredictable currents but the landscapes, coral reefs and fish life are found in abundance. If you have not yet, plan a visit to places like Komodo, Deep south Maldives, South Egypt(Red Sea), the Galapagos Islands and Fiji among many others.

6. Stay in touch with SCUBA at your Local Dive clubs (If possible)
Unless you live by the Sea, staying in touch with your skills isn’t always easy, right? Wrong. Land-based dive centres and dive clubs often have equipment and training facilities where you can refresh, sharpen or learn some new skills. Try to find a pool with a dedicated diving well which has some depth to it like ours. Want to experience SCUBA in the City? Book your spot here

Our training facility in Pune

7. Refresh your Dive Theory
Staying current with this highly theoretical sport and reading your Manuals often is one sure shot way to take your diving to the next level. A deep understanding of the theory behind the sport is what makes a diver safe and confident.

8. Sign up for some Technical courses
Feel limited at just 40 meters deep? Change your gasses and go deeper with Technical diving courses. This is a great way to explore other avenues of SCUBA and really reach places explored by just a few.

9. Try a Liveaboard
If you ready to step up your diving, a Live Aboard is a MUST! Experience dive locations that are far out and impossible to reach by smaller boats. Diving from a Life aboard promises some spectacular sights and sightings both on surface and underwater. It is not uncommon to log up to 4 dives each day on some of these trips and visit ecosystems that are out of reach for the land-based diver.

10. Go Pro!
Take the plunge and become part of a global community of dive professionals. The Dive Master course is challenging but extremely rewarding. Earn the chance to call the Oceans your office and live a life in communion with Nature. Check out more on the course here.
Where ever you are on the diving ladder, remember to stay sharp, fit and focused.  Also, stay away from the boat ladder when someone else is climbing up! Share your tips and tricks that you use to sharpen your dive skills in the comments section below.

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About Us:
Absolute SCUBA is the brainchild of two seasoned Dive Industry professionals, Seemant Saxena and Siddharth Pujari. Between them, they share a collective experience of over 15 years in the Dive Training, Scuba Certification and Dive Travel business.

Happy & Safe Diving always – Team Absolute

www.absolutescuba.in | info@absolutescuba.in | +91 9860003456 | +91 9970983456

Some images are courtesy of the world wide web

Absolute Pondicherry | Where Time Takes a Break!

Scuba Diving in Pondicherry

Dive into the best sites on India's East coast where some of the most legendary diving centres lie. Here, a rich history of diving exists alongside a quaint way of life.

Inspired by everyone from the Dutch & Portuguese to the British & French occupants, Pondy, as it is affectionately called still holds on to the older & slower ways as well as charms from a bygone Era.

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Auroville (City of Dawn), old and large 18th - 19th Century churches and long beautiful beaches make the surroundings enchanting and memorable. Popular eateries cover a wide variety of authentic cuisines including French, Indian, Italian,Mexican, Thai and Chinese. A City studded with Botanical Gardens, a plethora of ancient Hindu temples and our favourite, the Madras Crocodile Bank offer so much more to a Pondy holiday.

Then there's the Diving: home to one of the oldest & most experienced Dive Centres on the East Coast as well as India's only Scubapro distribution centre, Pondy has a surprising amount of diversity to explore& dive on. Abundant natural as well as artificial reefs, macro critters everywhere, 365 days of diving availability and easy air+road connections make Pondy a "must-do" on a diver's bucket-list. Some of the most experienced divers as well as involved marine-conservationists swear by Pondy and its abundance.

It also is perfect all level of Courses! From basic PADI courses going to professional; from Diving Equipment workshops to advanced Specialty's - there's something for all level of diver.Not to mention the Industry Dive Expo that is conducted here annually.

All this with some of the friendliest Dive Crews in the country (as famous for their fiery, scorching Spaghetti Sauces as they are for well-experienced & informed diving in the local waters).

Dive & explore Pondicherry - one of the quaintest corners of India.

Want to see more? Follow us on YouTube here

About Us:

Absolute SCUBA is the brain child of two seasoned Dive Industry professionals, Seemant Saxena and Siddharth Pujari. Between them, they share a collective experience of over 15 years in the Dive Training, Scuba Certification and Dive Travel business.

Happy & Safe Diving always – Team Absolute

www.absolutescuba.in | info@absolutescuba.in  | +91 9860003456 | +91 9970983456

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Stuck in traffic underwater – Only at Sipadan Island

Absolute SIPADAN - a league apart!

Absolute Scuba announces yet another winner for discerning divers who want to dive and explore "The Best Diving Destination in the World”!

After 10 trips to this beautiful destination,we are almost religious about Sipadan - an island where abundance can be seen on every dive. Imagine tornadoes of barracuda, rivers of trevally, hundreds of sea turtles, humongous gatherings of Bump-Head parrotfish and sharks are everywhere! It’s like a Metro like for fish.

The topography of Sipadan Island is stunning with its endless deep walls, lush coral everywhere and so much more.

Plus, our trips guarantee what few others can - 2 FULL DAYS & 6 loaded dives at Sipadan! Sipadan Island Marine Park allows only limited number of divers to dive its thriving waters per day. Getting your hands on a day’s pass is tough enough, let alone TWO guaranteed days.Why? Simply because day One always ends with a "Thank God, there's day Two" on our trips.

Our trip is loaded as usual: 6 days of fancy stay at the roaring Scuba Tiger Dive Resort, 12 dives over 4 days including 6 at Sipadan and 6 between Sibuan, Mataking, Mabul&Kapalai islands, all your local transfers and complementary Travel & Diving Insurance

To top it off, you have a day free to either sight-see on top OR do what we do, Dive, Dive, Dive!

As veterans of this bucketlist diving destination, an "Absolute" trip is meticulously planned down to the last detail and ensures that you get the most out of this fantastic holiday.

Want to see more? Follow us on YouTube here.

About Us:

Absolute SCUBA is the brain child of two seasoned Dive Industry professionals, Seemant Saxena and Siddharth Pujari. Between them, they share a collective experience of over 15 years in the Dive Training, Scuba Certification and Dive Travel business.

Happy & Safe Diving always – Team Absolute SCUBA

www.absolutescuba.in | info@absolutescuba.in  | +91 9860003456 | +91 9970983456

Concept of Neutral Buoyancy in Scuba Diving

Buoyancy & the Breath

Suspended in the Blue 

Ever wonder how we manage to keep tonnes of Kilograms afloat? Or Why NASA has a SCUBA facility?

It all started in Ancient Greece with a concept “floated” around by Archimedes. Simply put, his principle stated that an object is “buoyed or pushed up” according to the weight of water it displaces. Following this, the object starts to float, sink or becomes “Neutrally Buoyant” (technically weightless).

This brings NASA into the picture. Their Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) acclimatises astronauts to the weightlessness felt in space! Luckily for us SCUBA divers, we can experience this closer to home.

We all know that a balloon filled with air shrinks as you take it deeper into water and expands on its way up to the surface again. And this applies to all air spaces when we go SCUBA diving.

As divers, we use 2 variables to slip into this weightlessness or Neutral Buoyancy. An inflatable/deflatable jacket known as the BCD (Buoyancy Compensation Device) and our very own Breath. Breathing in expands the lungs making us “lighter” whereas exhaling leads to a gentle “sink” and each is checked or reversed by the other. Somewhere in between is the magic of complete weightlessness.

First time divers are often astonished on their first encounter and many return to the wonder of the experience. Often, I yearn to be breathing underwater once again suspended in a drop of Blue.

I encourage all you divers  to share your first encounter with weightlessness in the comments below.

Book your dive @ https://in.bookmyshow.com/activities/discover-scuba-diving-pune/ET00044923

Happy & Safe Diving always – Team Absolute SCUBA 

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