The Magic Touch
By Bob Halstead I am going to start this story where it hurts. On a deep dive to search for a rare fish, I spotted an unusual sea star. I picked it up and carried it to shallow water so that I could leisurely take photographs while decompressing. It had no spines, but I soon realised that it was stinging me. The stinging cells were able to penetrate the tough skin on my hands. I have never been able to get the sea star identified, but that sting hurt, and the pain lasted nearly a week. There is ...
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DAN Research Investigates Checklists
In the past 20 years, dive injuries and fatalities declined even as participation in scuba diving increased. This decline can be attributed to better training, equipment, research and access to health care. With the increase in participation there exists a need for continued improvement in diver safety. DAN’s research is an important part of the effort to enhance divers’ understanding of the risks, promote better protocols and raise safety awareness in the dive community. DAN recently conducted ...
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DAN - Cardiovascular Health & Diving
Disease of heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular diseases, CVD) is the leading cause of deaths in the United States and one of the most common causes of fatal diving accidents. The prevalence of CVD increases with age as does the risk of death, but death may also occur in subjects who had no previous symptoms of CVD. Both apparently healthy subjects and those with diagnosed CVD may reduce their risk by modifying their lifestyle and controlling risk factors like smoking, physical inactivity, po...
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Water with Blue Green Algae Kills Dogs
Greg - 1/27/2013 10:21 AM
Do not let your dogs drink from a water source with blue green algae growing in it! We almost lost our German Shepard Dog, Emma, last night. We have a little pond at the far corner of our property. At about 4pm yesterday, I threw a baseball into the pond to let Emma jump in to retrieve it. I did that about three times, then continued with our walk. After only 45 minutes, Emma started to walk weird, she couldn’t walk in a straight line, her tongue was suppressed in her mouth, she was swaying back...
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Scuba Fitness: Healthy holiday eating tips for scuba divers
Think before you indulge. Holiday celebrations are not an excuse to dive in with abandon. Even one high fat meal can cause dramatic increases in blood pressure and increase cardiorespiratory stress associated with both physical and mental tasks, which contribute to heart disease over time. The caloric content of a traditional Thanksgiving meal is estimated between 3,000 and 7,000 calories. The resulting high blood lipid levels, high blood sugar levels, and high blood alcohol content may take fro...
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Cancer Survivors Dive with Sharks: Cancer, Exercise and Scuba Diving
Scuba Diving Inspiration for Cancer Survivors Brandon Bethea of San Diego based Fin Forward, was featured on San Diego 6 News in the Morning, sharing his personal story and how he started shark diving with cancer survivors. "Fin Forward focuses mostly on the emotional and therapeutic benefits gained from a shared group experience or life-changing adventure such as shark diving. Nonetheless, fitness is a key element of everything we do. As we see it, our trips are all about recreation (having fun...
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Mobile Fitness App for Scuba Divers
ScubaFit® debuts the first in a series of mobile fitness applications for scuba divers. To purchase the application click here. Available now in the Android Market, and soon in the Apple market, search for it by "fitdiver" or locate it in "scuba diving" or "fitness". Link to the application through the website at www.fit-diver.com or find FitDiver® on Facebook and Twitter. "It is the only fitness application for scuba divers you’ll find, but we have more on the way," says Gretchen M. Ashton, CFT...
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Refresher
Wow. I decided to get wet again after a year and a half out of the water. I hit the local heated pool with my gear, checked it over, jumped in and suited up in the shallow end. After a quick check on the shallow end I made my way to the deep end. I found several problems, like a sticking BC inflator, dirty velcro on my weight pockets that wouldn’t retain my weights correctly, and most importantly I realized how out of shape I am. This brings up an interesting point. How many of you get a refresh...
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