Debunking Scuba Diving Myths

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Have you ever wondered "Is scuba diving safe?", "Can I scuba dive without knowing how to swim?" or "Are sharks dangerous?" Dive in as I shed light on some of the biggest Scuba Diving Myths.
Are you concerned about being "too old to scuba dive", or maybe you're wondering "Can you scuba dive if you are overweight?" Don't worry, scuba diving is accessible for everyone, regardless of age or size, and in some cases, adaptive techniques help those with disabilities scuba dive. It's all about adapting and finding what works for you.
"Is scuba diving dangerous?" and "Are sharks dangerous?" are two of the most common fears around diving. "How expensive is scuba diving?" is another blocker for many would-be scuba divers. I'll debunk these fears and others, clarifying the actual risks involved and how you can manage them safely as well as how affordable diving is compared to other sports.
This video is NOT sponsored. Some product links are affiliate links which means if you buy something we'll receive a small commission.
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⏰ Timecodes ⏰
00:00 Top Scuba Diving Myths
00:24 Myth 1 - Diving Deep
01:12 Myth 2 - Tropical Diving Only?
02:54 Myth 3 - Diving Is Dangerous!
04:32 Myth 4 - What About Sharks?!
06:41 Myth 5 - Scuba Is EXPENSIVE!
08:39 Myth 6 - Can I Scuba Dive If I Can't Swim?
11:32 Myth 7 - Breathing Oxygen
13:48 Myth 8 - Certification Takes Forever
16:39 Myth 9 - Too Old & Too Out of Shape for Diving
18:58 Myth 10 - I'm Claustrophobic, Can I Dive?
20:47 How to Try Scuba
At Circle H Scuba, we share education and experiences you'll love to plan your next adventure. As a PADI Professional Scuba Instructor, I want to make you a better-informed scuba diver!
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#scubadiving #circlehscuba #thomashughes
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Disclaimer: Circle H Scuba and Thomas Hughes believe you can not teach someone how to dive, nor certify them for diving, through the internet. Ensure you seek proper training through an instructor who is active and certified through a recognized agency and always dive within the limits of your certification.
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In accordance with COPPA laws, please note that content on the channel CircleHScuba is not specifically made for, or targeted at, children.

[@CircleHScuba]

7 Fatal Diving Mistakes ▶ kzbin.info/www/bejne/qonUequcisZ0a9k Into the Planet (Book) 👉 amzn.to/3NJMSyg | Audible (Free Trial): amzn.to/3wLGU6F Divers Alert Network (DAN) 🩺 members.dan.org/buddy/2941965 Try Scuba Diving ▶ kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGnUfoqNo8p-atU Shark Week 2023 🦈 (TBD)

[@adammcdonald798]

Myth #9; I'm 52 and diabetic. My doc signed off, so my pool dives are this Saturday, OW in a quarry the following weekend 💙

[@CircleHScuba]

Awesome!!! I know an instructor that’s diabetic. It’s doable!

[@jeffconley6366]

Yes, fond memories of getting certified in the 70's. 10 weeks two nights (pool and Classroom each night) a week. Things like breathing off a tank without a regulator. Equipment on bottom, jump in and put all the equipment on. And don't forget Hell night. Two of my instructor's over the years were ex Navy Seals. The good old days of learning to dive. LOL fond memories. Loved every minute of it. Much simplier and easier today.

[@CircleHScuba]

I think I would love to experience it to be honest, though it’s much easier now of course. I can only imagine the stuff y’all did haha.

[@elizabethocallahan4417]

Thankfully we only did hell night in the pool!!

[@oliverlucas2398]

Yes I want to see Texas diving please

[@CircleHScuba]

I hope I can go back and visit my friends in Texas and then I’ll make a video about it

[@furkanplayz1517]

My instructor is 70 years old and says scuba is safe and fun i agree

[@CircleHScuba]

It is! There are dangers if you don’t follow the safety rules though

[@erikaahlander9550]

Regarding the last point, I have both claustrophobia tendensies, scared of hights and anxiety... All hightened during covid.. But, under water I tend to be sooooo calm. The last few weeks before a trip is so anxiety inducing though.. and I just have to keep focus on how calming and good it will be when I am there in the end..

[@CircleHScuba]

Thank you so much for sharing that and feeling comfortable to as well. It makes me so happy to hear that you also found diving to be calming. One of the reasons I became an instructor is that I truly find diving to be so relaxing and wonderful for me, that I wanted to share it with as many people as possible so they can experience that calmness too. Thanks for commenting, I hope to see you in other videos too! Really appreciate it 😊

[@elizabethocallahan4417]

For #2 I have literally only ever dove in New England

[@SummersideDiver]

Another awesome video! Thanks for putting this together for all to see

[@CircleHScuba]

Absolutely! Looks like you did a bit of a binge session haha. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@DanMcIntyre-fx6wx]

in 2020 a gentle man in Illinois 101 years old was diving in pearl lake

[@CircleHScuba]

That is absolutely amazing and mind blowing!

[@felipesanchezcuriel]

Great content, keep it coming. By the way my first certification course, 30+ years ago was the boot camp kind you described on mith #8, and still have my Navy tables but now I use a computer

[@CircleHScuba]

Thanks so much! Wow, I’d love to hear more about the boot camp style certification course you went through!

[@felipesanchezcuriel]

@@CircleHScuba This is a long story: Mexico 1990, our local federation FMAS was under CMAS umbrella, the course Chief instructor, local legend Edwin Corona, was also teaching the military special forces at the times (those pour fellows had to jump, fully geared, from the 10m platform). As some equipment was difficult/expensive to get: Octopus, SPG, and BCD were considered optional so we were trained on how to dive safe with out them (just like in the 70's). The course lasted for about 4 monts with one class-room cession + 2 pool classes per week. Each pool class begun with a few laps running arround the local park. Then to the pool where we had float, no fins, for some minutes holding the weight belts above our heads. The course was divided in two portions: snorkeling and SCUBA. One skill we learned was to gear-up under the water, so the equipment was put in a bundle at the bottom, we had to jump in gear-up and come back showing that we had managed to properly purge the mask. This was particular difficult during the snorkeling phase, once we moved to SCUBA our first step was to open the valve and get te reg so no rush on finishing gearing-up. Snorkeling portion included 3 field trips, the clousere was swimming about 900m at the sea. The SCUBA portion included 4 field trips that included: night diving, altitude diving, 30m and deco with Navy tables (using safety factors that are now translated into the modern recreatinal tables). Completing this training was a whole adventure, this was the One Star certification.

[@michaelmccoy6852]

Dude ur killing me. This is like a verbatim video I was making. Lol 😂

[@CircleHScuba]

Great minds think alike haha

[@josephdracula7487]

👍😎🤿🇵🇭! Very well said! I hear just about every topic that you touched on. I have felt that scuba sets me free to relax and enjoy the environment! My thanks to you Thomas keep it up 👍🤿!

[@CircleHScuba]

Thanks Joseph, that’s very nice of you! Yes I agree, I hear these all the time and I also think scuba sets me free!

[@ivoryjohnson4662]

It’s my biggest stress relief

[@CircleHScuba]

@ivoryjohnson4662 mine too!

[@Yggdrasil42]

Great video. I'm a tech/cave diver and completely agree with everything you explained (which is rare for dive videos on KZbin 😉)! Calmly explaining, you hit on every myth we commonly get asked.

[@CircleHScuba]

Hey that’s a huge compliment, thank you! I’ll join the cave and tech world one day. Right now I’m dipping my feet into the PADI TecRec course but I’ll pan to wait a bit before finding a team and then going for cave training some day.

[@patrickschoon3226]

Great video. Starting with my open water diver this year. Greetz from holland

[@CircleHScuba]

@patrickschoon3226 good luck! Let me know how it goes!

[@ivoryjohnson4662]

Excellent video I am glad that you are doing this video

[@CircleHScuba]

Thank you!

[@kevinong1735]

Such an encouraging video! Great job getting more people interested into SCUBA diving! 👏🏼

[@CircleHScuba]

Thanks Kevin!! I really appreciate that! That’s totally the goal! Dispel the myths and get more people into diving!

[@kevinong1735]

We have a friend, who dropped out from our certification class because of her fear of sharks and her reluctance to complete the out-of-air emergency procedure. It was so unfortunate since she was such a strong swimmer. 😞

[@CircleHScuba]

@kevinong1735 oh gosh, that sucks. Hopefully they decide to retake it! Maybe they can watch this video and get encouraged!

[@kevinong1735]

@@CircleHScubaHopefully, but until then I can use her husband as a dive buddy! 😊

[@CircleHScuba]

@kevinong1735 don’t force her but definitely encourage her lol

[@hansy6737]

55.604 is my regular dive Latitude. 25-27 C at summer. 0-4 C winter. Lots of fish, crabs, eels and starfish.

[@CircleHScuba]

That sounds nice to me! I’m not afraid of my dry suit for cold diving haha. The summer temperatures sound wonderful

[@jeffconley6366]

Keep up the great videos and I really believe your number of subscribers will grow exponentially.

[@CircleHScuba]

Thanks Jeff! It’s been a crazy ride so far, about 7 months in! I appreciate all your comments!

[@jeffconley6366]

@@CircleHScuba If you don't know about them. Two very successful and well done KZbin SCUBA channels are DiversReady and LakeHickorySCUBA. So stick with it just takes time to get the following. You have the quality of content.

[@CircleHScuba]

I appreciate that! I do know them and watch both of them as well haha. They’re great!

[@souswes]

Valhalla missle silo! Never got to go. It’s group only and tough to get in from what I’ve been told. Bon terre mine would be another fun one. Surprised “yum yum yellow” wasn’t part of the shark topic 😅

[@CircleHScuba]

Yum yum yellow is a myth imo! Hahaha. I have a friend who went to the silo and I’m sooooo jealous! Definitely need to try to go just to say I did it!

[@souswes]

@@CircleHScuba same. There’s shops in the area that will advertise it now and then so give some calls! Personally bon terre is more exciting. It’s an old flooded mine. Cold water but more interesting than diving down a perfectly smooth cylinder 🤣

[@CircleHScuba]

@souswes yeah I heard the silo itself is fairly boring 🤣 I’ll have to look up Bon Terre too. My French isn’t great but I believe that’s good earth? Maybe it’s not even French but it’s Latin based 🤣

[@souswes]

@@CircleHScuba exactly right! Surface miners named it that due to the amount of lead they were able to pull. The original owner of all the land was a Frenchman named LaGrave. It was all in an area settled early on by the French

[@CircleHScuba]

@souswes man, that sounds cool! Is it like, a mineshaft or a quarry? Like overhead environment sidemount and cave protocol?

[@baldguydiving75]

Vallaha in Abilene on my list too!!!

[@baldguydiving75]

If you go let me know it’s an altitude cert also

[@asmith5488]

@ 50 I decided to bumb up my 40 years of diving with getting deco certified just because.

[@CircleHScuba]

How did it go?

[@jeffconley6366]

Well done as usual. Maybe a little to much on the breathing gasses.

[@CircleHScuba]

Thanks! Yeah, probably a little too long winded there for sure, I appreciate the feedback!

[@jeffconley6366]

The big difference between learning in the old days vs now. In the old days you spent more time in the water getting comfortable with the equipment and the skills.

[@CircleHScuba]

That’s one thing I wish would carry over. I understand people want things fast but I wish we could do more from neutral buoyancy and just get more in water time in general.

[@jeffconley6366]

@@CircleHScuba I was very lucky. The dive shop I learned to dive at had their own pool on site. And they let us practice in the pool whenever the dive shop was open and not being used for classes. They let us use the equipment and no charge for air fills. Being 16 and wanting to dive since I was in diapers. I took advantage of using the pool many times.

[@CircleHScuba]

Wow that’s amazing! Even shops I know with pools aren’t that open to you using it, especially with free fills. They just have too much going on usually to open it up since they have classes too, swim lessons sometimes, etc

[@CircleHScuba]

@jeffconley6366 wow that sounds like a great pool for a shop to have though, that’s awesome. Didn’t know the history on NASDS either, I should look up that stuff more!

[@observingrogue7652]

I guess that's one benefit to being fat. I can easily pass that 10 minute free floating part of the test. But I also have thick muscles in places, so I don't know.

[@CircleHScuba]

The float or tread is pretty easy, you’ll be fine regardless.

[@toadou8127]

PADI standards also allow a 300 metres/yards in mask, fins and snorkel. Most people are buoyant with this gear, and makes test much easier.

[@CircleHScuba]

Instructors are supposed to have them put a weight belt on to not let them be so buoyant if they use mask fins and snorkel 😅

[@SK-pt7of]

Good content, deserves more views.

[@CircleHScuba]

Thanks so much for saying that and leaving a comment too! I’m still fairly new on KZbin so I’m always happy with any view haha, but sharing with people who would enjoy the content is one of the best ways to help with getting more people to see it 😜 Are you a diver? 🤿

[@CircleHScuba]

That’s amazing!! I’m going to Bonaire in September, I’m super excited haha

[@SK-pt7of]

@@CircleHScuba Fr? Maybe i will see ya there 😜

[@CircleHScuba]

Say hi if you see me haha

[@SK-pt7of]

@@CircleHScuba im there for 2 weeks, starting at 23.09. Lets connect if you are there 🫡

[@levismith7456]

I'm going to Valhalla this weekend!

[@CircleHScuba]

No way!? PLEASE come back and tell me how it goes! I’ve heard it’s just really interesting and not like, anything crazy but I still want to say I dove in a nuclear missile silo 🤣

[@CircleHScuba]

Thanks for the comment, hope to see you in future videos too! Excited to hear how the dive goes haha

[@levismith7456]

@@CircleHScuba yes that's about the same thing we've heard. Doing it for the shirt! lol. I don't know if you've heard or not but the only way to get "the" shirt is to dive it. Even if you come back the owner makes you destroy the old one so you can't give it away. You could join us if you're not busy, our shop is going, it's mostly instructors I think we have one deep dive student.

[@CircleHScuba]

@levismith7456 if only I still lived in Texas! I’d be there, haha. I’m in North Carolina now. Dang, yeah I want the shirt too 😂😂

[@levismith7456]

@@CircleHScuba Update on the "Valhalla" Atlas nuclear missel silo. It was very interesting and should be added to any avid diver's bucket list, the experience is definitely worth it. The owner is intriguing and gives a detailed tour with lots of historic information, which was my favorite part. The dives were 60° F, around 100' depth (water table was about 15' - 20' lower than normal due to lack of rain). Most had dry-suits but people were using 5 and 7 mils with no problems. Things I would do different; bring only one steel 100 tank because if you're not an air hog you can do two 20 minutes dives on one steel 100 tank, and the owner or his dm will fill your tank. You don't need to bring weights. Pack dive gear and clothes as minimal as possible, everything has to be brought down and up 50' of stairs. Bring folding chairs, table, canopy, camping gear, camp stove and consider bringing an extra cooler of ice, all of which is kept at ground level. Set up canopies, chairs, coolers and tables in between the trees and the silo missel doors, that is across the road to the left of the entrance (much cooler in the shade, we originally set up next to the entrance but got tired of moving to get out of the afternoon sun). We stayed in the silo and the beds were comfortable, they have restrooms, a shower, washer & dryer, and a microwave. Things no one thought of was how labor extensive it would be, everything has to be carried up and down LOTS of stairs, definitely a workout. Also, you can turn the lights off and do a "night" dive anytime a day, which was unique. Overall, my experience was positive, with no regrets, however it's a one and done for me (there is only so many times I can look at the same 2100 sq ft of metal debris for 20 minutes). Checked the box and got the tee-shirt! I posted some of my friend's videos on my Facebook page.

[@ivoryjohnson4662]

I do more dives to eliminate my concerns

[@CircleHScuba]

Experience helps a lot with that! You’re doing it right 🤙

[@jonnieinbangkok]

Abandoned rock quarries, missile silos, and the Great Lakes in Winter...funny I never see any dive brochures for these destinations

[@CircleHScuba]

Haha, anywhere there’s water divers will find a way! 🤣

[@jeffconley6366]

@@CircleHScuba Don't forget flooded mines. Like Bon Terra near St. Louis.

[@CircleHScuba]

@jeffconley6366 I just heard of Bon Terra from another subscriber and I totally want to go now! I looked it up and it sounds amazing.

[@jeffconley6366]

@@CircleHScuba I have seen the website and have wanted to go for several years. It's a little pricey. Since we live in the Raleigh area maybe we could get a group to go

[@CircleHScuba]

@jeffconley6366 that would be awesome

[@dickward1090]

@8:42 my dive buddy has one leg. if she can do it, I have faith a weaker swimmer can get by just fine

[@CircleHScuba]

Exactly! ❤️

[@dickward1090]

@@CircleHScuba she might even be getting SCR certified this year. she’s getting tired of running low when my tanks are near full lol

[@CircleHScuba]

@dickward1090 haha, I’d look into SCR or CCR some day but I need dive buddies that have them locally and can afford to dive them too. Otherwise I’ll just have shiny expensive equipment I can’t use 😔 Huge kudos to her, that’s great!

[@dickward1090]

@@CircleHScuba well if you’re ever in Florida you’ve got a dive buddy here

[@CircleHScuba]

@dickward1090 I’ll be down there some day for blue heron bridge, or the keys, or Venice beach for teeth, or something haha. Thanks!

[@estino840]

You can get open water certified in 3 days 99% of time, and sometimes in specific cases even in 2 days. and that counts for every place I went to dive all over Europe at official dive centers.

[@CircleHScuba]

I can't recall if that was a myth I listed, but no argument. I think PADI technically allows you to get certified in 3 days, don't believe there's a way to do 2 days, and that doesn't count eLearning which can add/subtract time. I would highly recommend NOT doing it like that though and spacing it out to a normal class schedule of 4-5 days.

[@estino840]

@CircleHScuba I agree I would have loved to have gotten my open water over a longer period with more dives, but I was just informing that all over Europe 3 days is the norm, first day pool session, and then 2 days of 2 dives per day. I do wonder when you talk about normal schedule 4-5 days, does that mean you do more than 4 dives in total or less than 2 dives per day?

[@CircleHScuba]

@estino840 confined water plus the 4 checkout dives is usually 4 days total, occasionally an extra day is needed for scheduling times that with and when extra time is needed or it’s like, a scuba camp after school for kids

[@escamoteur]

I'm currently doing my DiveMaster at an SSI center in Tenerife. Here open water is done in 3 days with typically 2 dives a day. In Egypt I did my open water in 4 days also with 2 dives a day which I personally liked more as we would see some real riff every day for parts of the dives

[@Idisagreethisisnotanon]

Why in my recommended lol what

[@CircleHScuba]

Idk why KZbin does what it does haha. Are you a diver, snorkeler, interested in scuba? Either way, hi! Haha

[@Idisagreethisisnotanon]

@@CircleHScuba not at all, but it’s a high quality video!

[@CircleHScuba]

Well hey thanks for checking it out haha.