Whether it’s watching marine life, exploring a spectacular reef or underwater cave, or diving into sunken wrecks, scuba is an exhilarating way to experience this mysterious, fascinating and captivating world. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced diver, it’s important to follow all scuba diving safety rules and always dive within your limits.

The term scuba is an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. It refers to diving equipment in which divers carry their own source of breathing gas (usually compressed air). This allows them greater freedom of movement than surface-supplied divers, and a longer dive duration as well. In more advanced systems, such as rebreathers, which recycle carbon dioxide and recirculate unused oxygen, divers can go even deeper than with a simple scuba tank.

Scuba diving is one of the fastest growing recreational activities. In the Netherlands, for example, one in seven men or women is a certified scuba diver. It is also a very popular activity for vacations, especially in tropical destinations where dive sites are plentiful.

The main components of scuba gear are the diving mask, snorkel, fins and dive computer. They are all available in a wide variety of sizes and styles. A buoyancy compensator is another piece of equipment that helps to balance a diver’s weight in the water so that he or she remains neutrally buoyant. A tank holds compressed air that reaches the diver through an umbilical, which in its simplest form ends in a demand regulator and mouthpiece carried by the diver.