Exploring the hidden world beneath the surface of a body of water is an ancient dream that has modern fulfillment. Breathing air underwater has existed for several millennia, but until the last century, it required equipment connected to the surface like hoses and diving bells. The late Jacques Cousteau is credited with co-inventing the Aqua-Lung in 1943, a “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus” abbreviated as SCUBA.
Over the past 100 years, man’s desire to fly spawned air and space travel, skydiving, and the latest death-defying wingsuit. Likewise, the desire to explore inner space under the surface of oceans and lakes has birthed great advances in the equipment and training for this exploration. Scuba diving is now safer than ever, and people around the Midlands are taking up the sport. Just how dangerous is scuba diving? The answer is: “Not very.” In 2018 the worldwide number of deaths among recreational divers was just 100 people out of an estimated 6 million active divers in the world. Diving is considered an extreme sport, but it can be as relaxed or extreme as you would like it to be.
Scuba diving is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world and Lexington has its fin in the door. There are no government regulations regarding who may scuba dive, but it is unthinkable for anyone to dive without proper training. And you can acquire all the skills needed right here in Lexington. One such place is Scuba John’s Dive Shop at 1630 West Main Street in Lexington, opened by John and Amanda Baker in 2011. The scuba industry is self-regulated and has established certifications for depth levels, types of equipment, and special certifications for solo diving. For safety reasons, diving with the “buddy system” is rule #1, but many adventurous divers enjoy the freedom of diving alone and put forth the extra effort to get this certification. The age restriction for diving instructions is generally 10 years old and up. Adults with heart conditions or certain other medical issues may need a doctor’s permit to take lessons.
Unlike taking to the sky where you can still breathe about 4 miles above the earth, the world record for a scuba diver is just over 1,000 feet down. Most recreational scuba divers do not go much below 30-60 feet. Many deep divers can easily descend twice that far, up to 130 feet. But the deeper the dive, the more dangerous it becomes, and more advanced equipment and training are needed. The deeper one dives, the longer it takes to ascend back to the surface due to stops along the way. The stops avoid decompression sickness due to gas bubbles forming in the blood and tissues causing many ill effects with the most common being a painful inability to bend joints—hence, the name “the bends.”
Many of us learned about scuba diving back in the 60s by watching Lloyd Bridges on the TV drama Seahunt. The air bubbles you would see coming from Bridges’ scuba gear indicated the use of “open circuit” scuba equipment. The development of what is called “rebreather” scuba gear does not leave bubbles because the exhaled carbon dioxide is scrubbed clean enabling the diver to re-breathe his own oxygen. Rebreather scuba gear generally does not allow divers to go as deep as open-circuit divers–only down to 20 feet, but they can stay underwater much longer. However, the rebreathers that Scuba John’s uses and teaches use a mixture of gases (oxygen, helium, and nitrogen) which can allow the rebreather diver to go as deep as open-circuit divers.
The cost involved with the sport of scuba diving depends upon whether you own your equipment or rent, the level of certification you desire, the type of scuba gear you use, and the dive destinations you choose. At Scuba John’s, students must own their mask, fins, dive boots, and a snorkel for their class. They offer student gear packages starting at $249. But the normal cost for their basic certification is $498 which includes e-learning, classroom time, and pool time which is taught in the heated pool at Top Spin Plaza in Lexington. After successful completion of the pool session, students must complete at least 4 open water dives to receive certification. Checkout dives are normally held at Lake Jocassee, Lake Keowee, and Lake Murray as needed.
The newest organized dive club in the Lexington area is the SC Midlands Scuba Dive Club organized by Tony Counts of Lexington. Look for them on Facebook if you would like to join the club. They meet monthly at a local restaurant to share pictures and stories of their diving expeditions and get acquainted with other divers in the area. Individuals can learn about diving excursions to places like Florida’s Pompano Beach and islands in the Caribbean. One intriguing venture is to explore shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina.
Scuba divers are using their sport for good causes. Over the past five years, the Wateree Dive Center (4350 St. Andrews Road) in Columbia has worked with Keep the Midlands Beautiful and organized cleanup days in Lake Murray. Last September thirty divers participated in the effort pulling up almost 1,000 pounds of trash from off Putnam’s Landing. Scuba John’s has also worked with Keep the Midlands Beautiful for years. In 2021, over 1,100 pounds of trash was pulled up from around Spence Islands. This year they have included the Riverbanks Zoo dive team as volunteers for a cleanup dive at Sandy Beach on Bundrick Island. These annual events, open to all certified divers, are both fun and serve a great purpose in helping to keep Lake Murray clean. It is sad, but true that thousands of pounds of garbage are dumped or tossed overboard by boaters and shore-liners every year. Other than soda cans, bottles, lost fishing equipment, and a lot of junk, one such dive last year brought up a TV and a bowling ball!
Asking a diver why they love scuba diving so much will always invoke a smile and a struggle to try and put into words the truly indescribable. Eighty percent of the earth’s oceans have never been mapped, explored, or seen by humans. A diver can tell you that they have seen things that no one has ever seen before because no two dives are exactly alike. The ocean is a mix of fixed objects, colorful terrain, and living creatures—some other-worldly to us, but we are more like the aliens invading their world. A woman from the SC Midlands Dive Club recalled diving in Aruba with her husband. He thought something must have been wrong when he saw her just drifting with her arms outstretched under the water during their dive. She was simply enthralled with the sensation of floating along weightlessly about 20 feet below the surface.
Perhaps you have considered learning how to scuba dive. If you are in good health and have a sense of adventure, this could be on your bucket list. The opportunity to learn this the right way is right here in Lexington.