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17 November 2020
By Danel Wentzel
Life can be dangerous if we do not follow with precaution.
It's dangerous when driving at 100km/h in-between other cars on the highway with oncoming traffic but yet everybody still drives without thinking much of it. Walking across a busy street with cars coming from different directions is a risk we take every day but not without precaution.
We know that we should look left and right before crossing the street and perhaps cross over a zebra crossing or bridge just to be safe. We have to learn how to drive before we can venture out unsupervised and whenever we do we must always wear our seatbelts.
Scuba diving is no different. There are risks involved when we submerged ourselves underwater and in order to understand what these are we need to first be trained by a diving professional. Instructors always keep safety at the forefront of their training and bestow, to the best of their ability, safe diving practices onto their students.
But just as there are risks when driving with a learner driver so there will always be a level of risk when scuba diving. The only thing we can do is to minimise it with proper training, follow safe diving practices and by having an emergency action plan in place if things go wrong.
DAN: The Leaders in Dive Safety
DAN is your best friend in diving safety, research and education. The organisation, Divers Alert Network, is preferred by over 500 000 divers worldwide, for their 24/7 emergency medical hotline and network of diving doctors who are readily available for any medical questions, even for non-emergencies too.
They provide dive accident cover for entry-level students, certified divers both local and on holiday, as well as dive professionals across all disciplines.
Diving Emergencies
Entry-level scuba diving courses will teach you about the risks associated with diving and how to minimise them. They will point out common mistakes divers make and how simple mnemonics and buddy procedures can keep you safe underwater. But what happens when you forget or things unexpectedly go out of control?
Danel and I have been DAN Members for over 5 years and have fortunately never been in a diving emergency yet the reassurance we have before every single dive we make is always prevalent. We don't know when our first emergency situation is going to be or if it will ever happen but that is why every year we are proud DAN members for when that time comes.
Peace of Mind for Everyone
As DAN Members we know we are protected for the unforeseen but entry-level students could feel that the risk involved in scuba diving is just too high for them and might be the reason why they don't want to start diving.
The great news is that DAN offers to all entry-level student divers free student cover in the pool and in the open water for the duration of their course. This gives the student peace of mind while stepping out of their comfort zone as well as the instructor teaching the course.
At Capensis Diving we register all our PADI Open Water students for the DAN Student Cover so that they can spend more time having fun while learning because they know that their dive instructors have their safety at heart.
Emergency Action Plan
We strive to make better divers for the blue and with that commitment we are constantly trying to give back to our diving community. That is why we want to share with you the Emergency Action Plan that we designed and use for our dives.
We have ours laminated and stuck to the car window so that anybody can follow the easy-to-follow instructions, call DAN-SA and help in an emergency.
It's good that you know what to do in an emergency but if you the one that needs saving - who are you relying on to be there for you?
Once you qualify as a PADI Open Water Diver we strongly encourage you to become a DAN Member so that the same reassurance that you felt while learning how to dive under our supervision, you will get to know as you explore under the supervision of the Diver's Alert Network.
Become a DAN Member Today
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