Diving Glossary

Here is a glossary of SCUBA diving terms:

Anoxia 

inhaling a breathing gas that contains no oxygen or being unable to inhale and breathing gas.

Barotrauma 

pressure-related injury.

Beach master 

A person on the beach who records when divers enter and exit the water. Typically used during scuba classes to keep track of the students, watch the gear, provide assistance when required.

Bounce dive 

Specifically, to recreationally oriented divers, bounce dives usually means going straight down and coming straight back up, without stops, in a pattern resembling a spike, in order to retrieve items or due to poor buoyancy control.

Buddy system 

Two divers that dive together as a team for safety.

C-card 

Certification card (proof of training or experience).

Carbon monoxide poisoning 

usually due to compressor maintenance errors.

Carbon dioxide poisoning 

is due to incomplete elimination of carbon dioxide

Cattleboat 

a slang term for a boat transporting inexperienced tourist divers.

Decompression sickness 

a diving disorder caused by bubbles of inert gases, such as nitrogen or helium, becoming trapped in the tissues, organs and blood vessels of the body causing symptoms ranging from rashes to death.

Decompression stop 

a pause during the ascent phase of the dive to allow safe release of inert gases from the tissues of the body and avoid decompression sickness.

Decompression tables 

Printed tables that provide divers with a way of avoiding Decompression Sickness by giving the maximum times that can be spent at depth, and by indicating the Decompression Stops and Surface Intervals needed for a particular depth and time profile to be carried out safely.

Decompression buoy 

a small buoy on a line that divers inflate underwater to indicate their location to their boat.

Dive club 

a group of people with an interest in SCUBA diving.

Dive Flag 

Flag used by a boat to indicate that it has 'divers down'. Comes in two versions: the international marine (international code letter flag 'A', Missing image
Flag_IntA.png
Image:flag_IntA.png

) and the red and white flag (red with white diagonal, ), introduced by Ted Nixon in 1956. Boats must maintain a minimum safety distance away from the flag. Personal water craft pose a hazard to divers, and sadly few operators do know what a dive flag is. Some believe it is a turn marker. If you observe a personal water craft operating to close to a dive flag contact the lake patrol.

Dive Shop 

supplier of dive equipment or training, or organizer of dive expeditions.

Dive tables 

see Decompression tables

Divemaster 

A professional level diver who is in charge of the dive.

Drift dive 

a dive in a current.

Drowning 

death caused by inability to inhale anything but water.

Dry suit 

Fire Diving 

An urban legend about a diver who is scooped up by a plane/chopper and dropped on a forest fire led someone to build a web site for the fictitious sport of Firediving (http://www.firediving.com/).

Frogman 

A scuba diver, particularly a military diver on an undercover mission.

Gas embolism 

air or other gas bubbles in the blood stream.

Hard Hat diving 

A term for commercial divers. Refers to a modern fiberglass helmet or the old style brass helmet tethered divers wear.

HPNS, High Pressure Nervous Syndrome or Helium Tremors 

caused by using breathing gases that contain helium at depth.

Hypoxia 

inhaling a breathing gas that contains insufficient oxygen to support normal activities or consciousness.

Hypothermia 

Log Book 

List of the dives a diver has recorded for proof of experience.

Interstitial emphysema 

gas trapped in the chest after lung barotrauma.

Navy SEAL 

A US Navy trained military diver (http://www.sealchallenge.navy.mil/).

Night diving 

a dive at night - many underwater animals are nocturnal or behave differently at night.

Nitrogen narcosis 

condition caused by breathing nitrogen at high pressure (at depth).

Oxygen toxicity 

is caused by using breathing gases that contain oxygen at at high pressure (at depth).

Pneumothorax 

collapsed lung.

Professional diving 

diving for payment.

Rebreather 

a device which reuses part of each breath. See linked article for more information.

Recreational diving 

a type of diving that uses SCUBA equipment for the purpose of leisure and enjoyment.

Salt water aspiration syndrome 

the diver inhales a mist of sea water from a fault demand valve causing a reaction in the lungs.

Saturation diving 

a decompression regime used in commercial diving that allows divers to live work for weeks at a time where their tissues become saturated in high pressure gas.

Sawtooth profile 

the shape of the depth v. time graph of a "yo-yo dive."

Secondary drowning 

can occur hours after a near drowning.

Semi-dry suit 

Shore diving 

Scuba diving that starts from the shore line.

Skin 

a lycra suit worn by a diver in warm water or under a wet suit.

Standard diving dress 

Subcutaneous emphysema 

gas under the skin tissue.

Surface interval 

the time between dives. divers need to track this time interval for planning the next dive.

Surface marker buoy, SMB 

a small inflated buoy that divers tow when underwater on drift dives to indicate to indicate their location to their boat.

Time to fly 

Divers must wait approx. 24 hours after the last dive before flying.

Trash dive 

a dive dedicated to removing trash from the underwater environment.

Wall diving 

diving along the face of a vertical wall - requires good buoyancy control because there is no seabed to prevent the diver descending too deep.

Wet suit 

Wreck diving 

diving on wrecked ships.

Yo-yo dive 

Typical for inexperienced divers, yo-yo dives mean alternating periods of descent and ascent in a sawtooth pattern, usually due to poor buoyancy control, resembling the yo-yo toy movement.