5 Safety Tips When Scuba Diving During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has unexpectedly disrupted scuba diving around the world. But now that more restrictions are being lifted and travel is slowly getting back to normal, scuba diving is also slowly being encouraged with the right precautions. Here are five safety tips to help you dive safe during this pandemic:
- Always sanitize equipment. Aside from brining your own equipment, it’s also very important to sanitize them every after dive using 4:100 bleach solution. This includes BCD oral inflators, snorkels, whistles and masks that come in contact with the mouth during a dive.
- Never share a mouthpiece. Air checks with your buddy is a regular part of scuba diving. But with the pandemic still going, it’s very important to avoid sharing the same mouthpiece with your buddy during air checks to avoid the chance of contamination. Only use the same mouthpiece when you’re in an emergency.
- Keep your distance. Before you hit the water, it’s best to stay at least six feet away form other divers to avoid the possibility of transmission. If you need to check your buddy’s equipment, do it visually and maintain a safe distance until you’re fully underwater where the risk for contamination is a lot lower.
- Wash your hands. This should be a no-brainer by now, but it’s very important to wash or sanitize your hands before and after you or someone else’s gear and after every dive. If possible, try to avoid touching other people’s stuff to lessen the chance of contamination.
- Use defog for now. It’s common practice among many divers to use spit to clean a mask. But with the pandemic, spitting will only increase the risk of transmitting the virus. This is why it’s important to bring defog and use it to clean your mask rather than your saliva.
At the end of the day, we can all get back to doing what we love like scuba diving if we follow the necessary protocols that will help keep us safe from the virus. So, if you’re planning a trip soon, make sure that you keep these tips in mind.
