There is a Scuba Diving Time Limit

Except for Michael Phelps, human beings are not created to spend most of their time in the water. We are a community of creatures who walk on dirt, and if you’re reading this right now, it is likely that you desire to extend your human limitations and experience to that which cannot be possible without the aid of scuba diving technology.

Sadly, even the distance and depth that technology has given to us cannot last for eternity. You buy a battery, it runs out. An Apple product gets released, YouTube asks, “Will it Blend?” Time destroys everything. This is evidenced by my Mum’s 8-pound cell phone rotting in some corner that rats call home. In scuba diving, time limits are also present. And our lack of functional gills tells us that managing our time underwater is the surviving equivalent as breathing on dry land.

The Technical Aspects

This part of the article deals with the scuba diver’s “mechanical gills”, or the scuba tank. Here, I am to explain how long a tank of compressed air will last so the scuba diver may know when to end his/her voyage. I researched for accuracy. Accuracy is good. But then, I stumbled upon this equation: 3000 psi / 14.7 psi = 204.08. For the sake of helpful simplicity, I have chosen not to go to mathematical territory and will try to be as accommodating as I can with the use of shallow words.

The most common and average scuba tanks hold about 80 cubic feet of air at a rated pressure of 3,000 psi. The average scuba diver will consume about a cubic foot of air every minute. So, that’s 80 cubic foot of air being used up at a rate of one cubic foot per minute. That would mean that the average tank will last about 80 minutes if used by the average diver. Aha! My high school diploma is proud of me.

Notice the overuse of the word, “Average” in the previous paragraph? Yeah, me too- I wrote it. My point is, the outcome of the numbers above is not absolute. The time a diver is allowed to stay underwater varies within the diver himself. If the scuba diver has the lungs of a young person like Justin Beiber, an average scuba tank will be more than enough. But, if you’re size is anywhere between Robert Downey Jr. and The Incredible Hulk, a larger tank is advised.

The Physical Aspects

Now that we’re shifting from the technical to the physical aspects of the scuba diver’s time limits, it would be safe to assume that we’d be able to breathe normal again by taking a step down intellectually, yes? No. As I was researching facts about this point of my article I came across with this:

What the hell is it? Don’t ask. Please.

So where was I? Oh yeah. The human lungs are used to breathing oxygen. Our scuba tanks are not composed of pure oxygen. It is a mixture of gases. These gases aren’t dangerous. But when the scuba diver breathes too much of it underwater, he/she might contract ailments such as decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity. I don’t know what exactly they are, but the words, “sickness”, “narcosis”, and “toxicity” scare me.

Also, diving in shallow waters allows you to dive for a longer period of time because the shallower you dive, the less air is compressed. And remember, the human body is subject to hypothermia. This possibility is dependent on the choice of your dive spots. Go Scuba Diving in Palau this summer and you’ll be just fine. Try diving in Antarctica during the winter and you’ll be the homo sapien discovery after the next ice age.