Monday, December 3, 2018

Hydration and SCUBA

Staying hydrated sounds like an easy task, however, it can be more difficult than you think especially while SCUBA diving. Let's be frank, more odds are against you being acceptably hydrated from the moment you get to you dive destination if not before hand. As we all know dehydration can increase our chances of decompression sickness. Here is a general play by play of our inevitable dehydration as habitual bubble blowers.

TRAVEL DAY: 
You packed your bags, stood in line at TSA, drank your coffee to keep the blood moving, and took the small cup of water passed down by the flight attendant. Jumping from flight, to layover, to flight, to cab, to finally the resort. How many times did you have to use the restroom? Honestly? You've already started your dive vacation off on a dehydrated note. 


ARRIVED! 
Now you have checked into your room, wandered around the resort, got your dive bags prepared for your 8am boat departure and found a nearby beach bar or restaurant. Soaking in the Jimmy Buffet band and snacking on your well earned nachos and mahi tacos, your salt intake and whatever alcoholic beverage you may or may not have indulged in is gradually adding to your liquid deficit. 

 


DIVE DAY!
All the travel, all the packing and money saving has lead to this moment. Now you're in the humid, tropical, paradise overlooking your dive boat and crew lugging your dive bags from the shop to the boat. You may have enjoyed a cup of coffee from the resort and followed that up with a glass of water or two, but does this compensate for what you've lost thus far? 

DURING THE DIVES!
Number one rule of diving? "Just keep breathing!" The simple act of breathing dehydrates you! Condensation occurs as you breath out, even more so with that dry compressed air we breath as divers. Breathing compressed air can have you lose nearly 16oz of water in a 60 minute dive. They say there are two types of divers, those that pee in their wetsuit, and those that lie about it. If you're peeing you MUST be hydrated correct? Incorrect, peeing in your wetsuit occurs due to a little thing called immersion dieresis. That is a fancy word for your blood pooling from your limbs to keep warm after jumping into cooler water. Even those tropical climates, the water temperature is lower than our normal 96.8 degree core temperature. This pooling increases your blood pressure thus making you have to pee more, inevitably losing more hydration. After a
long day out on the sea there's a good chance you got a bit more sun that you had hoped. Sunburns also are a huge contributor to dehydration. Be sure to lather up with some reef safe sunscreen and stay under shade as much as possible.

NOW WHAT?
Now that we have all this knowledge of how our bodies are struggling to stay hydrated what can we do to help or prevent this? The answer, stay actively hydrated. Keep your body hydrated on a constant especially the weeks leading up to a dive trip. On average we should be drinking at least 8, 8oz cups of water a day, however, asking your doctor for a more individualized amount is recommended. Avoid caffeine during travel and limit your alcohol consumption. DAN suggests we drink a cup of water 15-20 minutes before the dive rather than guzzle down a liter right before. They also suggest you eat food with plenty of water content ie fruits and veggies. Lastly, be sure to rinse off with fresh water post diving. The salt on your skin will continue to pull water from you. 

We hope this article was helpful in keeping you happy and hydrated. We look forward to diving with you here at Aqua Action Dive Center in St. Thomas, USVI soon!






Sunday, July 29, 2018

PADI International Dive Day at Aqua Action Dive Center 2018

PADI International Women's Dive Day

 
On July 21st, 2018 Aqua Action Dive Center was proud to host 
PADI Women's Dive Day Event.
 During this event, we took the Ocean Express out to Buck Island and completed a two tank dive. Our first site,  at Dive Flag Rock, we saw sharks, banded shrimp, lobster and more. Our second dive site, the ship wreck Cartanza Sr. was teeming with fish, sea urchins, and sea turtles! We ended this outstanding trip with a champagne toast and headed back in for the beach BBQ held on our white sand Secret Harbor Bay.
 
Back on shore we had 4 Discover Divers taking their first breaths under water with Instructor Rob! He took two groups out on shore dives after a quick refresher lesson and saw sting rays, arrow crabs, Sargent Majors, Parrot fish and more!
 
Big shout out to our grill master Aaron for cooking hamburgers and hot dogs for our group of snorkelers and divers. In honor of Women's Dive Day we gave out free snorkel rentals to anyone wanting to explore the bay from the top of the water.
 
Sunset Grille, our neighbor on the bay was kind enough to set up a bottomless mimosa, sangria, and bloody mary bar for all of our Women's Dive Day participants.
 
We ended a beautiful day out on the water and beach with a raffle for a Cressi snorkel set. Mask, snorkel and fins! Our winner sure was happy!
 
Thank you to everyone who took photos and allowed us to publish them! Our girl Squid took some stellar video of those sharks too!
 
We look forward to doing this again next year!

Shipwreck



JAWS!

That Pre-dive glow

Coral captures our eye

shrimp?

Life is better down here



Instructor Rob and his DSDs

Grill Master and friends

coral head

Cool

Instructor Courtnie


Raffle Time!


Hawksbill Turtle



Dive Briefing


Group pic after dive 1

Snorkelers/BBQ

CHEERS!!


Cartanza Sr.

Girls 1 Adam 0

Adventure awaits


Come dive the Caribbean!



Funs about to begin

fish need buddies too


Here lobster.. lobster.. lobster..

Buddy Diving

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!

Bottomless Drink Station Thanks Sunset Grille

Grill master Aaron and captain Adam

About to head out!


Shark butt!

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Thank You Hurricane Relief Workers!

                           Thank You Hurricane Relief Workers!

                       It has been 9 months since we got hit by 2 category 5 hurricanes in a matter of days of eachother. We have had a long recovery process and with that we have a very important group of people we would like to reach out and thank! All of those contracted through FEMA we appreciate the sacrifices you have made to leave home and spend months here on our little piece of paradise to help us rebuild our lives.

                    At Aqua Action Dive Center, we have been racking our brains trying to find a way to thank you all for everything, so we decided the best way to thank you all is by doing what we do best... let's go diving! 

                   We will work around your busy schedule to get you certified. If you already are a diver, consider yourself family and take advantage of our friends and family discount on continued education courses, dive trips, and Discover Dive courses.