When scuba diving, you tend to use certain hand signals to communicate with your fellow scuba divers. Regular diving buddies will generally start to form additional signals for more in-depth communication under water. Because of this underwater communication, it’s not uncommon for you and your diving partners to use the hand signals out in public.

Not only do these hand signals work really well over great distances, but in noisy places, as well. Many active scuba divers use these hand signals when driving, in the supermarket, when walking along the streets, and more. For more technical scuba divers, hand signals will be more pronounced than for those who have been doing it for a short amount of time.

When scuba diving, it’s essential to equalize your ears for a comfortable diving experience. Those who suffer from allergies or congestion may find it much harder to equalize the pressure within their ears. You may have noticed a diver pinching his or her nose and breathing out, a few times a day. This is generally to check their ears before an upcoming excursion or diving trip.

Something that can cause issues with your ears is the use of air conditioning in a car or hotel room. Another could be common allergies, which may affect your sinuses and ears. This can be anything from hay fever to cat allergies. Colds and flus can also affect your sinuses and ears, so it’s important to make sure, before diving, that you’re feeling great and in full health.

Over the years of scuba diving, you may suddenly realize that you have a whole separate bedroom that caters to your scuba gear. This isn’t uncommon in those who love to scuba dive. You may even find you have multiple items that you probably forgot about. Some scuba divers have said they have a room with some of the items they scavenged on a diving trip. Liken it, as you will, to a hoarder of scuba gear. Although some of it may not be useful, you will find it very difficult to get rid of any of it. If this is the case, you’re a true scuba diving lover.

Across your months and years of scuba diving, you may have experienced the dwindling of some of the coral reefs and underwater ecosystems. Some long-term divers have said they have observed a decline in the amount of living coral and fish numbers at their favorite destinations. Some of the factors which contribute to the coral reef decline include poor diving practices, invasive species, warming of oceans, overfishing, and pollution.

Many younger and inexperienced divers may not know the difference between damaged and undamaged coral. However, when you fall in love with scuba diving, and the underwater world, you’ll find yourself becoming a conservationist, as you see the impact humanity has on underwater ecosystems. Many serious scuba divers tend to make different lifestyle choices in their everyday lives.

When you become a lover of scuba diving, you’ll find that your plans on weekends and when planning vacations will change more than expected. Your trips will start to revolve around whether there are available scuba diving options at your desired destinations. Instead of going to Rome, you might travel instead to Fiji, and dive every day, despite the risk of food poisoning, seasickness, mosquitoes, and more. You’ll find that pristine dive sites and remote locations will take priority when it comes to planning your vacations.

When diving for long periods, it’s not uncommon that someone in your group has to go to the toilet. Serious divers may find themselves becoming more comfortable talking with other divers they may not know about their toilet habits and other habits that most people can’t discuss over dinner.

Most times divers will come together and end up learning about each other’s hydration levels, indigestion, congestion, ear health, muscle cramps, and any other physical conditions which may affect them or their safety in the water. Most of the time you’ll find these topics coming up in diving boats, and, often enough, with people you just met.

Scuba diving, just like any other sport, allows you to become up-close and personal with people from all walks of life, careers, and backgrounds. You will become friends with people you may not have met in your normal life.

It’s not uncommon for businessmen or women, yoga instructors, or construction workers to be diving together and sharing their wonderful life experiences. In many cases, unusual pairings may lead to a lifelong friendship.

Before you started your scuba diving adventure, you may have had all your retirement plans set in place. Now, with the prospect of new diving sites, you may find when you retire that you’re looking for something more than that cottage in the mountains. It’s not uncommon for serious scuba divers to change their retirement plans from the mountains to the coastline. In some ways, once you’re a scuba diver, you’re always a scuba diver, even when you retire.

You know you’ve turned into a true scuba diver when you find that many media outlets tend to misrepresent the underwater activity. You may find yourself shouting out the TV, saying things such as “A real scuba diver wouldn’t do that,” or “Where is the diving buddy?” You may also find these misrepresentations offensive, and you have a strong urge to correct them.

These factual errors, unfortunately, aren’t really an issue to the normal everyday person who doesn’t know the difference. They are just there to watch the movie. Although you can’t do anything about the misrepresentation of scuba diving in media, you can’t help but feel strongly about it.

When you start scuba diving, you’ll find yourself feeling the need to tell everyone about it and just how good it really is. As an active diver, you’ll feel that many people on the planet are missing out, and, unfortunately, you are right. This is where you’ll have the urge to create a list of all the amazing experiences you’ve had, the creatures you’ve come into contact with, and the places you’ve visited.

You will also have a strong urge to show your friends home movies, Facebook posts, and slideshows, as much as you can, and this is because you want people to enjoy the experience and feeling that you get when you scuba dive.