Types of diving

In short

Diving is not just a swim over a reef. Depending on the place, the time and the goal, there are exploration dives, drift dives, night dives, wreck dives, deep dives, lake dives, biology and photo dives, but also freediving and snorkeling. Each type has its own appeal, risks and sometimes equipment or training. This guide helps you find your way and know what is open to you at your level.

Why it matters

Discovering a new type of diving is one of the great pleasures of the activity, but each environment brings its own difficulties: darkness, current, a structure above you, cold, depth. Knowing what to expect lets you choose an outing suited to your level, prepare for it and ask for the right training before you start.

Dives open to beginners

Exploration, from the shore or a boat

This is the most common dive: an underwater tour of a site chosen by the dive supervisor, to discover the landscapes and marine life.

• Requirements: a try dive or a first certification, staying within your rights.
• Risks: those of any dive (ears, air, decompression); from the shore, entry and exit (waves, rocks).
• Equipment: standard equipment.

Biology diving

You take time to observe and recognise fauna and flora: a fish's behaviour, plants, invertebrates hidden in crevices. It is done slowly, in shallow water, and most organisations offer dedicated courses.

• Requirements: none to observe; biology qualifications teach you to identify species.
• Risks: focusing on a subject and forgetting your depth, your air or your team.
• Equipment: a torch to look into holes, possibly a slate.

Underwater photography and video

Above all, they require excellent buoyancy control: to avoid damaging the bottom and to get sharp pictures.

• Requirements: being comfortable in the water; many courses exist.
• Risks: loss of attention, destructive finning near the bottom, unintended ascent while following a subject.
• Equipment: camera and waterproof housing, lighting; start simple.

Dives that need preparation

Drift diving

You let the current carry you; the boat follows the team's bubbles or surface marker buoy and picks everyone up at the end.

• Appeal: long distances covered effortlessly, often abundant marine life.
• Requirements: experience and buoyancy control; a course or a guided first dive is recommended.
• Risks: the team getting split up, fast descent or ascent, difficulty being seen at the surface.
• Equipment: a surface marker buoy is essential in practice, a whistle, sometimes a reef hook.

Night diving

The same site becomes another world: nocturnal animals, colours revealed by the torch.

• Requirements: ideally, having dived the site by day; a course or a first guided dive.
• Risks: difficult navigation, losing the team, stress.
• Equipment: a primary torch and a backup torch, a light marker on the cylinder. Specific torch signals are explained at the briefing.

Wreck diving

Wrecks are places of history and become true artificial reefs.

• Requirements: the outside of a wreck is open to you within your depth rights; penetration (going inside) requires specific training.
• Risks: entanglement in nets and cables, sharp metal, collapse, loss of orientation and silt clouds inside; often depth and current.
• Equipment: torch, cutting tool, surface marker buoy.
• Respect: never take anything from a wreck, and some are protected.

Lake, quarry and altitude diving

Fresh water, often cold and dark at depth, sometimes at altitude.

• Requirements: diving at altitude changes decompression calculations and requires training and a suitable tool.
• Risks: cold, thermocline (sudden drop in temperature), reduced visibility, regulator freezing in very cold water.
• Equipment: thick wetsuit or drysuit, cold-water regulator, revised weighting (fresh water is less buoyant).

Dives reserved for trained divers

These activities are described for information only: they all require long, specific training.

• Deep diving: beyond about 30 m, narcosis, air consumption and decompression become major constraints. Access depends on your level.
• Technical diving: it uses mixes containing helium (trimix), several cylinders, long decompression stops or a rebreather (a device that reuses exhaled gas). It relies on rigorous planning and redundant equipment.
• Cave diving: with no direct access to the surface, in darkness. It is a discipline of its own, with its own rules and training. Never enter a cave without training.
• Ice diving: under a layer of ice, connected to the surface by a line. It requires substantial surface organisation and equipment suited to extreme cold.

Overhead environments (wrecks, caves, ice), great depth and special gas mixes cannot be improvised. Ordinary diving experience, however long, does not replace specific training for these environments.

Activities without a cylinder

Freediving

You dive while holding your breath, in a pool or in the sea. It develops relaxation and self-awareness.

• Requirements: training in a club; never practise alone.
• Risks: loss of consciousness (blackout), often without warning, especially near the surface. The golden rule: one dives, one watches.
• After a scuba dive, freediving is not recommended: it increases the risk of decompression sickness.

Snorkeling

Mask, snorkel and fins, at the surface, with a few short dives. It is an excellent way to discover the underwater world, open to almost everyone.

• Requirements: being able to swim; guided outings exist.
• Risks: current, sun, cold, boats. Stay visible (marker buoy) and accompanied.

Pool swimming

The pool is used for training, learning technical skills and keeping fit out of season.

Diving for everyone

Adaptive diving

People with disabilities can dive, with trained instructors and adaptations (equipment, reinforced buddy system, techniques). Several federations have dedicated qualifications. Ask clubs with the relevant accreditation.

Children's diving

Children can discover diving with suitable courses, limited depths and times and equipment sized for them. Minimum ages and limits vary depending on the organisation and the country's regulations. Medical advice is required.

Key takeaways

• Each type of diving has its own risks: find out before you start.
• Discover drift, night and wreck diving with a guide and, ideally, a course.
• Cave, ice, wreck penetration and technical diving require specific training.
• Never freedive alone; freediving is not recommended after a scuba dive.
• Diving is open to children and people with disabilities with suitable instructors.

Further reading

The watch offers several activity modes: scuba diving, freediving, snorkeling and pool swimming. Each mode shows the relevant screens and calculations; when freediving after a recent dive, the watch displays a caution reminder. In your logbook, each session can be classified by category and, for diving, by type (refresher, tour, wreck, cave, technical), then filtered in your history.