HostPooling Pool and Spa Services and Supplies

HostPooling Pool and Spa Services and Supplies

Pool Diving

Pool Slides

A swimming pool is a great addition to any back yard and the small space that it occupies returns a huge volume of fun when it is designed correctly. For many people who are going through the decision making process of having a pool installed in their backyard, what the final decision in the end often comes down to is whether to have a diving board or a slide installed on the side of the pool.

The fact is, that for many people their first experience with a swimming pool is at their high school where the pool has a diving board installed so they tend to gravitate to what they are familiar with. However; what many people don't know is that a pool slide can and will provide hours of fun and entertainment for both then young and the young at heart.

The Zoomerang above ground pool slide is a great example of a pool slide that is both solid, reliable and at the same time much safer than a diving board. It retails for around $700 which is also cheaper than a diving board. Another pool slide that is less expensive than the Zoomerang is the Cyclone which sells for around $100 less than the Zoomwerang.

The great thing about pool slides is that they can be set up in the shallow end of the pool, so even the very young in the family can have loads of fun using them. Also, another benefit of having a pool slide installed is that they don't require a very deep deep end such as a diving board requires. So when all things are considered for most people who are having a pool installed in their backyard a pool slide makes so much more sense then a diving board, is less expensive and is also so much more safer for the whole family to use.

About the Author

Written by Angelina Gibsen. Find the latest information on Pool slides

pool diving

Learning To Scuba Dive

Personally I blame Jacques Cousteau. Ever since watching his programs on undersea exploration during the late 60s and 70s (when I was at an impressionable age) I have had the urge to learn to scuba dive. It's been sitting there in the back of my mind for nearly 40 years and finally I am doing something about it.

Nowadays, although scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) diving is still classed as an extreme sport by most holiday insurance companies, scuba diving has very much come of age and is a well regulated and popular international hobby.

I think the itch to finally do something about learning to scuba dive really started playing up again a couple of years ago when I was on holiday in the Canaries. Outside a couple of the hotels there were big rectangular flags sporting wavy blue lines and the letters PADI. This is the acronym for the professional Association of Diving Instructors and seems to be the main international body that provides training and certification in diving skills.

Their 'Open Water Diver' course and level of qualification seems to be the basic qualification that is required if you want to be able to hire scuba gear while on holiday, as most diving suppliers will only let you rent gear if you have this level of training and certification.

Getting the qualification involves three phases of activity. Firstly there is the book/classroom type learning covering basics of diving and understanding scuba gear. The second stage is in-water exercises in a confined and safe environment, usually a pool. These involve getting familiar with the equipment and developing the practical skills to deal with a variety of emergency situations (like retrieving your mouthpiece and clearing you mask). The third phase is actual diving under supervision, in which you get to take to the open water to experience diving under the supervision of an instructor who is also rating you to see whether or not you can be certified as able to dive without this level of close supervision.

The beauty of these courses is that they can be split across different venues. The book learning is probably the most accessible component, particularly since PADI now do an online course that you can subscribe to. Alternatively you could do this part of the course with a local dive school. For example, in West London (where I live) there are a variety of dive schools, some with specialized deep-water pools, which offer full PADI open water diver certification courses. These courses cover all three of the learning stages outlined above and it seems to make sense to do at least the first two, the academic and pool-based learning locally. This will allow me to benefit from the convenience of scheduling in the training when it suits me without wasting part of my holiday on it. The third phase, the open water diving, can also be done through these schools but PADI runs an international credit transfer system where you can do different parts of the training in different places. This means I can do my book learning and pool dives locally and then book up for the open water part at one of the dive schools while I am on holiday. So I get to complete my training in the beautiful tropical waters where I actually want to dive.

This is the plan but before I do anything further, it's worth checking that I really am happy with the practice rather than just the idea of scuba diving. Apart from signing up for the full PADI course, most dive schools also offer brief scuba diving 'taster' sessions. These sessions give you the chance to try out scuba gear and get the experience of being under water (and finding out if you like it) before committing to a proper course of study. What's more, any time spent in the water and skills learnt are also transferrable credits that count towards getting my open water diver certification if, after experiencing the taster session, I decide I really do want to turn my dream into reality.

It's always a little scary pursuing something that you've quietly wanted to do for years but I think it's finally time to take the plunge, so to speak.

About the Author

This article was written by the staff at FindExperienceDays.com, a price comparison site for UK experience days where you can get tables of experience days from the major UK merchants organised by activity type, vehicle, number of people and even by location using the new venue maps. We also have a blog and pages listing the latest discount experience days as they become available.

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