3 Ways To Become a Better Macro Hunter

Roatan. With its azure waters, sandy white beaches and some of the best scuba diving in the world, it’s no wonders it’s an island on the up and up! Scuba diving is a huge part of what attracts people to Roatan, and we are famous for our abundance of both soft and hard coral, schools of fish and well-protected marine park.

But did you know that Roatan also has a very lively macro life? Though you may not think it at first glance, there are so many cool critters to find on our reefs, from pipehorses to nudibranchs to flatworms! Learning how to hunt for macro critters is a great way to make each dive more interesting and to up your scuba game, but it takes some skill and time to master it. Here are our top 3 ways to become a better macro hunter!

Focus on Better Buoyancy

When it comes to searching for critters, maintaining good neutral buoyancy is absolutely key. You need to be able to hover in one place with your face close to the sand or reef for an extended period of time, and kicking and flailing about to do so will tire you out and damage the reef. Focus on keeping your hands close to your body, using your breathing to control your buoyancy, and using your fins sparsely to move.

If you’re not confident in your buoyancy, have no fear! Participate in the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Adventure Dive or the full PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty course to really hone in your buoyancy skills. We recommend all divers to do a PPB dive as it improves your buoyancy and air consumption, but now you get the additional bonus of becoming a better macro hunter!

Take Your Time

In the spirit of better buoyancy, it’s also really important to take your time when you’re looking for macro critters. Part of what makes finding macro animals so special is the time and energy it takes to find them, and you definitely won’t see the tiniest, most well-camouflaged animals by zooming along the reef! So while good buoyancy is important, taking advantage of that good buoyancy by taking it slow is also key. Kick minimally and take the time to study all the nooks and crannies of the reef and sand for anomalies.

Learn From The Best

This may be the most important tip! If you want to learn how to snowboard, you would take lessons from a snowboarding instructor to get the most out of it, right? In the same way, using a professional dive guide to spot things and to teach you how to spot critters yourself is really important. Dive guides have hundreds, if not thousands, of dives on their reefs and have learned where things like to live and hide. Debriefing and going through a reef life book after the dives can give you more insight to specific critters’ habitats, their behaviors, and they can even pique your interest in animals you never knew about before!

If you’d like to see more of our stunning macro life in person, make sure to contact us and set up some diving with our experienced macrotastic guides!
Can’t make it to Roatan yet but yearning to see more of Roatan’s macro world? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram and see what cool critters we find every day!

Should I Do Peak Performance Buoyancy Training?

When it comes to scuba diving, good buoyancy makes all the difference in the world!

Mastering buoyancy allows a diver to become better with air consumption and having good buoyancy is important to protect fragile coral reefs which are damaged easily.

Your enjoyment and comfort levels increase exponentially when your buoyancy is well controlled, your kicks are smooth and you are streamlined.

The PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty is a great 2-dive specialty designed to improve your buoyancy, but for those short on time, you can still do the PADI PPB Adventure dive to get a head start on buoyancy improvement!
For our PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course, we always recommend starting the course with the PPB Adventure dive because it can make your subsequent dives easier and more fun, and most PADI professionals will agree that it’s one of the most beneficial dives you can do.

Even doing just one PPB-centric dive will make you a better diver in the long run, so consider a PPB dive the next time you go diving.

Improve Your Buoyancy Control

• Determine the exact weight you need, so you’re not too light or too heavy.

• Trim your weight system and scuba gear for perfect balance in the water.

• Streamline to save energy, use air more efficiently and move more smoothly through the water.

• Hover effortlessly in any position – vertical or horizontal.

Interested in continuing your diving education with Roatan Divers? Contact us and get started on becoming a more engaged diver today!

Am I Ready To Do My PADI Advanced Open Water Course?

For many Open Water Divers, the Advanced Open Water course can seem like an elusive or possibly intimidating certification. Do I have what it takes to be an advanced diver, and why should I even take a course like this?

Fear not, diving friends! Let's shed some light on what it takes to complete your PADI Advanced Open Water course. Enthusiasm is not required, but it's a huge plus!

The Advanced course takes a minimum of two days and consists of five PADI Adventure dives.

PADI offers many types of Adventure Dives to choose from. Underwater Navigation and Deep Dive are required, giving you three more Adventure Dives that you can choose. Here at Roatan Divers, the most popular Adventure Dives we teach are the Night Dive, Drift Dive, Underwater Naturalist, and Peak Performance Buoyancy.

Classroom time: For the Advanced course, you complete the Knowledge Reviews for the Adventure Dives you have chosen, then after a thorough briefing from your PADI Instructor, you go on an open water dive to apply what you have learned. Unlike the PADI Open Water Diver course, there are no confined water skills.

Why should I become a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver?  

We love getting this question! One of the most common motivators for divers to pursue this certification is their desire to go on more elaborate, adventurous dives! Perhaps a deep dive to the El Aguila ship wreck that sits at 30m/100 feet? Maybe a night dive to catch the magical bioluminescence, or better buoyancy to give you control and confidence to avoid unwanted contact with the reef when looking at smaller marine life.  

The very popular Deep and Night Dives can be a bit more complex, so they require additional knowledge and safety aspects to consider. This course allows you to expand your skills and confidence to make you a more well rounded scuba diver. 

One of the biggest struggles for new divers is gaining better control their positioning and buoyancy on a dive. The Peak Performance Buoyancy dive is a great opportunity to experiment and challenge yourself in this area. It can even help improve your air consumption along the way!

Common misconceptions

Let's clear up a few of the myths that might be stopping you from starting your PADI Advanced Open Water course. 

• There is no minimum number of dives required if you're already a PADI Open Water or Junior Open Water Diver. 

• As a PADI Open Water Diver you are certified to a depth of 18m/60ft, so if you'd like to go deeper, additional training is strongly encouraged. 

• Open Water divers over 15 years old can participate in ALL of the Adventure Dives that are available in the PADI Advanced Open Water course. After completing the course, they will be certified to dive to a depth of up to 30m/100ft.

• Junior Open Water divers over the age of 12 can participate in many of the Adventure Dives as well. After completing the Advanced course they will be certified up to 21m/70ft, which will automatically upgrade to 30m/100ft when they turn 15.

Now that you have a better understanding of what the PADI Advanced Open Water course consists of now, you can talk to your local dive shop if this is the right course for you!

If you're interested in speaking to us or have any additional questions, please contact us today!

5 Ways to Weight Yourself Perfectly for Scuba Diving

One of the first questions we ask all of our divers when they checked in is, "How many weights do you need?". It's so important to keep track of your weighting to make each dive, wherever you go, as easy and relaxing as possible. Being severely underweighted or overweighted on your dives can be incredibly stressful, especially if you are not an experienced diver. Your dive center can try to help you out by estimating the weights you need, but especially with everyone's different body compositions, they aren't always going to be able to accurately predict what you need.

Here are some tips to help you weight yourself accurately every time.

Tip 1. Keep records

Every time you dive, make sure to note your exposure suit type and the weights you used. That way, the next time you dive somewhere, you can just look through your logbook, find the corresponding exposure suit to match what you'll be wearing this time, and weight yourself accordingly.

As a note, BCD and fin types can also affect buoyancy, so if your equipment drastically changes between dive trips, take that into account as well. Always perform a buoyancy check on your first dive in a new place.

Tip 2. Be aware each time you are weighted

We get a lot of people telling us "I used four (or any other number) weights last time". Four 2-pounders? Four 3-pounders? Four 4-pounders? Don't count on just knowing the number of weights you had, make sure to keep in mind how much each weight weighed as well. It's your responsibility to be aware of your weighting needs, so even if your dive center sets everything up for you, you need to keep track yourself.

Tip 3. Focus on your breathing techniques

You could be perfectly weighted, but if you don't breathe properly, your buoyancy could be off anyways. If you tend to keep air in your lungs, learn how to empty them completely. Breathe in and out big, deep breaths, and never hold your breath. Your lungs act as an additional buoyancy control device, and holding your breathe will only add to your buoyancy. Good breathing will greatly improve your buoyancy control and your diving.

Tip 4. Learn what weight distribution works for you

There are different ways to weight yourself. Some people prefer weight belts, some prefer integrated weights, some like to use a combination of both. Everyone is different in their preferences and in what works best for their diving. Figure out which method you prefer, as well as the distribution you prefer, and stick to what works best for you.

It is important, however, to be flexible. If you're relying on rental gear, you kind of have to use what they have available. A lot of dive centers don't have integrated weight pockets in their rental gear, so if integrated is something you must, must use, consider purchasing your own BCD to avoid problems.

Tip 5. Take a buoyancy control course

Whenever we have a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course starting, one Adventure Dive that we always encourage is the Peak Performance Buoyancy dive. It's a great opportunity to really figure out how much weight you need, you learn what it feels like to be both over- and underweighted in a controlled environment, and we have little obstacle courses and games to help you focus on your breathing and buoyancy. The PPB dive, and corresponding specialty, can improve your diving in so many ways, so it's a continuing education option that you should definitely consider.

Bonus tip. Practice makes perfect!

Every time you dive, take the time to focus on all aspects of your diving techniques. Think about your breathing, your kicking, your weight distribution - think about all of it every time you dive. As a certified diver, you should know these things. Don't rely on the dive center to be able to figure it out for you. It's your responsibility, both to yourself, to your buddy and to your dive center, to be the best, most self-aware diver you can be.

Happy diving!

5 Easy Ways to Improve your Buoyancy

Good buoyancy is one of the most important components of being a good diver. If you're flopping all over the place, crawling on the coral and landing on top of other divers, you are not being a good diver or a good buddy.

Fortunately, buoyancy is an easy thing to improve with just a few simple steps! Let's discuss our 5 Easy Ways to Improve your Buoyancy, shall we?

Check out Roatan Divers' instructor, Eri, demonstrating her mad buoyancy skills!

Tip 1. Take a buoyancy course

You heard this in our piece on improving your air consumption. Good buoyancy can improve so many things, including air consumption, kicking and how kind you are to the reef and your fellow divers, so kill a flock of birds with one stone by taking a buoyancy course.

Though it may not sound terribly exciting, a buoyancy course is, in my humble opinion, the greatest thing you can do for your scuba diving. You'll find out how many weights you need to achieve neutral buoyancy, learn how to dive well when you're both under- and over-weighted and practice using your lungs to adjust your buoyancy. Throw in different obstacle courses to make it extra fun and challenging, and you've got yourself an experience that will benefit you for the rest of your scuba diving career.

Tip 2. Log your weights every time

Whenever we are kitting people up, one of the questions we ask is "how many weights do you need?". You would not believe how many people walk through our doors and don't actually know, and can't even ballpark, how many weights they need. As dive professionals, we can eyeball your weights fairly accurately 85% of the time, but some people require more weights than it seems and some require less. We then spend the first few dives trying to sort out your weights, and your air consumption, buoyancy and experience inevitably suffer a little for it.

To avoid the breaking in period every time you go on a dive holiday, you should log how many weights you used on each dive every single time. That way, when you show up somewhere new, you can have an idea of how many weights you need. Even if the equipment or environment is different (fresh vs salt water, 3mm shortie vs 5mm long wetsuit), if you know how many weights you used previously, you can calculate accordingly. Scuba diving very overweighted or underweighted can make your diving a lot harder and you'll blow through your air faster. If you can start your dive trip properly weighted, and all it takes it writing a few numbers in your logbook, why not do it?

Tip 3. Focus on your kicking style

Scuba diving should basically be a practice of hovering with the odd kick here or there. You could be well streamlined and properly weighted, but if you are kicking poorly, then you are cancelling out everything else. Keep your body horizontal and kick from your hips, or you can frog kick if you're feeling comfortable. Bicycle kicking, which is where you are upright and kick from your knees like you're riding a bicycle, will only kick you up towards the surface and throw your buoyancy off balance. You'll also end up kicking up the coral or sand and become the reef's and your dive group's Enemy #1, so it's to everyone's benefit if you kick properly.

Tip 4. Look ma, no hands!

Part of efficient movement underwater also involves not using your hands. Using your hands will tire you out and you run the very real risking of hitting someone in the face or breaking off some coral. There's a reason that we say you shouldn't touch coral. Yes, it's for the coral's benefit because it's very fragile and you can damage it, but it's also to protect you as well. Coral is sharp, and whatever coral cuts you have will get infected. Focus on keeping your arms clasped in of you or by your side.

One of our former instructors used to have all of his Open Water students hold their arms out in front of them in a Superman pose. This kept them aware of their arms, and it also naturally forced their bodies into a horizontal position. This was a great way to practice good kicking and hand placement until they were comfortable enough to find their own rhythm and preferences.

Tip 5. Don't be afraid to take advice

No one goes into scuba diving wanting to be a bad diver, right? But like all activities, there are some things that you'll be great at first try and some that will take work. Don't be afraid to ask for, or take advice from, more experienced divers and dive professionals. Of course, if someone is being nosy or rude, then you can tell them to butt out, but if someone offers you sane, comprehensive advice that is going to help your buoyancy or your scuba diving, then it's okay to take it. We all need advice sometimes, and it's better to take the advice and become a better diver than to believe that you're above that and never improve. As with everything in life, you can always get better, and you should always strive to do so. Life was meant for learning and growing!

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And there it is, our 5 Easy Ways to Improve your Buoyancy! We hope you have an easy, breezy dive filled with wonderful schools of fish and abundant coral. Happy diving!

5 Smart Ways to Improve your Air Consumption

You're 40 minutes into the most amazing dive in the world, surrounded by beautiful schools of fish and vibrant soft coral moving gently in the currently, when an enormous eagle ray comes gently floating by. You want to stay in this moment forever when...curse! You're at 700 psi. It's time to start your safety stop and end the dive.

Want to avoid these types of scenarios? Good air consumption can open up your world when it comes to scuba diving, so let's discuss 5 smart ways to improve your air consumption.

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Instructor Eri demonstrating great buoyancy control.

Tip 1. Take a buoyancy course

Good buoyancy is the key to good air consumption. There are three main benefits of being weighted well and demonstrating good buoyancy: you don't waste a lot of air inflating and deflating your BCD, your breathing is more regulated and you use less energy.

Whenever we have Advanced Open Water Diver students, the first dive of the course that we always strongly recommend they complete is the Peak Performance Buoyancy dive. You learn how to weight yourself properly, how to swim in a good, efficient manner and how to use your lungs, not your BCD, to control your buoyancy. It's a really beneficial dive that improves people's diving for their entire diving careers, so it's a dive that should definitely not be missed.

Want to take it even further? Take an entire buoyancy specialty course, where you spend several dives focusing just on buoyancy. This will greatly improve your diving and your air consumption in the long run.

Tip 2. Be a yogi (or at least breathe like one)

A lot of people find that doing yoga benefits them as scuba divers. Even if you don't do yoga, it doesn't hurt to breathe like someone that does. Yoga breathing is very similar to how you should breathe in scuba diving. Nice, long deep breaths in and nice, long deep breaths out.

Breathing deeply not only improves your air consumption, but it improves your buoyancy control as well. Your lungs act as a secondary buoyancy control device, so breathing shallowly and holding air in your lugs will make you more positively buoyant. If you are positively buoyant on a dive, especially during your safety stop, it can stress you out and make you breathe even more shallow, further increasing your buoyancy. Breathing your air out deeply will help neutralize your buoyancy, so you get the double benefit of better air consumption, buoyancy control and less stress when you breathe deeply.

Tip 3. To take it further, try the 1:2 rule

When I first started diving, I wanted to see just how good I could get my air consumption, so I started a 1:2 rule to see if it made a difference. Breathe in for a certain number of seconds (4 seconds was comfortable for me) and breathe out for twice that period of time (8 seconds out). While it wasn't a type of breathing I would naturally do, focusing so much on my breathing and taking the time to not only breathe in slowly, but to also breathe out slowly, made a difference for my air consumption. Now, I can actually get two 60 minutes dives off of one tank if I am so inclined (I'm not normally so inclined, but it's had its benefits before).

Tip 4. Be efficient

Efficiency is the name of the game in scuba diving. Efficient kicking is important to decrease your energy consumption and breathing. When you're diving, you basically want to be hovering always with a gently kick or two every once in a while. Try not to use your arms as that will increase your energy consumption, and though you may not notice it, your breathing will increase as well. Watching your guide or instructor as they dive and see if they're being efficient. If they are, try to mimic them and see how it suits you! If they're flip-floppiting everywhere, then use them as your example of what not to do.

Tip 5. Be gentle with yourself

Being a good diver does not always come naturally to everyone. Some people are great divers on their first Discover Scuba Diving program. Some people require dozens of dives and lots of additional training before they become good, comfortable divers. Everyone is different. If your air consumption is faster than the others, that's okay. With time and some practice, your air consumption will improve, so give yourself a break and just enjoy yourself. The more stressed you are, the more you will breathe, so just relax and enjoy your dive!

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So there you have it, 5 smart ways to improve your air consumption! Remember, the most important part of your scuba diving experience is to be mindful, smart, and most of all, have fun. Everything else will come in time, so enjoy the beautiful underwater world and you'll get a 60 minute dive before you know it!