104. Fitness to dive

This is a rather awkward topic to write about because I don't like the conclusion I have to draw.

In theory, fitness to dive shouldn't be much of an issue. Modern scuba diving is meant to be an accessible and inclusive activity, not an elitist, exclusive one. Half a century ago the situation was different. Divers often had some sort of military experience from WWII; many were former commandos, and of course some of them had actually worked as frogmen. They were fit from exercise and rationing and they knew their business, such as it was. If you couldn't swim a mile in full kit or tread water with a weight held above your head then you simply weren't fit to dive and you had no business trying.

Then came the NAUI and PADI phenomenon, where ways and means were found to enable the vast majority of people to dive, including some with pronounced physical disabilities. The modern expectation is that diving should be pretty much accessible to all.

Now comes the hard part. There is, unfortunately, very little I can do to square this expectation with what I know to be true about solo diving. In fact, I can't square solo diving with the idea of someone in average condition participating, to say nothing of someone with a disability. Theoretically it should be possible to adjust the safety envelope in a way that such matters can be accommodated, but if so then I can't see how.

It all boils down to the baseline demands that are placed upon the individual by the solo diving environment. Three of these are of particular significance:

• 1. The ability to self-don and remove all gear

  2. The ability to negotiate significant obstacles, including submerged ones, when entering and exiting the water

  3. The ability to get to the surface and possibly to shore, and swim or hike back to safety should an unforeseen circumstance arise.

Note my choice of words in the last part. I said "unforeseen circumstance", not an emergency. Cutting a dive short and wanting to get back doesn't count as an emergency. Perhaps you just got cold, or decided the situation in the water is a little bit too dicey to justify continuing. But you still might need to pull yourself onto the shore and over the boulders, then up a hill, and through the woods to where you parked the car, possibly having to backtrack, preferably without ditching any of your kit on the way, and certainly without collapsing through exhaustion, or falling and injuring yourself because your legs gave out. You simply have to be fit enough to deal with this type of situation – and that means fit in the old-school way. If you're not up to it, then you may well find you do have an actual emergency!

I believe that there are 2 components to this sort of fitness - cardiovascular efficiency and sinew strength. I run and lift weights on alternate days, but for sinew strength you can also hike or do fell walking. I have sherpered kit into the mountains with sump divers, and the best of them were all fit like that...thin wiry men, ugly as sin but impervious to knocks, like human Landrovers. Rusted and encrusted but they seem to keep on going. Health club workouts on the other hand are best left to the "Chelsea Tractors" of this world...the slick, posturing muscle pimps. What you're aiming for in this game is to be bastard fit, not posy fit.

One other point to make on fitness is the matter of vaccinations. Bottle diving generally occurs in filthwater, and although the correct gear can provide a good first line of defence, I believe it is a sensible precaution to keep both typhus and tetanus jabs up to date.