It takes confidence to call a dive, but perhaps we should all take more notice of the cave-diving approach to safety, suggests SIMON PRIDMORE Read more...

Tell a commercial diver training agency that you want to be an instructor and it will extend a warm welcome, says SIMON PRIDMORE. Just don’t kid yourself that you’re submitting a job application – you’re buying a product. Read more...

Everyone knows that minimising the amount of weight carried is a diver’s holy grail, but there are practical limits in the quest to down-weight. Read more...

When too much time has elapsed since that last dive, a refresher is in order. Read more...

You don’t have to appear to others as a constant pessimist, you can keep your thoughts to yourself – but always be prepared for that worst-case scenario. Read more...

The diving set-up doesn’t seem ideal but you go ahead anyway and get away with it. Perhaps it was OK after all; perhaps you were just lucky. SIMON PRIDMORE takes it from there Read more...

Vehicle-drivers survive on the roads by adopting techniques that take all contingencies into account – scuba-divers should do the same, says SIMON PRIDMORE Read more...

In other sports, preconditioning strategies such as warming up, passive heat maintenance and prior exercise are used to ensure that athletes perform as well as possible on game day. Read more...

Often divers who embark on technical diving are experienced enough to have some unlearning to do first. That, as SIMON PRIDMORE explains, can aid in understanding of how to be a team-player Read more...

We’ve all been there – we get distracted during the build-up to the dive, and some vital kit component is overlooked. Read more...