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Underwater diving is the practice of going underwater, either with breathing apparatus (
scuba diving and
surface supplied diving) or by breath-holding.
Recreational diving is a popular activity (also called sports diving or subaquatics), and includes technical diving, recreational scuba diving, freediving, snuba, snorkeling and a range of competitive sports performed underwater.
Professional diving includes diving as part of one's occupation, and takes a range of diving activities to the underwater work site. Commercial diving, military diving, public safety diving and scientific diving are aspects of professional diving.
Freediving is a form of underwater diving that does not involve the use external breathing devices, but relies on a diver's ability to hold his or her breath until resurfacing. Activities include breath-hold spear fishing, freedive photography, apnea competitions, and to some degree, snorkeling.
The scope of this portal includes the technology supporting diving activities, the physiological and medical aspects of diving, the procedures of diving, underwater activities which are to some degree dependent on diving, economical and commercial aspects of diving, biographical information on notable divers, inventors and manufacturers of diving related equipment and researchers into aspects of diving,
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Decompression theory is the study and modelling of the transfer of the inert gas component of breathing gases from the gas in the lungs to the tissues of the diver and back during exposure to variations in ambient pressure. In the case of underwater diving and compressed air work, this mostly involves ambient pressures greater than the local surface pressure, but astronauts, high altitude mountaineers, and travellers in aircraft which are not pressurised to sea level pressure, are generally exposed to ambient pressures less than standard sea level atmospheric pressure. In all cases, the symptoms caused by decompression occur during or within a relatively short period of hours, or occasionally days, after a significant pressure reduction.
Decompression in the context of diving derives from the reduction in ambient pressure experienced by the diver during the ascent at the end of a dive or hyperbaric exposure and refers to both the reduction in pressure and the process of allowing dissolved inert gases to be eliminated from the tissues during this reduction in pressure.
When a diver descends in the water column the ambient pressure rises. Breathing gas is supplied at the same pressure as the surrounding water, and some of this gas dissolves into the diver's blood and other fluids. Inert gas continues to be taken up until the gas dissolved in the diver is in a state of equilibrium with the breathing gas in the diver's lungs, (see: "Saturation diving"), or the diver moves up in the water column and reduces the ambient pressure of the breathing gas until the inert gases dissolved in the tissues are at a higher concentration than the equilibrium state, and start diffusing out again.
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Charles Bowers Momsen (June 21, 1896 – May 25, 1967), nicknamed "Swede", was born in Flushing, New York. He was an American pioneer in submarine rescue for the United States Navy, and he invented the underwater escape device later called the "Momsen lung", for which he received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal in 1929. In May 1939, Momsen directed the rescue of the crew of Squalus (SS-192).