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Can you dive if you are obese?
Yes, you can, but with certain reservations. Technically speaking, scuba-diving for the obese, has number of peculiarities.
Obese scuba diver carries some excessive volume of his/her natural body fat with them. Being less dense compared to the
surrounding water, especially when the water is salty, the fat makes obese person more buoyant compared to an average
scuba diver. A wet suite of a bigger size fabricated from neoprene increases the buoyancy of such person even further. Here
comes the very first technical peculiarity of scuba diving for the obese. To compensate the buoyancy difference and achieve
neutral buoyancy, obese scuba diver needs to carry considerably larger and heavier weight belt. Physically speaking, a scuba who's equipped this way, needs to spend more energy to swim the same distance or at the same speed as average diver who doesn't suffer from obesity. The extra weight requiring more effort to propel the obese scuba diver's body means also bigger consumption of the air, and consequently for prolonged dive obese scuba diver will need a large air tank.
Are obese divers exposed to a bigger risk of suffering from Decompression Sickness (DCS)? Doctors specializing in scuba
diving medicine point out that when saturated, fat is capable of storing 5 times as much nitrogen as water. Anyway, this
quality of fat is being compensated by the poor blood circulation characteristic for the fatty tissues. So, not much nitrogen will
store in excess. But this works only if the dive is not prolonged. The real danger comes in case your dive trip lasts several
consecutive days with frequent dives with scuba. In course such consecutive dive sessions there's a risk that fatty tissues
may absorb and store critical quantities of nitrogen starting to increase the risk of DCS attack. The risk of DCS attack is likely
to increase even further for scuba divers suffering from obesity also because due to harder workload under water their tissues
too start absorbing bigger quantities of nitrogen. The next and very real immediate danger can be caused by hyperthermia
(overheating) increasing the risk of heart attack or stroke. The other condition associated with obesity to be addressed
include orthopedic problems (joint problems) that can be triggered by extra effort required from obese scuba diver during dives.
The endocrine diseases like diabetes is something that has likelihood to be expected from the obese, so obese person needs
to be examined by a doctor for exclusion of diabetes before being allowed to even learn scuba diving.
The bottom line is extra weight for scuba diver goes far beyond a problem of getting into and out of the water. Besides what
has been said above, scuba diving for obese people implies many other problems similar to those they experience when they walk on ground. If you are obese and go scuba dive, as every obese diver, you need special instruction and experienced dive buddy to dive with.
Should obese diver get into trouble under water, their dive buddy might have difficulty assisting.This is what both should be aware of.
Related: How to calculate whether your weight still allows you to dive
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