Scuba Diving After 40: Tips for the Older Diver

First, the bad news: As we age, our bodies change in ways that can limit our ability to do the things we love. Some evidence even suggests that we become more susceptible to decompression sickness as we age.

The good news: Our medical understanding of these age-related changes has advanced to the point that we can overcome many of them and get around others. Here’s our 12-step program for staying an active diver despite what the calendar says.

Step 1: Admit it

In our youth-obsessed culture, this can be the hardest part: “Hi, my name is George and I’m an older diver. I’ll be 50 in the year 2011.” So what? We can no longer take our health for granted, that’s what. Unless we invest time and energy into our fitness and health, we will gradually deteriorate as we age. However, today’s medical advances give us remarkable control over when deterioration begins and how quickly it progresses. Medicine is now beginning to deliver on its promise “to allow people to die young as late as possible.”

Step 2: Stay active

More good news: it’s never too late to reap the benefits of beginning an exercise program aimed at slowing the effects of aging and disuse. A program of aerobic exercise, strength and flexibility training can enable us to maintain a vigorous lifestyle well into “old age.” Musculoskeletal weakness, stiffness and pain – the most common medical complaints of those over 40 – do not have to undermine our daily life or our diving.

Step 3: Fight free radicals

Mounting scientific evidence suggests that free radicals – a highly reactive chemical species produced in large quantities during vigorous exercise – can damage muscle and other body tissues. People most susceptible are smokers, city dwellers, diabetics and older people, especially when put in circumstances that require unaccustomed bouts of exertion – like, say a dive vacation. Although the jury is still out on free radicals, many physicians recommend those most susceptible consider an insurance policy of antioxidants that inhibit free radicals: a dietary supplement with 100 percent of the recommended daily allowances of vitamins C, E and beta carotene, along with a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

Step 4: Beat the heat

Skin blood flow and sweat gland production – the two primary ways we dissipate body heat – diminish as we age, reducing our ability to deal with the thermal stress of exertion in a warm environment. However, empirical evidence also shows that older men and women who maintain a high level of fitness experience only minimal loss of their ability to beat the heat. Study after study has shown highly fit senior athletes cooling their bodies as efficiently as their younger counterparts – another example of fitness trumping age.

Step 5: Heat the beat

The same blood flow that cools us when we’re hot also warms us when we’re cold. Just as maintaining fitness enables us to maintain blood flow for cooling, the same is true for keeping us warm. Older divers can be smarter too: We know that daily diving can build a thermal indebtedness in us over the course of a week, making it increasingly difficult to stay warm down below. Smart divers plan accordingly, bringing layers to be added as the week progresses. Let the kiddies shiver.

Step 6: Stay hydrated

Dehydration is thought to be the most common medical ailment affecting divers of any age. Fluids lost through sweating must be replaced for you to maintain thermal equilibrium and your activity level. However, you cannot rely on your thirst mechanism to signal dehydration; by then it’s too late. If you’re thirsty, chances are you’re already being impaired by a lack of adequate fluids. Plain water often isn’t good enough because of the slow rate at which it’s absorbed. Today’s sports drinks are formulated to aid your body’s absorption of fluids and to replenish your supply of carbohydrates for fuel. Finally, dehydration can begin in as little as 15 minutes, or the amount of time you sit in the sun donning wetsuit and gear. That’s why the American Council of Sports Medicine recommends eight to 10 ounces of fluid replacement every 15 minutes when exercising in a warm environment.

Step 7: Eat your carbs

Studies indicate older people may burn less fat during exercise and have to rely more on carbohydrates for energy. Age-related decline in your muscles’ ability to use fat means that the older diver can benefit from a lower fat, higher carbohydrate diet in comparison to younger divers.

Step 8: Fight back

The older you are, the more likely you are to experience back pain of all sorts. More specifically, several studies indicate that gymnasts and scuba divers are at the highest risk for pain due to lower back strain. What to do? First comes prevention by understanding proper weight-lifting techniques and weight-bearing posture and increasing flexibility in the hamstrings, lower back muscles, gluteals and hip flexors. Also, BCs that support the lower spine and smaller, lighter tanks are helpful. Finally, ditch the pride: If you know that you’re prone to lower back strain, accept the offer by others to help you with your gear.

Step 9: Feed your head

Scuba divers are at particular risk of exercise-related headaches brought on by changes in pressure, the repeated need to equalize, carbon dioxide buildup due to resistive breathing under pressure from a machine, dive masks and their straps – even DCS. Most of these dive-related headaches can be prevented or their discomfort lessened by following commonsense advice: descend slowly, equalize gently, relax your breathing cycle (exhale-inhale-pause-exhale-inhale-pause), and so on. But the most important step is to identify why you are having headaches in the first place.

Step 10: Buy the best

One advantage of maturity is usually more disposable income. And in diving you definitely get what you pay for, especially when it comes to regulators, fins and neoprene. The differences between the work of breathing of a high-performance reg and others are significant not only for your comfort and breathing efficiency but also for your safety: The higher your reg’s performance, the less likely you will be to overbreathe it (demand more air than it can deliver) in a difficult situation. When it comes to neoprene rubber, the more bubbles it has, the more resistant to compression it is, the more flexible it is, the less you’ll have to use precious energy down below.

Step 11: Get nitrox certified

They don’t call it the “old geezers’ gas” for nothing. Numerous studies have confirmed that enriched air nitrox can lower the risk of DCS. And although you won’t find studies supporting the contention that you also feel less fatigued after diving with nitrox, you’d be hard-pressed to find many over-40 divers who won’t back you up.

Step 12: Slow down

Perhaps one of the best things we old folks have going for us is that we don’t have much left to prove to anyone. For us, diving doesn’t have to be a competition, a macho claim to fame. We can see diving for what it is: a chance to escape, to relax, to revel in the beauty and uniqueness of this world because at our age we understand just how quickly the minutes and days go by, whether down below or up here enduring the relentless assault of gravity and time.

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