Exploring coral reefs, sunken ships and the magnificent marine life of our oceans and seas is a wonderful way to relax on holiday. For many this is the main reason for travel, while others will just like to have a brief dive while enjoying a new beach resort or holiday destination.
Generally, the preparations that a traveller should do for their holiday, is not affected by the activity of diving, but a couple of notable exceptions arise:
- Itineraries need to planned around allowing plenty of time after the last dive, to allow any nitrogen to escape from the body, before a diver flies in a pressurised airplane, which means most commercial flights. This is particularly important after deep diving. Remember the rule - don’t fly for 24hrs after diving.
- Some antimalarials can be a problem. The commonly prescribed medication, antimalarial, can predispose a small percentage of people to a photo-sensitivity reaction (an excessive sunburn). While this is avoided by covering-up, and wearing blockout, divers should be alert to this if traveling and diving in malarias regions and discuss your options with a travel doctor prior to departure.
- The ability to "equalise" the pressures of the middle-ears to allow safe diving is important, and travellers with colds or allergies may need specific advice and treatment for this.
Select Travel Doctor-TMVC clinics provide medical assessments for recreational diving and many of our doctors are registered as SPUMS members, qualified to perform these assessments for certification of student and re-certifying divers.