Scuba Diving Blog & Forum
The most important rule in scuba diving is to never hold your breath. If you were to hold your breath, and in particular if you ascend whilst holding your breath, you will rupture your lungs. The worst case scenario for scuba divers to ignore this rule is death! Never hold your breath and you’ll be okay.
It’s dangerous to hold your breath while scuba diving because if you do you risk a lung over expansion. A lung over expansion can lead to a pneumothorax (collapsed lung) or an arterial gas embolism (which can lead to a stroke). You’ll learn in your diver training the most important rule in scuba diving is to not hold your breath. You’ll learn about Boyle’s law, where the air in a diver’s lungs expands during ascent and contracts during descent. Breath holding underwater can result in one of the above two serious injuries and even death.
