There is no such thing as a scuba license, and there are no scuba police. Welcome to the libertarian world of recreational scuba diving. 

Co-invented by world famous explorer, writer, and documentarian Jacques Cousteau (who called his invention the Aqua Lung) SCUBA is an acronym for “Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.” This is the system that scuba divers use for breathing underwater, consisting of pressurized air tanks, valves, hoses, regulators, and buoyancy compensators. 

Scuba diving is a complex activity that demands specialized training for safety. Improper practices, such as holding your breath while ascending, can be life-threatening due to pressure changes. In the ocean, each 33 feet of depth corresponds to an additional atmosphere of pressure (14.7 psi). As a result, a balloon filled with one cubic foot of air at 33 feet deep will double in size when it reaches the surface, and from 66 feet deep, it will quadruple in size. Thus, when ascending from 66 feet, if you hold your breath, your lungs can expand to four times their original size, which is potentially deadly (and extremely painful). Deeper dives also require more air due to the compression of the surrounding water, leading to increased nitrogen absorption (the air we breathe is 78% nitrogen). This necessitates depth limits and safety stops to prevent nitrogen narcosis and decompression sickness. 

That all sounds extremely dangerous, and exactly the sort of activity that government would try to “make safe” via regulation. But recreational scuba diving is a mostly self-regulated industry that establishes safety standards through market forces. It does this quite well; In 2018, there were 189 worldwide scuba diving deaths out of approximately 2.85 million divers. In the US, Annual fatalities while scuba diving range from 2 to 14 per 100,000 (comparable to horseback riding and jogging). Even within those numbers, up to 50% of diving fatalities can be linked to acute cardiac events, often involving pre-existing risk factors like hypertensive heart disease, cardiomegaly, diabetes, obesity, advanced age, and smoking. 

The rest of the article can be read on Substack: https://rclp.substack.com/p/october-2023#%C2%A7the-libertarian-world-of-scuba-diving