How To Get Certified In Scuba Diving

The first two steps in getting certified in scuba diving is to make sure that you are a reasonably proficient swimmer and you get medical clearance from your doctor to take up the sport. As for the swimming, you dont have to master every type of stroke. Scuba certification only requires that you are able to swim about 200 yards using any stroke you want and to be able to float or tread on water for about 10 minutes. If you are in good general health and are comfortable in the water, then you should be able to scuba dive without any problems.

There are about 1,900 professional scuba dive centers in North America alone and your local ones should definitely be checked out. Most will run basic certification programs on a regular basis. These centers or shops should be listed in the yellow pages and you can also check with websites of some of the major scuba diving certification agencies such as PADI or NAUI as they will also have listings. Sometimes scuba diving courses are offered at universities too.

Make sure that the course you are interested in taking as well as its instructor are certified with one of the major scuba diving training agencies. This will ensure that you get proper, safe training for both the technical background knowledge and practical skills required for certification as a scuba diver. You also want to end up with an internationally recognized certification card if you want to go scuba diving at various locations around the world.

Some vacation resorts offer resort courses lasting a day or two which offer beginners some very basic training in order to try out scuba diving. These are not certification programs. Full certification programs involve classroom work, exams, practical skills sessions at a pool and usually about four open water dives in the sea (lake or ocean). The duration of the classroom work and pool sessions vary from a very intensive weekend (with advance reading) to once a week over several weeks. The open water dives will usually take two more days. Dive centers located in the tropics also offer basic certification programs that last several days to a week. Although the intensive weekend programs are quite feasible, many feel that basic scuba diving courses spread out over a few weeks will help beginners learn the skills better. Scuba diving does involve new skills and to learn them all during one full weekend may be too much for some people.

As for which scuba diving certification training agency is the best, there isnt any one recognized organization that is better than another. PADI is the most popular in the world but not necessarily better than NAUI or SSI. NAUI course are often more technical in the classroom than those offered by PADI but both will adequately train you to be a scuba diver. The more important factor would be the individual instructor and your own effort during training/studying. In fact, many scuba diving instructors have certifications from several training agencies.

For people living in the more northern regions, there are a few possible routes to take in order to obtain certification. One can travel down south to the tropics and do the entire basic certification course down there in warm weather. However, this will take up a good portion of a vacation since reading, classroom, pool sessions and open water dives all must be done during that time period. A second option is to take the entire course including the open water dives back in home territory. This usually offers beginners the most time since courses can be spread out over a few weeks. However, the water up north is not as warm as in the tropics and the scuba diving could be seasonal. A third option is to take all the classroom and pool sessions back home and then go down south to do the open water dives in warm waters. Many people have taken this route. Your instructor back home will give you a referral letter to bring down to an instructor located down south who will oversee your open water dives. This is a good combination of taking ample time back home to practice the skills in the pool plus getting the classroom work out of the way followed by having nice warm water to dive in for the open water dives. One thing to be aware of if considering this option is to make sure that your travel to the tropics for your open water dives is not too delayed after finishing up with your pool sessions at home. If too much time has elapsed, one could easily forget the skills learned in the pool by the time a vacation comes along.

The underwater world has so much to offer and only a small percentage of the worlds population will ever have the privilege to see it in person rather than on television. Become one of these individuals who will have the honor of exploring the oceans by getting certified in scuba diving.

Clint Leung is a NAUI certified Master and Rescue Scuba Diver. He is also owner of Free Spirit Activewear http://www.FreeSpiritActivewear.com, an online retailer/designer specializing in premium quality scuba diving activewear. Also numerous articles on scuba diving.

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How To Improve Your Health, Play Golf

If you are looking for a sport that can be very healthy, you should explore playing golf. It can be good for both your physical and mental health. It can get you out into the fresh air to commune with nature and, presuming that you do quite a bit of walking, get your blood pumping with a little exercise.

There are many organizations and doctors that will tell you golf is good for your health. One of the first to push this information is the United States Golf Association (U.S.G.A.). They will suggest that to get the most out of the outing, you should walk as much as possible instead of riding in the cart.

It may be little more convenient to ride between holes but, the walk will do you good. This will improve the circulation, get the heart rate up and stimulate some deep breathing, all of which will improve your well being.

Some of the proponents of walking include David Fay of the U.S.G.A., cardiologist Edward Palank, the Golf Science International, and the Northern Ohio Golf Association.

Mr Fay thinks that by walking the course, you are able to experience the most enjoyable part of the game.

Walking, as a form of exercise, is something that the American public is getting away from. It is a very simple task that can help keep us limber and active for many years. That is, if we take advantage of the effort.

Researchers conducting a study in Sweden have discovered that walking through the course during a game of golf is as 40 to 70% as intense a workout as an aerobics class. That is if one were to play all eighteen holes.

In another study, Edward Palank found that golfers who walked enjoyed better health due to a decreased level of bad cholesterol. At the same time, their good cholesterol remained steady. On the other hand, golfers that decided to ride the course in a cart did not show the positive results in their health condition.

Additionally, information released by Golf Science International indicates that 4 hours of golf created the equivalent activity to that of completing a forty five minute fitness class.

The Northern Ohio Golf Association, noted that the distance a golfer walks during the course of an 18 hold game, it is approximately that of three to four miles. That is considering the activities of wandering around hills, across greens and to the tees.

If I have not convinced you yet, you should try it for yourself. Play a full 18 holes and walk the entire distance rather than riding. At the end, consider how much of a difference you feel.

In these days of laziness, we should be looking for ways to easily improve our mental and physical health. One easy to accomplish this is to play golf without riding in the cart. Get out and walk a full 18 holes of golf and you will know that you have gotten a good bit of exercise.

Dave is the owner of Golf Information and Resources , where you find information and resources to help improve your golf game without pulling your hair out...

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Reversing Mother Nature-Part One

Blossom is what underground uranium miners called the crystals forming on the tunnel walls. Because the ore was in contact with air inside an underground mine, and as ground water moved slowly against the mines walls, a visible crust of uranium crystals would precipitate, or blossom along those walls. Making the uranium soluble doesnt require a lot of oxygen and water because oxidization is a natural process. Adding more oxygen to the groundwater found in, and around, a uranium-mineralized orebody is the principle upon which present-day In Situ Leach (ISL) uranium mining is based.

Eons ago, the uranium was soluble and moved, on or below the surface, with the ground water. In roll front uranium deposits the uranium was transported into the area through the natural groundwater system and precipitated from solution due to some reducing environment, explained Harry Anthony, Chief Operating Officer of Uranium Energy Corp. Often, the reducing agent was something organic, such as coal, deep-seated oil and gas deposits, or hydrogen sulfide gases. In its reduced form, the uranium crystals are insoluble. It will precipitate as a coating on the existing sand grains of the sandstone, added Anthony. As more water containing uranium sweeps through this area, and encounters this reducing environment, more uranium is precipitated until there is a sufficient concentration to make it a commercial deposit.

After the geological team has delineated a companys uranium roll front deposit and determined it is of economic value, the company must turn to its ISL design engineers to complete the mining process. While it takes stellar geologists such as David Miller of Strathmore Minerals, Bill Sheriff of Energy Metals, or William Boberg of UR-Energy to accumulate large, proven uranium-mineralized holdings, as they have done in Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas or elsewhere, each must turn to their engineers to extract the uranium from those sand grains and process them to produce an economic quantity of uranium oxide, or U3O8. The overwhelming majority of ISL facilities, designed in the United States, were engineered by Harry Anthony, Doug Norris and Dennis Stover.

Trained as a mechanical engineer, Harry Anthony has been involved with more than ten ISL uranium operations from Union Carbides Palangana in 1976 to Uranium Resources Bruni, Benavides, North Platte, Kingsville Dome and Rosita ISL projects. Anthonys consulting work has taken him to ISL projects in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Czech Republic. Dennis Stover is best remembered for designing Smith Ranch in Wyoming, now owned by Cameco Corp. With a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, Dr. Stover helped develop the first commercial alkaline ISL project in south Texas for Atlantic Richfield and helped develop an additional five small ISL operations in south Texas. Also a chemical engineer by training, Doug Norriss paths have crossed with both Stover and Anthony. He helped build the Highland and Smith Ranch ISL operations in Wyoming, and designed Mestenas Alta Mesa ISL operation in south Texas.

HOW DOES ISL MINING REVERSE MOTHER NATURE?

In its natural, reduced environment, uranium exists as a solid in the +4 valence, Anthony explained. In the mining stage, we are reversing Mother Natures process by adding oxygen, oxidizing the uranium from a valence of +4 to a valence of +6. The uranium was oxidized at one time, but then reduced by Mother Nature. By drilling wells into the ore zone, circulating the water and adding oxygen to it, the uranium is made soluble again.

Is it really this simple? Yes and no. Energy Metals Chief Operating Officer Dennis Stover outlined the process, Youre simply adding, into the injection well, gaseous oxygen, just pure oxygen, but youre doing it under the water level in the well. The natural pressure, created by that column of water above the injection point, allows the oxygen to dissolve into the water so that theres no free gas being put into the well.

Stover compared the oxygen dissolved in the liquid to the carbon dioxide dissolved in a bottle of soda. The soda remains clear, dissolved in the liquid, when stationery. But when you shake it up, the gas will break out, added Stover. The pressure thats available that lets you dissolve the oxygen is determined by the amount of naturally occurring water pressure thats on the uranium deposit. Stover explained that if the deposit is 100 feet below the water table, you can dissolve a certain amount of oxygen. If the uranium deposit is 200 feet below the water table, or twice as deep, you can dissolve twice as much oxygen.

Historically, ISL mining evolved from acid leaching to leaching with sodium bicarbonate or sodium carbonate. Most people add only carbon dioxide in dissolved oxygen at this point, Stover explained. Theres a chemical relationship between carbon dioxide gas, bicarbonate, and the carbonate ion. The host rock typically contains calcium carbonate or sodium carbonate minerals. By adding the carbon dioxide, Stover said, It will lower the PH of the solution just slightly. That enhances the solubility of the naturally occurring calcium carbonate. According to Stover and the other experts, the addition of carbon dioxide is an effective replacement for the previously added bicarbonate ion.

The goal is to get the uranium out of the sandstone and soluble. Were accelerating Mother Nature and making the uranium soluble again, said Doug Norris, engineering manager for Uranium Energy. When its soluble, we can just pump it out of the ground. But it is dissolved in the water like salt in sea water. You cant see it, but its there.

MINING THE URANIUM

ISL mining and processing the uranium is a very simple process. Its a water treatment plant with hundreds of water wells. There are two types of wells: injection and production. The water plus reagent (oxygen, carbon dioxide) is injected into the ground via water wells. Outside the United States, where environmental regulations may be less restrictive, an ISLs aquifer may be bombarded with harsh acid leaching. On Harry Anthonys engineering services website, he describes the process he observed in the Czech Republic, Over 4,100,000 tons of H2SO4 (sulfuric acid), 270,000 tons of HNO3 (nitric acid), 100,000 tons of NH3 (ammonia), and 25,000 tons of HF (hydrofloric acid) were consumed by the mine.

It would be nearly impossible to get an ISL project permitted in the United States using these chemicals to leach the uranium. The water quality division, within a states Department of Environmental Quality (DQE), demands restoration to background, which is about where the groundwater was before ISL mining began. The less things you add, the less you have to reclaim at the end of the process, Doug Norris pointed out. The more stuff you add trying to get it out of the ground, the more you have to clean up.

Dennis Stover explained how the fluids presently used came about, Historically, most ISL operations had a great deal of difficulty with plugging or fouling of their injection wells due to the precipitation of excessive amounts of salts. He pointed out that the chemistry miners were using in conventional milling operations didnt work in ISL mining. Because they had very high concentrated salt solutions, they were trying to accelerate everything, Stover told us. When you take those concentrated solutions and put them underground, Mother Nature is not always happy. Other salts that were present in the rock would dissolve, solutions would become supersaturated and they would precipitate out. The wells would plug up.

Norris explained that sometimes you have to add a carbonate source, such as carbon dioxide to stabilize the dissolved uranium as uranyl dicarbonate. Norris said, The uranium is in a solid state in the ore, as Mother Nature left it. We oxidize it and turn it into uranyl dicarbonate. What goes to the processing plant is called lixiviate, the dissolved uranium in its ionic form. According to Anthony, Today, most ISL mining operates at neutral pH, and the uranium is complexed as a dicarbonate.

Water is circulated through the injection wells with the expressed purpose of separating the uranium coating the sandstone. Each time you circulate the water through the orebody, you are capturing some of the uranium. Each pass through is called a pore volume. Its like filling up a bucket of sand with water, explained Anthony. Once you have the bucket full of sand, you can still pour in water. The amount of water you can pour in until you just bring it up to the top of the sand is termed a pore volume. Pore volume is the interspatial volume.

In Anthonys models for operating an economic ISL plant, he calculates 20 pore volumes (PV). Porosity, or the spaces in between the sand particles, where the water can travel (permeability), helps determine how much uranium can be recovered. It takes about 20 PV to 30PV to recover the highest percentage, said David Miller, who was Cogemas chief ISL geologist in the United States, before becoming President of Strathmore Minerals. But, as the price of uranium keeps going higher, it may be economic to recover a higher percentage of the orebody. Maybe 40PV to 50PV will be possible with the direction the prices are moving. Of course, your average processed grade will go down. A few years ago, you would want to shut wells off at 15 parts per million (ppm), but now you might want to run them at 10ppm. At $50/pound uranium, you may be able to run at 7 or 8ppm.

Typically, an ISL operation should recover about 70 percent of the uranium in the ore, under the 20PV to 30PV scenario. However, in the case of the Czech Republics Diamo project, once Europes largest uranium mining operation, only 55 percent was recovered. Clearly, the more uranium recovered with the least number of pore volumes, the lower the operating costs. Trying to recover more uranium is only possible if you have the plant capacity. Because of the rising price of uranium, we would expect more companies to attempt to recover a higher percentage of uranium. Miller warns, however, You will not make your production quota if your plant is sized at a certain gallons per minutes at a certain grade to meet your annual production. If you lower the average grade and fail to increase your flow rate, your annual production will decrease.

COPYRIGHT 2007 by StockInterview, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. StockInterviews Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market has become the most popular book ever published for uranium mining stock investors. Visit http://www.stockinterview.com

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