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Exercise after your journey in order to loosen up also do a little skin-diving to test your stamina before your first day of scuba. Do not dive alone. Diving without a partner is forbidden. Marker buoys must be placed at all diving sites.

The clarity of the water is deceptive - plan your dive accordingly. Use your depth gauge as well as common sense.

Observe safety regulations. Achieve maximum depth at the beginning of each dive, and ascend slowly.

The smallest visible air bubble ascends at about 18 m. (60 ft.) per minute. Let all your bubbles climb faster than yourself and you won't exceed the safe rate of ascent.

The flora and fauna are breathtaking and distracting - check your watch more frequently than usual and make sure you have enough air for decompression stops. If transport is not immediately available at the site, dives requiring decompression stops are not recommended. Unless you rate the equivalent of a ``Three Star'' CMAS diver (``Second Class'' in England, ``Advanced'' in America, and formerly ``Second Echelon'' in France), dives requiring decompression stops are not recommended.

Tables have no safety margin whatsoever: make an unlisted and unrequired decompression stop at 3 m. (10 ft.) for three minutes on all dives of 12 m. (40 ft.) or more. A small nitrogen residual will make a big difference on a deep dive. A large nitrogen residual will make little difference on a shallow dive.

Notify a responsible person of your itinerary, intended destination and estimated time of return. Authorities should be notified if you fail to return on time. Diving centres have logs where you file your dive plans.

Within 12 hours of any dive do not climb to an altitude of more than 700 m. (2,300 ft.) above sea level whether by plane, train, car or foot. Take the last day off before your flight home to enjoy the snorkeling and the sun on the beach.