Category: Health & illness

Stop diving?

Posted on by anke westerlaken in Column Dutch Diver Magazine, Dive education, Egypt, Health & illness

Sooner or later we all play with the question: is it perhaps better to stop diving? I myself have been a big fan of this sport for over 20 years, but sometimes life doesn't turn out the way you expect and you may not feel fit enough to dive like you always did. So is Sue, a fantastic lady I met on the liveaboard trip from this week. With a lot of young people on board Sue is a relatively mature lady, I don't know her exact age, but it's obvious that she belongs to the seniors. During our trip to the 'golden triangle' of the Red Sea (Brother Islands, Daedalus reef and Elphinstone) Sue realizes that these kinds of trips might be a thing of the past and she even considers stopping altogether.

Don’t be ashamed

Posted on by anke westerlaken in Column Dutch Diver Magazine, Dive education, Health & illness

A week ago a friend bumped into me and told me about Martina, a Swiss lady, experienced dive master and a friend of a friend of a friend, who was not feeling well after diving. Oh Martina, yes I do know her from a day of diving 2 or 3 months ago. She dived twice and after the second fantastic dive, back on board she got very dizzy after an hour when she got up and vomited immediately.

Too old to dive?

Posted on by anke westerlaken in About me: my trips and travel adventures, Column Dutch Diver Magazine, Egypt, Health & illness

Sometimes there are trips or moments that stay with you and sometimes they are just special people. One of those special people is Max, an old gentleman from Great Britain who would rather not dive than blow out the tickets on his birthday. It all started with the necessary emails from the head office about Max, he would join us on the live boat and reach the magical age of 89 during a trip.

Have you been seasick before?

Posted on by anke westerlaken in Column Dutch Diver Magazine, Dive education, Health & illness

What to do with seasickness in combination with diving? A question that I often see on the necessary social media dive groups. Many reactions from people who are either very bothered by it or who have never experienced it. In addition, I see it a lot with our guests, I estimate about 25-40% suffer from it, but what is it actually? And what can you do about it? And do you have to do something about it or will it go away on its own?

A broken dive computer?

Posted on by anke westerlaken in About me: my trips and travel adventures, Column Dutch Diver Magazine, Dive education, Egypt, Health & illness

Fortunately, diving with the table in the pocket of your vest and a watch on your wrist is a thing of the past. We are all now learning to do it with a computer, but how well do divers know that computer? Not too good in my experience unfortunately. I'll tell you a story of an American guy who did the north route of the Red Sea with me.

The Danger of Decompression illness?

Posted on by anke westerlaken in About me: my trips and travel adventures, Column Dutch Diver Magazine, Dive education, Health & illness, Maldives

'Umm Anke, can I ask you something? How big is the danger of decompression sickness?' Look, that's a question that we get often as guides on the Safari boats. We've all learned that decompression sickness is lurking and my experience tells me it can always happen. Strangely enough, we don't expect that at all and even if we notice something weird in our bodies, the penny of decompression sickness does not drop quickly. This is also the case with Paul, who boarded with me in the Maldives.