Kayak diving

Kayak diving is a type of recreational diving where the divers paddle to a diving site in a kayak carrying all their gear to the place they want to dive.

The range can be up to several kilometres along the coastline from the launching point to a place where access would be difficult from the shore, although the sea is sheltered. It is a considerably cheaper alternative to using a powered boat, as well as combining the experience of sea kayaking at the same time.

History

Kayak diving has been done in southern California since at least the mid-1990s.

More recently it has been exported to other countries :

- New Zealand, where it remains rare.- One couple has been Kayak diving in Sabah, North Borneo, Malaysia since 2008 with members of the Piasau Divers club. Several dives have been made in and around the islands of the Tunku Abdul Rahman marine park. It was found that a dive-yak was perfect for diving and snorkelling. Especially since as an inflatable it could be deflated, brought by speedboat out to the further islands and then inflated and left to dive and kayak their way back home.

Technique

On reaching a dive site the lead kayak drops an anchor, and the other kayaks tie on to the back or use separate anchors. The divers put air into the buoyancy compensator attached to their diving cylinders and then push them overboard so they...
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