Abbreviations and acronyms used on this board

[aggie99]

I decided to start a list of abbreviations and acronyms that you see on these boards for the new arrivals. I figured this could help after seeing posts asking for what they mean. Please feel free to add and I will update the list as necessary and we can even make suggestions for new one's!

• AGE-Arterial Gas Embolism: A potentially serious scuba diving injury caused by bubbles of gas in the bloodstream
• AI - air intergrated (computer)
• AL’s- Aluminum Tanks
• AL80- Aluminum 80 Tanks
• AOW- Advanced Open Water Certification
• ATA- ATmospheres Absolute; 1 ATA is the atmospheric pressure at sea level, and an additional atmosphere worth of pressure is added every 33' of sea water. Atmosphere absolute = 14.7 PSI of pressure.
  BC- Buoyancy Compensator
• BP/W- Back plate and Wing
• BT- Bottom Time
• C-card- Scuba Certification Card (NAUI, SSI, PADI etc.)
• CESA- Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent
• DAN- Diver Alert Network – Diver Medical Insurance and more
• DB - dive buddy
• DCI- Decompression Illness; a generic term for pressure-related scuba injuries including AGE and DCS
• DCS- Decompression Sickness; the 'bends'
• DIN- Deutsches Institut fuer Normung (German Institution for Standardization), an alternate to the yoke-style connector on a scuba tank
• DIR- Do(ing) It Right, a style of diving that mixes a specific gear configuration and a style a team diving)
• DM- Dive Master (usually, the person running the show on a dive boat, aside from the Captain. In charge of diving operations, primarily concerned with safety.)
• DS - dry suit
• EANx- Enriched Air Nitrox, sometimes simply "Nitrox". Refers to air with a higher-than-normal level of oxygen. EAN is a subset of nitrox. Nitrox is any mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, while EAN is air with additional oxygen added.
• EPO - Environmental Police Officer... the guys who check to make sure your lobsters are legal size.
• FFM - Full face Mask
• FFW- Feet of Fresh Water (ex: I dove to 25 ffw in a local quarry on my trip to Idaho)
• FSW- Feet of Sea Water (ex: I only went down to 25 fsw for my first dive in Hawaii)
• HID- High Intensity Discharge –referring to dive lights
• Hog- Hogarthian setup for BP/W & sometimes a mother-in-law
• HP- High Pressure - Refers to both tank pressures above 3000psi and also the ports on a first stage that don't reduce tank pressure
• HUD - Heads Up Display (datamask (Oceanic/Aeris Mask))
• IMO- In my opinion
• J&L- Joe and Larry (The owners of Scubatoys)
• LDS- Local Dive Shop
• LP- Low Pressure -Refers to both tank pressures 3000psi and below and also the ports on a first stage that do reduce tank pressure
• MOD- Maximum Operating Depth, maximum depth for a specific Nitrox mix
• MOF- Mask on Forehead
• NDL- No Decompression Limit, max time limit at a given depth without having to decompression stops, i.e., normal recreational diving
• NDS - nondiving spouse
• NMOF- No mask on forehead
• OOA- Out of Air
• OP - original poster, the person who started the thread
• OW- Open Water Certification, also known as BOW (Basic Open Water)
• PITA- Pain in the a$$
• PSI- Pounds per Square Inch, a measurement of pressure. Commonly used to determine how much gas is in a scuba tank of a known volume.
• PM - private message
• RDP- Recreational Dive Planner, PADI's regular dive tables used to determine NDLs for purposes of dive planning and logging.
• RMV - respiratory minute volume... the rate you use gas at a given depth, calculated based on SAC.
• SAC- Surface Air Consumption [Rate], a way to calculate how long your air will last at a given depth (once you know the rate at the surface, it is a simple calculation to determine it at any depth).
• SCR Surface Consumption Rate - same as SAC
• SI- Surface Interval, the time spent out of the water between dives, be it 5 minutes, 5 years, or anywhere in between
• SO - Significant Other
• SPG- Submersible Pressure Guage, that round thing you look at to see how much air your tank has left
• SMB- Surface Marker Buoy – Also known as a safety sausage
• ST- Scubatoys
• STA- Single Tank Adapter, an optional component in a bp/w system
• WAI- Wireless Air Integrated. A computer with a wireless transponder to send pressure information from a small device mounted on the first stage to a separate computer, usually worn on the wrist.
• WTB- Want to Buy
• WTF!!!- What the F%&*, used when somebody drops hard weights on your foot!!

And if it isn't on the list try:
http://lancasterscuba.com/glossary.asp
SCUBA Diving Acronyms - The SCUBA Stop
Scuba Diving Board - Acronyms

[LCFrigon]

I see people using SO. I gather that means Significant other, or special other or smelly other in some cases. Took me a moment to figure it out though...just kept reading it as "so" and thinking :so what?"

[CompuDude]

I put together a mini acronym list for another scuba BBS a year or so ago, aimed primarily at newer divers (it thus leaves out a number of higher end terms, PPO2 and other tech/nitrox terms, etc.) due to the target audience. It may be of some assistance here as well. It is NOT intended to be a full-blown encyclopedic list of with comprehensive definitions, merely a mini-directory/cheat sheet for those unfamiliar with the acronyms. It also could probably use touching up there and there, as I mostly sat down one night and dashed it off from the top of my head, so feel free to add to it, or PM if you'd like me to supplement this list instead.

Another, separate list may be useful at some point for common internet abbreviations (non-scuba-specific), such as LOL and others, for those who are not quite as hip to the online lingo.

~~~~~~~~~~

AGE- Arterial Gas Embolism: A serious scuba diving injury caused by bubbles of gas in the bloodstream

AOW- Advanced Open Water (there is some debate over just how "advanced" it is, but that's what it stands for)

ATA- ATmospheres Absolute; 1 ATA is the atmospheric pressure at sea level, and an additional atmosphere worth of pressure is added every 33' of sea water. Atmosphere absolute = 14.7 PSI of pressure.

BC- Buoyancy Compensator [Device, sometimes "BCD"] - if you don't know what this is, get certified for scuba then come back.

BOW- Basic Open Water. Not usually an actual course, but useful to distinguish a certification level below AOW.

BP/W- Backplate and Wing, a style of buoyancy compensator characterized by a rigid backplate (aluminum, steel or delrin) and a separate wing, and a streamlined front

BT- Bottom Time

C-card: scuba diving certification card

CESA- Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent

DCI- Decompression Illness; a generic term for pressure-related scuba injuries including AGE and DCS

DCS- Decompression Sickness; the 'bends'

DIN- Deutsches Institut fuer Normung, an alternate to the yoke-style connector on a scuba tank

DIR- Do(ing) It Right, a style of diving that mixes a specific gear configuration and a style a team diving

DM- Dive Master (usually, the person running the show on a dive boat, aside from the Captain. In charge of diving operations, primarily concerned with safety.)

EANx- Enriched Air Nitrox, sometimes simply "Nitrox". Refers to air with a higher-than-normal level of oxygen. EAN is a subset of nitrox. Nitrox is any mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, while EAN is air with additional oxygen added.

FFW- Feet of Fresh Water (ex: I dove to 25 ffw in a local quarry on my trip to Idaho)

FSW- Feet of Sea Water (ex: I only went down to 25 fsw for my first dive in Hawaii)

HID- High Intensity Discharge, a kind of very bright bulb found in some of your better underwater flashlights

Hog- "Hogarthian". An ultra-simplified gear system developed for cave diving (originally) bu Bill "Hogarth" Main. Used as the inspiration of the DIR gear configuration.

HP- High Pressure, usually refers to a scuba tank that can be filled to pressures greater than 3000 psi without exceeding manufacture and DOT allowable limits. Often combined with the fill rating of a tank (measured in cubic feet) to describe a tank and it's capacity, for instance, an HP100 would be a high pressure tank that holds 100cf of gas when filled to it's rated capacity.

LDS- Local Dive Shop

LP- Low Pressure, usually refers to a scuba tank that can only be filled to pressures lower than 3000 psi without exceeding manufacture and DOT allowable limits.

MOD- Maximum Operating Depth, maximum depth for a specific Nitrox mix

NDL- No Decompression Limit, max time limit at a given depth without having to decompression stops, i.e., normal recreational diving

OOA- Out of Air

PSI- Pounds per Square Inch, a measurement of pressure. Commonly used to determine how much gas is in a scuba tank of a known volume.

RDP- Recreational Dive Planner, PADI's regular dive tables used to determine NDLs for purposes of dive planning and logging.

SAC- Surface Air Consumption [Rate], a way to calculate how long your air will last at a given depth (once you know the rate at the surface, it is a simple calculation to determine it at any depth).

SI- Surface Interval, the time spent out of the water between dives, be it 5 minutes, 5 years, or anywhere in between

SMB- Surface Marker Buoy, an inflatable tube device used to attract attention at the surface. Sometimes also used as a flotation device during decompression.

SPG- Submersible Pressure Gauge, that round thing you look at to see how much air your tank has left

STA- Single Tank Adapter, an optional component in a bp/w system. Backplates are primarily designed for use with double tanks, so to use them with a single tank, either a wing with special stabilizers is needed or an STA. Also makes it faster and simpler to switch configurations between a doubles wing and doubles tank, and a singles wing and single tank.

[aggie99]

Originally Posted by CompuDude

I put together a mini acronym list for another scuba BBS a year or so ago, with current terms, aimed primarily at newer divers (it thus leaves out a number of higher end terms, PPO2 and other tech/nitrox terms, etc.) due to the target audience. It may be of some assistance here as well.

Another, separate list may be useful at some point for common internet abbreviations (non-scuba-specific).

AGE- Arterial Gas Embolism: A serious scuba diving injury caused by bubbles of gas in the bloodstream

AOW- Advanced Open Water (there is some debate over just how "advanced" it is, but that's what it stands for)

ATA- ATmospheres Absolute; 1 ATA is the atmospheric pressure at sea level, and an additional atmosphere worth of pressure is added every 33' of sea water. Atmosphere absolute = 14.7 PSI of pressure.

BC- Buoyancy Compensator [Device, sometimes "BCD"] - if you don't know what this is, get certified for scuba then come back.

BOW- Basic Open Water. Not usually an actual course, but useful to distinguish a certification level below AOW.

BP/W- Backplate and Wing, a style of buoyancy compensator characterized by a rigid backplate (aluminum, steel or delrin) and a separate wing, and a streamlined front

BT- Bottom Time

C-card: scuba diving certification card

CESA- Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent

DCI- Decompression Illness; a generic term for pressure-related scuba injuries including AGE and DCS

DCS- Decompression Sickness; the 'bends'

DIN- Deutsches Institut fuer Normung, an alternate to the yoke-style connector on a scuba tank

DIR- Do(ing) It Right, a style of diving that mixes a specific gear configuration and a style a team diving

DM- Dive Master (usually, the person running the show on a dive boat, aside from the Captain. In charge of diving operations, primarily concerned with safety.)

EANx- Enriched Air Nitrox, sometimes simply "Nitrox". Refers to air with a higher-than-normal level of oxygen. EAN is a subset of nitrox. Nitrox is any mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, while EAN is air with additional oxygen added.

FFW- Feet of Fresh Water (ex: I dove to 25 ffw in a local quarry on my trip to Idaho)

FSW- Feet of Sea Water (ex: I only went down to 25 fsw for my first dive in Hawaii)

HID- High Intensity Discharge, a kind of very bright bulb found in some of your better underwater flashlights

HP- High Pressure, usually refers to a scuba tank that can be filled to pressures greater than 3000 psi without exceeding manufacture and DOT allowable limits. Often combined with the fill rating of a tank (measured in cubic feet) to describe a tank and it's capacity, for instance, an HP100 would be a high pressure tank that holds 100cf of gas when filled to it's rated capacity.

LDS- Local Dive Shop

LP- Low Pressure, usually refers to a scuba tank that can only be filled to pressures lower than 3000 psi without exceeding manufacture and DOT allowable limits.

MOD- Maximum Operating Depth, maximum depth for a specific Nitrox mix

NDL- No Decompression Limit, max time limit at a given depth without having to decompression stops, i.e., normal recreational diving

OOA- Out of Air

PSD- Public Safety Diver

PSI- Pounds per Square Inch, a measurement of pressure. Commonly used to determine how much gas is in a scuba tank of a known volume.

RDP- Recreational Dive Planner, PADI's regular dive tables used to determine NDLs for purposes of dive planning and logging.

SAC- Surface Air Consumption [Rate], a way to calculate how long your air will last at a given depth (once you know the rate at the surface, it is a simple calculation to determine it at any depth).

SI- Surface Interval, the time spent out of the water between dives, be it 5 minutes, 5 years, or anywhere in between

SPG- Submersible Pressure Guage, that round thing you look at to see how much air your tank has left

STA- Single Tank Adapter, an optional component in a bp/w system. Backplates are primarily designed for use with double tanks, so to use them with a single tank, either a wing with special stabilizers is needed or an STA. Also makes it faster and simpler to switch configurations between a doubles wing and doubles tank, and a singles wing and single tank.

I will add to the list... thanks! Of course you didn't put what BBS stands for???

[CompuDude]

Originally Posted by aggie99

I will add to the list... thanks! Of course you didn't put what BBS stands for???

Well, my list, as I mentioned in the intro, is of Scuba acronyms, not general internet terms. They should probably be somewhat separate, IMO. In case you wanted to know, however:

BBS- Bulletin Board System. Originally referred to dialup modem-based systems, the term has carried over to web-based chat boards as well.

[aggie99]

Originally Posted by CompuDude

Well, my list, as I mentioned in the intro, is of Scuba acronyms, not general internet terms. They should probably be somewhat separate, IMO. In case you wanted to know, however:

BBS- Bulletin Board System. Originally referred to dialup modem-based systems, the term has carried over to web-based chat boards as well.

This was intended to be a list of Scuba Acronyms found on the board, I added a few standard abbreviations found on message boards for those that might not know them.

[diversteve]

A couple of others - in order of usefulness:

http://lancasterscuba.com/glossary.asp
SCUBA Diving Acronyms - The SCUBA Stop
Scuba Diving Board - Acronyms

[aggie99]

Originally Posted by diversteve

A couple of others - in order of usefulness:

http://lancasterscuba.com/glossary.asp
SCUBA Diving Acronyms - The SCUBA Stop
Scuba Diving Board - Acronyms

Thanks...I added them to the bottom if this simple list doesn't cover it.

[WaScubaDude]

Do you have "MOF"and "MNOF" from the great mask debate?

[CompuDude]

Ooh, good one... adding MOF/NMOF to my personal list now.