Hookah diving offers many benefits over scuba and snorkeling. In fact, you could say that hookah diving is the best of both scuba and snorkeling worlds. Unlike with snorkeling, hookah diving requires no heavy equipment to lug and no constant swimming up to the surface of the water to get fresh air. There are also various hookah diving systems you can purchase, each offering its own benefits and limitations. Take the 12V hookah dive system, for example. Here are the benefits and limitations of this system.
It Is the Ideal System for Emergency Underwater Boat Repairs and Shallow Dives
The 12V system is ideal for emergency underwater boat repairs and shallow dives. The hookah hoses are not as long as as they are with other hookah systems, but they are long enough to perform shallow dives. Just to give you an idea, say that you have a sixty-foot yacht and that there is some water weeds caked onto the propellers that are preventing the boat from moving. You can use the 12V hookah diving system to dive behind and under the boat to free the props and then climb back onto the boat again. You can also use this system to explore reefs that are less than a league below your boat.
It Requires Only a 12V Plug
A 12V plug is equivalent to a cigarette lighter. If you have such a plug-in on your boat, then your hookah system will have adequate power for the compressor. If you do not have this kind of plug-in, you can buy converter plugs if you still have other sorts of plug-ins on your boat.
It Is Not Powerful Enough for Lengthy Dives
This hookah dive system is the "beginner's set." It will be adequate enough to get the idea and experience on how these systems work, and for occasional use if you do not expect to dive often. It is also the emergency set, since it works both for emergency repairs on a boat in the water and it works as backup for more powerful hookah dive systems.
You Cannot Get It Wet
The compressor is exposed with this system and it runs on electricity. You will have to find a way to encase the compressor and power adapters while the system is on the boat. Unlike other hookah systems, you cannot place this one on a hookah flotation island and drop it into the water to work from the flotation device. Your "flotation device" is your boat, and therefore your base of operations for diving with the 12V system.