Recreational diving is undertaken from choice – to have fun and enjoy the underwater environment. Divers select their dive locations to maximise this enjoyment and seek good visibility, warm water and interesting and/or pretty sites. … Recreational divers are primarily diving focused. Entry level divers may be restricted to a depth of 18 or 20 metres (59 or 66 ft), and more advanced divers to 30, 40, 50 or 60 m depending on the certification and agency. Junior divers may be restricted to shallower depths.

Modern recreational scuba diving began to flower in the 1950s, ten years after the world-famous French explorer Jacques Cousteau and engineer Emile Gagnan worked together to invent the Aqua-Lung, the first successful rebreathing device and the diving regulator used for the first scuba equipment.