Every year, scuba diving represents several thousand accidents worldwide. The majority of diving-related accidents occur to recreational scuba divers. However, an accident can happen to everyone and every diving level including diving professionnals, who represent 1 / 5th of the casualties. The severity of diving accidents increases with depth. But 1/3 of dive accidents happen above 30 meters deep. The most common accidents are:
- – the desaturation
- – severe barotrauma
- – cardiovascular accidents due to immersion.
Scuba diving can be a danger that drives enthusiasts to subscribe to a diving insurance for their holidays. Spotmydive gives you a few things to consider when choosing your dive insurance plan to cover all the hazards you may encounter during your dive trip.
What should your dive insurance cover?
Trip Cancelation: It’s never fun if you become seriously ill or get hurt just before a diving trip. And it may be complicate to get reimbursed if you have not taken out insurance when booking your trip. However, all the scuba diving insurance does not cover the cancellation or might cover your cancellation in certain specific cases only. Therefore, make sure to read the insurance cancellation policy carefully before subscribing to it. Your insurance might also cover you in case of flight cancellation or delay, while taking care of the expenses incurred like having to take another flight or a hotel while waiting.
Medical Evacuation and Repatriation: Remember to check emergency medical transport coverage that might be necessary to py the transfer to an appropriate hospital or to repatriate you home if you are unable to continue your trip.
Medical expenses: Another important element to take into account. Check what your insurance covers for emergency medical treatment such as serious injury or illness and other accidents abroad.
Stolen Property: Most travel insurance has a limited value per item. Make sure it is high enough to cover your diving gear or whatever. You can choose a higher ceiling level that will allow you to increase this limit for high value individual items such as diving equipment, laptops, underwater cameras and mobile phones. Your insurance details the covered items and the situations in which you can make a claim. Pay careful attention to the baggage section in the contract.
Sports activities: You must know, before subscribing to an insurance, the activities that it covers. Travel insurance often covers several sports or risky activities such as scuba diving, but not necessarily, so be sure to check the activities covered by your insurance to include them in your contract if necessary. Remember to also add all the activities you intend to practice in the year so that they can be covered.
Insurance that covers scuba diving
As you understand, before buy a travel insurance, you should read the contract in order to make sure that it is suitable for travel and activities such as scuba diving. Remember that travel insurance is not made to cover all situations, so take the time to read the benefits, limits, general conditions and especially the exclusions of the contract. Now that you’ve organized everything for your next dive trip, it’s time to make sure you’re safe from all the possible risks so you can leave with confidence and anticipate unexpected surprises you may encounter.
Spotmydive usually works with World Nomads for travel insurance including diving activity. World Nomads is a travel insurance made for adventurous travelers and is supported by different insurers around the world. Give them the details of your next diving trip so that they can offer you the insurance that best suits your needs.