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Top Tips
We've all had that "what a good idea" moment when speaking to fellow divers. Well here's a collection of just that sort of information that we at Mid Herts Divers have accrued over the years.
Feel free to take any of these ideas and tips for yourself :-)
What do I need to buy to start-out?
Here's a list of essential gear you're going to have to buy in order to be self-sufficient while diving in UK waters...
- Semidry wetsuit
- Mask
- Gloves
- Hood
- Boots / Bootees
- BCD / BC / Buoyancy Control Device / Stab Jacket
- Regs / Regulators
- Set of gauges
- Fins (not flippers)
- Weights and weightbelt
What am I going to have to eventually buy?
Here's a list of common gear that most active divers will own and use on a regular basis...
- Whistle
- Slate
- Knife
- Reel
- DSMB / Delayed Surface Marker Buoy
- Compass
- Kitbag
- Dive Computer
- Spares kit
- Goody bag
- Torch and backup torch
- Air cylinder
What would more advanced divers or instructors own?
Here's a somewhat shorter list of gear that more advanced divers would tend to own and use...
- Spring clips for your fins
- Pocket mask
- Pony cylinder
- Drysuit and ankle weights
- Additional air cylinder
- Line laying reel
What would technical divers own?
Here's a list of kit more specialised technical divers would use...
- Nitrox/Trimix cylinder(s)
- Twinset
Boat Dives
Keeping stuff dry
Buy a dry-bag or waterproof rucksack liner from Millets. This will keep almost anything completely dry and stop water from transferring from your wet dive gear to your dry clothes or water-sensitive items i.e. camera, phone, car-keys etc.
Price: £10 Click here for an example
Rib Dives
Goody Bag
Bring a large mesh "Goody Bag" with draw-string to hold all your stuff together when you’re on the boat. Make sure its large enough for your fins, because that way, it’ll also have enough room for everything else.
Cost: £5 Click here for an example
UK Diving
Waterproof groundsheet
These are invaluable when UK diving as the ground is often wet. Particularly useful and comfortable are plastic-backed picnic blankets that have a soft material-like upper (often tartan!). They may not look much, but they’re great to help keep kit clean and are comfortable to stand on when changing into your wet/drysuit.
Click here for an example. Cost: £5
Rolling dive bag
Don’t try and lift all that heavy gear around – buy a cheap soft holdall with wheels and a extendable handle. Put all your weights at the wheel-end and everything else on top. It’ll now be a breeze to haul your gear around. Price: around £30. Don’t buy a scuba-specific bag – they cost three or four times as much!
One disadvantage to a non-dive specific bag is that salt water can sometimes cause the zips to stick. Solve this with a a dab of drysuit zip lube.
Car keys
What to do with car keys while diving? One option is to leave them somewhere safe, but the other option is to take them with you! If you dive in a drysuit this is a great option. Buy a neck lanyard and attach just the key you need (leave the rest of your keyring locked in the car). Owners of cars with remote central locking can impress their friends by pressing locking/unlocking the car by pressing key key’s buttons through their drysuit!
Click here for an example. Price £1 -£5
Cylinder handle
Don’t shred your hands while lugging cylinders around, get a handle.
Click here for an example. Price: £8
Cylinder trolley
Even better, don’t carry your cylinders at all. Put them on a cheap trolley and roll them around.
You can buy a cheap fold-flat trolley for £15 from B&Q at the moment (April 2009). You’ll also need to pick up a couple of bungees to hold the cylinders (around £3 each).
Click here for an example. Price: £15
Drysuit Tips
Drysuit Zips are very expensive to replace, so take care of yours with a simple toothbrush and it will last. Use an old toothbrush to get rid of any bits of grit that you may have picked up when getting into or out of your drysuit. Ther old toothbrush can also be used to apply a small amount of silicone grease to the teeth and runner of the zip to make sure it opens and closes easily.
Important: When using chemical products with your drysuit zips, always check the manufacturers recommendations about what you can and can't use.
Rather than puffing loads of talcum powder around the place to dust the inside of drysuit wrist and neck seals straight from the shop container, try decanting a small amount (about 1/3 of a fist) into an old sock with a knot tied in the open end. Just a couple of swirls around the inside of the neck or wrist seals will be enough to encourage the talc out, dust the seal and allow the suit to be slipped on easily. Try to use unperfumed talc as this can accelerate the seal's degredation. Remember though, that talcum powder can build-up and clog your dump valves, so this is a good tip to help you control where it goes and how much is used.
Important: Talcum powder is not suitable for use with all drysuits seals. Check the manufacturers instructions first.
Drying your kit
Wetsuit/semidry
Although the manufacturers don’t recommend it, I’ve found that a short spell at a low temperate setting in a tumble dryer works wonders. It also has the added bonus of filling your kitchen with the warm whiff of neoprene and thus making your house smell like a dive shop.
Boots
Having trouble drying your boots (regardless of how long you leave them in the airing cupboard on top of the towels?) Recycle your old newspapers by crumpling up the individual sheets and stuff them into your wet boots. Leave them overnight (in said airing cupboard) and you’ll be amazed how dry they are the next morning.
Toolkit
Essential
- Replacement mask strap
- Replacement fin strap
- Adjustable wrench (for adjusting your first stage hoses)
- Allen key to fit din DIN inserts
- Allen key to fit first stage hose blanking screws.
- Replacement cylinder o-rings
- Silicone grease
Nice to have
- Replacement battery for your computer (if you can replace it yourself) and a suitable tool to open it up (a penny for most Suunto models).
- Replacement torch batteries (if it uses standard batteries).
Kit tips
Integrated weights
If you can use integrated weights in your BCD, try using folded-up lead flashing instead of expensive shot weight pouches. You can pick this up in most DIY stores. Cut it to the size of your integrated weight pockets, weigh it out and bind each resulting "ingot" together with duct-tape.
UKD4R Rechargeable torch
Don’t forget to buy the battery plate if you own this torch. Out-of-the-box it works great with the built-in rechargeable battery pack, but if you’re travelling and don’t have access to a power point for recharging, buy the battery plates for it. These will allow you to use standard "A" Cell batteries.
Click here for an example. Price: £8
Suunto data cable
Suunto charge an-arm-and-a-leg for their branded data cable for the Suunto range of dive computers. You can buy an OEM version for half the price that fits the Vyper/Vytec/Vytec DS/Cobra/Mosquito/D3 from www.customidea.com. Price: £27
Suunto Gecko
Suunto (in their infinite wisdom) decided to design only one circuit board and casing for the Vyper and Gecko dive computers. They however, disabled the PC link on the Gecko and sell it for £60 cheaper than the Vyper (which does have the PC link). You can re-enable the PC link on the Gecko by downloading the "Gecko Download" utility from here. It reconfigures the Gecko and tricks the Suunto software into thinking it’s a Vyper.
White balance with Digital Cameras
Take a photo of your white slate while underwater and use that to set your manual white balance.
Useful kit
Clips, rings, lanyards and retractors
While diving always keep your kit close to hand but still tidy and out of the way. You can achieve this using a combination of hose clips, carabiners, split-rings, lanyards and retractors. Retractors are particularly useful because they don’t hinder your use of the kit and when you’ve finished with it, they automatically tuck it away for you! Here’s some examples…
Carabiners. Prices range from about £3 to £10
Hose clips. Price: £2 - £3
Retractors. Price: £10 - £15
Split rings. Price: £1 - £2
Extendable lanyard. Price: £8
Standard lanyard. Price: £2
S-Binders. Price: £2 - £3
Slate
A multi-sheet arm-mounted dive slate is very useful indeed. You can use it to hold your dive plan, in and out gas, times, recording information underwater and for communication.
Example. Price: £15
Octopus holder
There are various methods of holding your octopus, different divers have different preferences. The bottom line though is that it has to be visible to your buddy and always accessible. Make sure your octopus hose is never tangled and is never overlapped by another hoses.
Knives
A knife is essential if you or your buddy is carrying a line or there’s a chance that lines or netting may be present on the dive. Titanium knives are ultra-lightweight, funky-looking, but more expensive and its difficult to maintain a sharp edge. Stainless steel knives are heavier, cheaper but easier to keep really sharp.
A better alternative to a knife (although less rufty-tufty) is a pair of shears with a sheath.
Example. Price: £12 - £35
DSMB
Three sorts of DSMB are available, open-ended, self sealing and self-inflating. Don’t buy open ended, focus on self-sealing and self-inflating. For your first DSMB, buy an orange (not yellow) self-sealing version. Only buy a self-inflating DSMB if you’re an experienced diver and have deployed dozens of DSMBs in the past. Either way, you’ll need to have a reel in order to use any sort of DSMB.
Example. Price: £20 - £30
Reel
For DSMB/SMB use, buy a compact reel with a stubby handle. Don’t go too small otherwise it’ll be impossible to use with gloves. A good starting point is the Beaver Puffin reel with 40m of line. The Beaver Osprey Wreck reel has 80m of line (more useful).
Puffin: Example. Price: £25
Osprey: Example. Price: £29
Hood
Make sure you buy a hood with a good clear set of air escape holes in the top. There’s nothing worse than getting cold and an ice-cream headache because your hood is being pulled off the top of your head by a big air bubble. You can of course make your own air vents in your hood with a handheld eyelet punch
Example. Price: £25
Punch: Example. price: £4 - £9
Torches
If you carry a torch, always take a backup torch. Small LED torches can be very efficient and powerful (sometimes as bright as the main torch!). The Lenser Frogman is a particularly good.
Example. Price: £35
Undersuits
I’ve found that wearing a really thick pair of walking socks with my undersuit keeps my feet toasty while cold water diving in the UK.
Weightbelts
If you’re diving in anything other than a swimming costume, you’ll need to wear weights. Solid weights on a webbing belt and really feel uncomfortable and can slide around if not properly secured. Another option is a wide weight belt with pockets. The pockets can be filled with lead shot pouches. These pouches mould to your body and are much more comfortable. Another option is a weight harness that still hold the weight around your waist, but spreads the load to your shoulders using adjustable webbing braces.
Between dives…
Gloves
If you have them, it’s useful to bring two pairs of gloves with you - one for each dive. It’s no fun putting a cold wet pair of gloves on for your second dive when you’re warm and dry following your surface interval.
Adjusting your kit after your first dive
Once you’ve taken your kit off after your first dive, slacken-off all the straps on your BCD and fins. It’ll make it easier when it comes to putting it all back on again and you won’t have to fiddle around releasing buckles and tensioners when you’re wearing your gloves.
Health
Does diving make your back ache?
Pick up a cheap lumbar support belt from any DIY shop. These are typically used by labourers on jobs where heaving lifting is required. Most are thin and can be worn easily under a dry/wetsuit.
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