Bert van den Berg
Contributor
Where to start...
After watching me dive on a hookah for more years than the average age of this group my 65 year old wife decided to take up scuba and talked me into taking the PADI OW class with her. So far so good - we both got certified last year. Still diving almost exclusively on the hookah however because it's easy and we can go out on our own boat for a week without having to worry about fills.
Now that the wife's diving with me I got religion and bought two shiny new 13 cubic foot pony bottles off eBay along with regs and pressure gauges as redundant air sources in case the hookah stops.
When we went to get the pony bottled filled we were told it was illegal because they don't have New Zealand "LAB" numbers. These are brand new Catalina bottles but no LAB numbers so tough luck.
A lot of yachties sail into New Zealand from all over the world with their own dive bottles and have the same problem. Of course when you then move on to Australia or XYZstan they will then have their own different standards and not let you fill your overseas bottles there either.
Now filling our pony bottles ourselves from a 15 liter (approx. 120 cubic foot tank) New Zealand tank with a LAB number.
Cheers,
Bert
After watching me dive on a hookah for more years than the average age of this group my 65 year old wife decided to take up scuba and talked me into taking the PADI OW class with her. So far so good - we both got certified last year. Still diving almost exclusively on the hookah however because it's easy and we can go out on our own boat for a week without having to worry about fills.
Now that the wife's diving with me I got religion and bought two shiny new 13 cubic foot pony bottles off eBay along with regs and pressure gauges as redundant air sources in case the hookah stops.
When we went to get the pony bottled filled we were told it was illegal because they don't have New Zealand "LAB" numbers. These are brand new Catalina bottles but no LAB numbers so tough luck.
A lot of yachties sail into New Zealand from all over the world with their own dive bottles and have the same problem. Of course when you then move on to Australia or XYZstan they will then have their own different standards and not let you fill your overseas bottles there either.
Now filling our pony bottles ourselves from a 15 liter (approx. 120 cubic foot tank) New Zealand tank with a LAB number.
Cheers,
Bert