I am 15 dives away from 500! And no, nobody wants to see my birthday suit so I will not be diving naked!!! I wanted to share some things I've learned along the way, in case they help anyone else. This is all based on my own experience and my own opinions - so take it for what it's worth and what it is costing you.
PLEASE add what you have learned as well.

- Wear the same bathing suit, rash guards and dive socks every day and I guarantee, nobody will know. I love the women I meet on dive boats – and I don’t remember what they were wearing.
- If the water and/or air is cold, it’s ok to have a second set of the above so they’re dry the next dive.
- Bring a 2nd set of socks on the boat in case you lose a sock or someone else forgets theirs.
- If you dive an air integrated computer you can take the transmitter off your regulator and plug it for travel. In fact, if you really wanted to, you could take off all the hoses from your first stage and plug all those holes if it will make it all pack more compactly. Just make sure you also pack the right tool to reassemble it on location.
- If you dive a Zeagle Zena, take off that front panel and pack your BC with the INSIDE facing the bottom of your suitcase. Now the cam bands will be facing up and become a protective cage for other things, and you save space. Put the panels wherever they’ll fit.
- Figure out how many evenings you will need clothes for and bring that many changes of clothes plus one or two. If you think you can get two days out of a black skirt, or something else, go for it. One black skirt worn on Monday, and again on Thursday with a different cami and wrap, will save you space. My experience is that after doing two morning dives I usually get lunch and nap and then it's dinner time. Not a lot of time to need a second set of clothes in the afternoon. But if you're planning on afternoon excursions forget what I just wrote.
- Use your wrap from the plane as a pareo at the pool/beach. No need to have two – but if you’re going to have more than one of anything, make it a wrap. It will help change up outfits and keep you warm in over-air conditioned stores and restaurants.
- If the only time you wear waterproof mascara is when diving, just keep that in your dive kit – and waterproof whatever other makeup you use on a dive trip. (I have an entire kit of makeup that stays in my dive suitcase).
- I’ve had 7 Mohs surgeries to remove basal and squamous skin cancers – 3 of those were on my face and two were front and center on my chest, so when I'm on the boat I wear a hooded top that also has a built in gaitor. Yes, I look like a bandit, but it works. The one I wear is made by Baleaf and is $25 on amazon. It’s UPF50, and where it doesn’t cover me I have my sunglasses and baseball hat. I have the hoodie in light green for hotter months and dark gray for cooler months.
- We have tried every cool defog we've been able to get our hands on (right @Janie88 ?), and we have finally settled on water mixed with a little bit of baby shampoo in a spray bottle. I also use a toothbrush to get all the oils from my fingers and sunscreen off the skirt of the mask. Works better than anything else has ... so far!
- If you have bad vision, consider a prescription mask. I've used one for years but recently got it updated with my new script. I used a place called SeeTheSeaRx and am VERY happy with the script. They give you the option to get the bifocal part a little bigger than standard, and with the macro pics I like to take it's great. We just did a trip hunting for meg teeth in Venice Beach and they worked fantastic. Btw, I tried the stick-on readers and they came off in the water - actually, one came off and the other stayed on. Not good.
- When I got my new script I also got a new mask. The new mask doesn't leak nearly as much as the other one did, and I'm wondering if the other one was just past its prime? If yours is leaking, maybe go to a dive shop and see if something else fits better or makes a better seal?
- We always pack 2 portable clotheslines to dry clothes overnight - and turn on the fans, if there are any, to accelerate the process. We have taken pictures down from the walls to hook the lines to the screws, attached them to railings - whatever it takes. These stretchy lines work great!
- When I'm diving with a 3mil or more I wear a sports bra and exercise shorts underneath. The reason is that between dives I want to get as dry and warm as I can, and if I'm wearing rash guards they hold water and keep me colder. My sports bra covers a lot and holds the girls in place so my modesty is protected.
Let me know what fun ideas you have for this issue. Also, if there's a marine head it's a lot easier to use if wearing two pieces than one.
- I've started diving with a hood to keep my hair out of my dive mask. Once my hair is slicked back and I pull on the hood there are never any problems. I use the Lavacore hood, sold for $30 at scuba.com - what used to be leisurepro.
- If you're doing shore dives bring a mini-tank o-ring kit attached to your BC ($13). There won't be any extra o-rings like on a boat - or that cool hook gadget to get out the disintegrated o-ring.
- Double check your dive computer's battery the night before you dive - every day you're diving - just in case. And make sure your dive computers buttons are working properly because you RINSED them well with warm, fresh water. There's a story here. I have the Peregrine, which is known for being a bit finicky in salt water if you don't rinse it. I didn't rinse it properly at the end of a dive trip and then, a few months later when I was on the dive boat I couldn't get it to turn on. Oh no! Was it the battery? I borrowed my buddies backup dive computer. When I got back to the hotel I put it in water to see if the water would activate it. Yes - full battery. But those buttons were stuck from the sticky salt water. So now I rinse in warm water -pushing the buttons several times - every day I dive.
- If you have ANY predisposition toward sea sickness, take your dramamine the night before and the morning of each dive. Put on your patch the night before. If you wait too long you're toast. I've never actually gotten seasick - I gagged once on a rough ride when I decided I wanted to go to the head, where it was super hot and smelled of diesel. But ever since then, just in case that was the beginning of me actually being sea sick, I've taken dramamine the night before and the morning of dives that had the potential to be rough ride out.