Backpacking with dive gear

[DK_Scuba]

Hello everyone, my wife and I are planning to backpack South America for 6 months in the future and are really conflicted when it comes to our dive gear. We are planning to dive in Colombia, a liveaboard in Galapagos (Probably in August) and depending if we can save enough a dive trip to Antarctica. We are accomplished divers having 500+ and 200+ dives in cold water alone respectively.

Our question is how should be handle our dive gear? We will be requiring our drysuits for Antarctica but the idea of lugging around our full cold water kits for 6 months sounds risky (worried about theft and the overall bulk as we will be staying in hostels).

Does anyone have any ideas on how we can manage all of this?

Thanks!

 

[34109411]

rental !

 

[DigitalNomad75]

Hello everyone, my wife and I are planning to backpack South America for 6 months in the future and are really conflicted when it comes to our dive gear. We are planning to dive in Colombia, a liveaboard in Galapagos (Probably in August) and depending if we can save enough a dive trip to Antarctica. We are accomplished divers having 500+ and 200+ dives in cold water alone respectively.

Our question is how should be handle our dive gear? We will be requiring our drysuits for Antarctica but the idea of lugging around our full cold water kits for 6 months sounds risky (worried about theft and the overall bulk as we will be staying in hostels).

Does anyone have any ideas on how we can manage all of this?

Thanks!

Ive traveled with all my dive gear together with 2x pelican cases for my dive housing equipment and a large Lowepro 400AW backpack with photographic gear. Dude minimise on whats not important regarding clothing.... you know what they say, "just do it!"

 

[DK_Scuba]

rental !

Antarctica liveaboards don't provide rental gear unfortunately .

 

[Cornbread O'Malley]

Can you rent dive gear at all the other locations and then have a friend ship your dive gear to Ushuaia before you head to Antarctica?

 

[Cornbread O'Malley]

Or you can dive Antarctica first, then ship all your bulky dive gear home, and do the rest of the backpacking trip renting dive gear.

 

[Toasterking]

Hello everyone, my wife and I are planning to backpack South America for 6 months in the future and are really conflicted when it comes to our dive gear. We are planning to dive in Colombia, a liveaboard in Galapagos (Probably in August) and depending if we can save enough a dive trip to Antarctica. We are accomplished divers having 500+ and 200+ dives in cold water alone respectively.

Our question is how should be handle our dive gear? We will be requiring our drysuits for Antarctica but the idea of lugging around our full cold water kits for 6 months sounds risky (worried about theft and the overall bulk as we will be staying in hostels).

Does anyone have any ideas on how we can manage all of this?

Thanks!

Have someone at home mail you a box of your kit. Ask the hostels if they will accept a box and have it sent there - do you dives -- mail it home in the same box. Rinse and repeat.


Its a risk, but carting around a cold water setup for six months seems like a version of hell that Dante hasnt thought of yet.

 

[DK_Scuba]

Have someone at home mail you a box of your kit. Ask the hostels if they will accept a box and have it sent there - do you dives -- mail it home in the same box. Rinse and repeat.


Its a risk, but carting around a cold water setup for six months seems like a version of hell that Dante hasnt thought of yet.

Yeah it really does sound like a cruel punishment lol. Looked into prices and looks like it'll be roughly $800 USD for each of our kits. Something to consider in the budget I suppose! Thanks

 

[NothingClever]

Ooh, I like this trip concept a lot.

I‘d research the feasibility of using the nearest LDS or charter for storage at each intended dive location.

You may also consider leveraging the instructor network of your certifying agency to help with the research. Individual divers may pop up on the map with a bed and even a compressor.

If you find a series of LDS or individuals that are willing and you feel are trustworthy, I can confidently recommend using DHL Express for the shipping. It’s more expensive but it will be transported, processed through customs and delivered to the LDS with precision.

Use rotomoulded shipping cases (Pelican, etc) for your dive kit. I’d refrain from putting any extraneous decals on them.

 

[Maus]

Don´t ship it to a South American country, there will be import taxes on it. Try to get in touch with Dive Shops in Argentina and Chile and may be you could rent dry suits of them for the trip