Birthday gadget purchase: help me choose!

[outofofficebrb]

And it’s much much harder to get lost while hiking than diving in a rough ocean with strong currents.

In the Pacific NW and Western US lately, there have been people who were out of cell reception that were injured and couldn’t get help while out in the wilderness, in addition to being lost. That is another thing to think about, too. I think it’s a good buy, but like insurance, we hope to never use it but have it if we need it.

 

[JohnnyC]

Can't vote anymore but I'd say PLB. More useful in any environment, and while I much prefer my own analyzer, I've found that unless the op is just a taxi, they've always had an analyzer when nitrox has been on board.

Don't get me wrong, I use my analyzer all the time, especially rebreather diving, but for those rec dives off a commercial boat, there's always an analyzer passed around. The better ones either have you analyze in front of them, or they analyze in front of you. I don't choose to patronize crappy dive ops for a myriad of reasons, and often crappy ops don't even offer nitrox in the first place. Only once has it ever bit me, and that was when the DM left the analyzer at the shop. I refused to dive and they refunded my money. I did enjoy the nice boat ride though.

Ideally you'd have both a PLB and a gas analyzer, preferably with CO sensing capability as well.