Can you have too much gear ?

[boulderjohn]

All right, folks, this is a serious response.

Dave Barry said that there is a fine line between hobby and insanity. Any pursuit that falls into the general category of a hobby can become an obsession. Studies on addiction that include brain scans indicate that all addictions, including heroin, alcohol, nicotine, and shopping, light up the same parts of the brain and cause similar behaviors. When things reach that level, they can have very serious consequences.

Years ago we had some acquaintances through my wife's work, and the husband got an interest in herpetology (snakes). He got a few in tanks in his home, and then we lost touch with them for a while. We ran into the wife not long ago. They were divorced. He had become obsessed with collecting snakes. Soon the whole house was full of snake tanks and reeked of their smell. In order to finance their purchase, he dipped into their savings then into their retirement then into everything he possibly could, not telling her what he was doing. She had no idea that some of his specimens cost many thousands of dollars. Even with the divorce settlement, she was financially ruined.

I don't see why scuba is any different from any other activity that can include collecting. Yes, you can have too much equipment, and if you are asking yourself if you do, it could be akin to someone wondering about drinking too much.

 

[Paulmal]

You can never drink to much.

 

[goflyplanes]

What do you guys take when you travel? I have 1 semi-dry, regs, BCD, 2 pairs of fins, 2 masks and 2 snorkels and have a hard enough time getting all this where I need it to be! Granted in a 6 month period I will have spent significant amounts of time in Malta, Rome, and Cyprus. But really do you just mostly dive locally?

 

[boulderjohn]

What do you guys take when you travel? I have 1 semi-dry, regs, BCD, 2 pairs of fins, 2 masks and 2 snorkels and have a hard enough time getting all this where I need it to be! Granted in a 6 month period I will have spent significant amounts of time in Malta, Rome, and Cyprus. But really do you just mostly dive locally?

I had a significant problem with this a few weeks ago, and I will face a similar problem soon. A few weeks ago I was heading off for a two week vacation that would include some single tank diving, some double tank decompression diving, and some cave diving. The different gear I would need for each was a real packing problem. My doubles regulators are the Apeks models that are designed for doubles and don't work all that well for singles because of the way they route the hoses. I took all of the hoses off of them and put them on the first stage of one of my decompression regulators so I could use it for the singles diving without having to bring another set. I also had some friends who were with us for the first week only, and they had lots of luggage room. I was therefore able to send my decompression regulators and some other open ocean gear back with them, since I would not need them in the caves I was diving.

Leaving out all of the stuff I could, I still had a lot of luggage that I had to pay extra for, even though I brought the absolute minimum in clothing.

In a couple of weeks I will be doing something similar, combining open ocean, single tank diving with double tank cave diving on a single trip. This time there will be a much greater limit on the amount I can bring because the trip will include some small plane flying. Additionally, because the flight will be in November, I have to be prepared for the clothing I will need going to and from the airport in Denver, as opposed to the clothing I will need in the tropical paradise I will be visiting. I will be doing everything I can to keep things to a minimum, meaning I will have to make some hard choices. I may even end up renting something on site even though I own it at home.

 

[tdtaylor]

I had a significant problem with this a few weeks ago, and I will face a similar problem soon. A few weeks ago I was heading off for a two week vacation that would include some single tank diving, some double tank decompression diving, and some cave diving. The different gear I would need for each was a real packing problem. My doubles regulators are the Apeks models that are designed for doubles and don't work all that well for singles because of the way they route the hoses. I took all of the hoses off of them and put them on the first stage of one of my decompression regulators so I could use it for the singles diving without having to bring another set. I also had some friends who were with us for the first week only, and they had lots of luggage room. I was therefore able to send my decompression regulators and some other open ocean gear back with them, since I would not need them in the caves I was diving.

Leaving out all of the stuff I could, I still had a lot of luggage that I had to pay extra for, even though I brought the absolute minimum in clothing.

In a couple of weeks I will be doing something similar, combining open ocean, single tank diving with double tank cave diving on a single trip. This time there will be a much greater limit on the amount I can bring because the trip will include some small plane flying. Additionally, because the flight will be in November, I have to be prepared for the clothing I will need going to and from the airport in Denver, as opposed to the clothing I will need in the tropical paradise I will be visiting. I will be doing everything I can to keep things to a minimum, meaning I will have to make some hard choices. I may even end up renting something on site even though I own it at home.

Wow, and I thought I had issues on live-a-boards with a full photo rig. I end up stuffing clothing in my ports and everything else required, and only end up with 2 bags. You're scenario is really rough.

I travelled with large lenses (the largest 10-12 pounds) and helped teach for photo excursions with groups, and extra equipment for the students was always taken-lots of heavy pro lenses. In the end, we always ended up Fed Exing (is this a word?) several large Pelican boxes weighing 40-50 pounds each or more, and only personally carried the bags we took of the essential gear. While expensive, it was insured and made traveling only a moderate hassle. Really not that much more expensive than paying excess baggage fees. Unfortunately, this scenario breaks down a little when the destinations become more remote.

Next week I am having to attend a wedding before we head out on a live-a-board. We have decided (since our first leg is Southwest), to ship back home a lot of the stuff we can shed after the wedding and pare down before the flight (smaller prop plane) for the dive trip.

Terry

 

[Doc]

Can you have too much gear?

Well, you can bring too much with you. Pick the correct gear as needed for the requirements of the dive.

Except of course EAN, you should always use EAN. You should even blow up your tires with it. Nitrox is so cool it should always be capitalized.

Multiple knives are good, too, because you'll lose them sequentially like Sharks lose teeth. I have seen a lot of empty sheaths out there. If you're ever on South Coronado, walk in the sand and find brand new M9 Bayonets left there for you by Navy SEALS who were subsequently humiliated for this act. You can buy the sheathes for peanuts.

If you keep your excess gear long enough, you can put it on eBay and one of the three scavengers from Florida will fight over it like Seagulls on a dead Carp. I have done this with double hose regs, full face masks and squares of skin that I have provenance showing they were stripped from the still warm flesh of the original "Flipper" of TV fame. I also sold the steel twin 72's that Mike Nelson used to manage to heave over the gunnels while treading water. The eBayer got them for $18.12, but I made up for it in the shipping for $327.

Wetsuits tend to shrink in darkness (closets and basements). Fins (which I still have the predecessor that we called "flippers") go through technological changes faster than any Apple product so whatever you can buy at retail is already outmoded. This rule is universal except for Force Fins which have gained status as so superior that you can only upgrade by buying the Tan Delta weird colored ones for 4x what split fins would cost.

This is really the only good reason to finagle your way into DEMA, because you just might be able to buy the coolest, newest, strangest crap from the salesman at the end of the show. Probably not~ a bigger idiot beat you to them. It will be on clearance at Performance Divers in 6 months, don't worry.

I have no issues...

Nope, not me.

 

[OldNSalty]

I understand the need (desire) for some types of extras-tanks being a good example...but why fins, or mask beyond 2? I just don't see those things changing so much that I would care. To me it is like having a multitude of snorkels (and someone out there probably does)

 

[DMDavid]

To me it is like having a multitude of snorkels (and someone out there probably does)

I've never met a snorkel that I like so I'm always willing to give a new one a try.

As a diving pack-rat I don't throw any dive gear away so I have many snorkels representing the history of the snorkel from the 1970's to present day.

 

[boulderjohn]

Wow, and I thought I had issues on live-a-boards with a full photo rig. I end up stuffing clothing in my ports and everything else required, and only end up with 2 bags. You're scenario is really rough.

I travelled with large lenses (the largest 10-12 pounds) and helped teach for photo excursions with groups, and extra equipment for the students was always taken-lots of heavy pro lenses.

Please don't take this personally, but I have had some issues with photographers, their gear, and airline weight restrictions.

I was on a trip to the Galapagos, and the trip included the owner of the shop for which I worked, the course director for the shop for which I worked, and a couple of other similarly well connected people. We had been given pretty severe weight restrictions for the trip, and pretty much all of us complied with those restrictions, severe as they were. The exceptions were the people mentioned above, all of whom were significant photographers, and all of whom considered their gear essential. Before our gear was weighed, each of them said that they were bringing more in photography equipment alone than they were allowed in total baggage, but they had decided to just say screw it all. That was their choice.

So at the airport they put all our gear in a big pile and weighed it. They then divided the total weight by the total number of people in our group and decided that we were far overweight and had to pay a fine. The shop owner, whose massive photography equipment was the most significant factor in our being overweight, then decided that since our group was overweight, we would all split the overweight charges. That meant that the 8 people in our group of 12 who had sacrificed to stay within limits had to pay for the 4 people who decided the limits didn't matter. I was a gutless employee, so I did little more than agree to it.

I no longer work for that shop, but I assure you that memory is well burned in my mind when I think back o those days.

 

[Searcaigh]

So at the airport they put all our gear in a big pile and weighed it. They then divided the total weight by the total number of people in our group and decided that we were far overweight and had to pay a fine. The shop owner, whose massive photography equipment was the most significant factor in our being overweight, then decided that since our group was overweight, we would all split the overweight charges. That meant that the 8 people in our group of 12 who had sacrificed to stay within limits had to pay for the 4 people who decided the limits didn't matter. I was a gutless employee, so I did little more than agree to it.

I no longer work for that shop, but I assure you that memory is well burned in my mind when I think back o those days.

I would have kept the receipt and claimed it back on expenses or at least challenged him to pay when you left his employment.

On travel though I am guilty also that my camera gear weighs more than my dive gear, but I manage all of it with carry on.

As for clothes I take my oldest underwear and bin it after use, plus a couple of T-shirts as I always end up buying more anyway.

Some airlines will allow excess baggage for sport equipment, SIA, Malaysian and Emirates to name three, provided you can prove that what you are carrying is sports gear and show your dive card, I had to do this last year when my daughter and I went to Sipadan.