Carry On Dive Gear Bag

[jpdunc]

The May 2006 issue of SCUBA Diving has a brief feature on four Roller carry-on bags for dive gear. It is on page 42. The bags are made by Deep See, Stahlsac, Akona, and Pelican.

After just returning from Cozumel using the Cancun to Playa to ferry to Coz route, I'm ready to downsize my luggage. In fact, after reading the article, I put all of my dive gear including a full size BCD in a conventional rolling carry on and amazingly it fit.

We're going to Bonaire in May and with some of the issues regarding theft of checked luggage, I'm seriously considering trying to make it with two carry ons. One for the dive gear and another smaller one to qualify as my "personal item" with my clothing--shorts, tee shirts, bathing suits, etc.

Does anyone on the Board already use the carry on approach and, if so, are you using standard luggage or dive specific luggage? One negative with the dive specific ones is the logo, which makes them a more attractive target if they do get checked.

All input will be greatly appreciated.

 

[NJdiver85]

I use a standard black roller carry-on bag. In addition, I wear a backpack, which is allowed in addtion to the roller bag as a carry-on. Between the two, I can pack all my gear including camera and housing. Only thing that gets checked are my fins.

 

[*Floater*]

The typical carry-on restrictions are the following: Cannot exceed 45 linear inches (9 inches by 14 inches by 22 inches), cannot exeed 40 lbs. Those are from Northwest, some others don't explicitly mention a weight limit.

I bought a carry-on roller bag that is light just matches the above measures. I pack it full of either heavy gear if I have trouble with checked-in luggage weight limits, and/or expensive/fragile gear.

I've had no problem during security checks except that they open my bag up every time, and in Egypt they asked me to check it in because of all the steel inside (two backplates, STA, etc.)