pdoege
Contributor
Hey guys -
I did my first kayak diving over the weekend and I have some dos and don'ts.
Mostly don'ts.
My yak is a scupper pro tw. Nice boat. It handled the surf really well. I flipped it twice, mainly because of equipment issues.
In no particular order -
1. Don't bring a giant cave light. Very heavy and hard to stow. The newer NiMH packs might be small enough. My Pro 6 kept trying to drag my BP/tank off of the boat.
2. Use a lightweight BP. You have to lift the BC/tank out of the water into the kayak while in the water yourself. You really want to have a light BP. My steel BP is great for the boats, I'll be getting a plastic one for the kayak.
3. Use a short(er) hose. The 7' was way long. A 5' would be better.
4. Small light tanks. I was using LP120s. God's own air supply, but a major pain to lift into the boat. The big tanks, steel BP, and big canister light really over-weighted the boat. Made it very tippy. Very hard to stow after the dive. I will be getting some HP80s and will reserve the LP120s for dive boats and/or occasional deep dives.
5. No H-valve. The H valve makes the tank sit much higher. Very tippy!
6. The water tight marine radio isn't. I'll use a radio dry bag for the next one. The current one flooded after the 1st roll.
7. Don't bring a cell if you have a marine radio and vice versa. I flooded my cell in the 1st roll. It was in a phone dry bag that failed.
8. Don't bring a lot of water/food. I had a mac-daddy supply of water. 1 squeeze bottle and 1 gallon in the forward hold would have sufficed. I didn't eat any of the crackers either.
9. Don't bring towels / sponges. They just take up room and weight. The SIT design is wet anyway.
10. Use a big mesh bag for all diving gear other than BC and tank. I had separate tethers for each item. A real pain. One bag to clip off to the side would have been much better.
11. No scupper plugs. You are going to get wet anyway. The scupper plugs just hold in water and make you tippy.
12. Use a seat with bottom and bottle holders. Easier on the bum, more comfy, and your bottles stay with the boat when you roll.
13. Use a paddle leash! I had side clips. Not very good.
14. Install lock rings. I rigged a impressive looking steel cable and lock to make it look like the boat was secure during my hotel stay. I will be riveting on two lock rings (bow/stern). They will be used as backup securing points while the yak is on the car.
15. Small anchor for light stuff. I made a really nice anchor and chain line. Way heavy and it stayed in the car. If the weather is good, take a 1lb folding anchor without a chain.
16. Keep one side of the boat clean for mounting and rolls. I had gear on both sides. Major pain when boarding.
17. Small fins. My Tusa Xpert Zooms were very hard to stow. Long and they have a nice kink. Smallish flat fins (ala jetfins or similar) would have been much better.
Well, I think that is it for the don'ts.
Dos.
I have BMW 528. I used the Profile 2000 rack with some foam pads. I strapped it down really and it worked great. I bought an extra tow ring and secured the bow and stern to the front and rear tow rings. This pretty much removed all fishtailing.
Fishtailing is when a strong vortex from a big rig makes the yak pivot back in forth on its rack. A big enough rig will make your car fish tail too!
I had this combination up to 100mph with no problems. Well, not me, someone else. Anyway, my, errr, somebodies, cruise speed was 85MPH. No problems, very little extra noise and the yak was stable and steady the entire time (2.5 hour round trip).
I made a legal 20x20 dive flag out of a fiberglass pole and some brass tubing. About 6' tall. This worked really well and my kayak was very visible. The other yakers used the smaller 12x12 dive float flags. These are not legal, but I doubt anyone actually cares. I am thinking adding a radar reflector as the radar signature of a plastic yak is about 0.
So, to sum up.
Use the smallest, lightest scuba rig that you can. Don't take extra crap. Do secure the yak to the car well. Do waterproof your electronics in a failsafe manner.
Peter Doege
I did my first kayak diving over the weekend and I have some dos and don'ts.
Mostly don'ts.
My yak is a scupper pro tw. Nice boat. It handled the surf really well. I flipped it twice, mainly because of equipment issues.
In no particular order -
1. Don't bring a giant cave light. Very heavy and hard to stow. The newer NiMH packs might be small enough. My Pro 6 kept trying to drag my BP/tank off of the boat.
2. Use a lightweight BP. You have to lift the BC/tank out of the water into the kayak while in the water yourself. You really want to have a light BP. My steel BP is great for the boats, I'll be getting a plastic one for the kayak.
3. Use a short(er) hose. The 7' was way long. A 5' would be better.
4. Small light tanks. I was using LP120s. God's own air supply, but a major pain to lift into the boat. The big tanks, steel BP, and big canister light really over-weighted the boat. Made it very tippy. Very hard to stow after the dive. I will be getting some HP80s and will reserve the LP120s for dive boats and/or occasional deep dives.
5. No H-valve. The H valve makes the tank sit much higher. Very tippy!
6. The water tight marine radio isn't. I'll use a radio dry bag for the next one. The current one flooded after the 1st roll.
7. Don't bring a cell if you have a marine radio and vice versa. I flooded my cell in the 1st roll. It was in a phone dry bag that failed.
8. Don't bring a lot of water/food. I had a mac-daddy supply of water. 1 squeeze bottle and 1 gallon in the forward hold would have sufficed. I didn't eat any of the crackers either.
9. Don't bring towels / sponges. They just take up room and weight. The SIT design is wet anyway.
10. Use a big mesh bag for all diving gear other than BC and tank. I had separate tethers for each item. A real pain. One bag to clip off to the side would have been much better.
11. No scupper plugs. You are going to get wet anyway. The scupper plugs just hold in water and make you tippy.
12. Use a seat with bottom and bottle holders. Easier on the bum, more comfy, and your bottles stay with the boat when you roll.
13. Use a paddle leash! I had side clips. Not very good.
14. Install lock rings. I rigged a impressive looking steel cable and lock to make it look like the boat was secure during my hotel stay. I will be riveting on two lock rings (bow/stern). They will be used as backup securing points while the yak is on the car.
15. Small anchor for light stuff. I made a really nice anchor and chain line. Way heavy and it stayed in the car. If the weather is good, take a 1lb folding anchor without a chain.
16. Keep one side of the boat clean for mounting and rolls. I had gear on both sides. Major pain when boarding.
17. Small fins. My Tusa Xpert Zooms were very hard to stow. Long and they have a nice kink. Smallish flat fins (ala jetfins or similar) would have been much better.
Well, I think that is it for the don'ts.
Dos.
I have BMW 528. I used the Profile 2000 rack with some foam pads. I strapped it down really and it worked great. I bought an extra tow ring and secured the bow and stern to the front and rear tow rings. This pretty much removed all fishtailing.
Fishtailing is when a strong vortex from a big rig makes the yak pivot back in forth on its rack. A big enough rig will make your car fish tail too!
I had this combination up to 100mph with no problems. Well, not me, someone else. Anyway, my, errr, somebodies, cruise speed was 85MPH. No problems, very little extra noise and the yak was stable and steady the entire time (2.5 hour round trip).
I made a legal 20x20 dive flag out of a fiberglass pole and some brass tubing. About 6' tall. This worked really well and my kayak was very visible. The other yakers used the smaller 12x12 dive float flags. These are not legal, but I doubt anyone actually cares. I am thinking adding a radar reflector as the radar signature of a plastic yak is about 0.
So, to sum up.
Use the smallest, lightest scuba rig that you can. Don't take extra crap. Do secure the yak to the car well. Do waterproof your electronics in a failsafe manner.
Peter Doege
