Dive prep time

[Matt S.]

I feel a lot better knowing that I am not the only one who can take 45 minutes to get fully geared up with my wife/buddy. It sounds like we are on the right track.

Thanks for the comments, I have some new ideas to try out now... and more realistic expectations.

 

[Blitz]

It still baffles me that Bob can be at a dive site hours before me and I still manager to be ready first.

 

[Missdirected]

I feel a lot better knowing that I am not the only one who can take 45 minutes to get fully geared up with my wife/buddy. It sounds like we are on the right track.

Thanks for the comments, I have some new ideas to try out now... and more realistic expectations.

You are spot on. This year, after the winter lull, it took me a bit to get back into the swing but look out... I just did around twenty dives last week :multi: This week it is Key Largo and my stuff is already ready to go

 

[jim T.]

Another thing that's helped me a lot is weightlifting. I realized that the largest contributer to fatigue was the shore walk/hike with a tank strapped on your back.
Leg excercises like squats and leg raises and back excercises like deadlifts and upright rows REALLY helped. I'm 55 and a bit overweight but adapating lifting excercises to "dive specific" body areas can go a long way towards giving you muscular support where you need it.

For example, I'm a new doubles diver. The added weight and soreness after a dive made me add some upper chest and shoulder lifts to "pad" the areas taking all the brunt of the weight with a little more muscle.

Now if it could only be seen beneath the flab...

Also aerobic excercise using only mouth breathing, like breathing from a reg
can help you to slow down your breathing over time and take the subconcious
stress of not being able to breathe through your nose down to where it feels more natural.

Cold water diving and gearing up is a ridiculous amount of work. It'll take a long time to adapt physically and mentally. Be patient, dive with patient
more experienced divers and eventually everything will become familiar and second nature. I'm not there after about 70 dives yet, and it's often said that it
takes most people about 100 for things to become 2nd nature.

 

[Matt S.]

Follow up... we dived Redondo again today, and suited up at the car. This was MUCH better than trying to set up a staging area near the entry point.

I also figured out a way to save some time cleaning the gear: move it as little as possible. So, now I have a rolling rack made from PVC. I take the gear out of the car, hang it, hose it off, and then just roll the rack into the garage. (Regs get soaked and then hung.)

(I started a thread over in DIY for the Rack of Doom.)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Matt when were you there? I was at Redondo in the morning and evening ... if you were there in the morning, did you notice the red canopy perched over an orange Honda Element? That was me and my class ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Rick Inman]

I'll echo what's been said.

I enjoy a lot of quality socializing before and after the dive with the good folks kind enough to dive with me. Some of my best education has come during those times.

But I also enjoy the prep & clean-up time. I dunno, I just like playing with the gear. Wait 'till you start doing some tech diving! You spend a day blending, mixing, filling, planning, hauling tons more gear at five times the cost for 20 mins of bottom time.

I always say, to really enjoy diving, you have to enjoy the peripherals of diving.

 

[Matt S.]

Hey Bob, yep, we saw your red canopy when we pulled in. We were at the black Murano parked on the street. Small world.

 

[nereas]

I try to spread out the prep and clean up over several days. Keeping the gear always ready to go is a big time saver as well. Loading the vehicle the night before the drive helps too.

Driving to the diving site after work lessons the stress on diving day for me. I live and work several hours' drive away.

I normally spend the night before and the night after a dive day in a local motel. Most gear can be rinsed there, at the motel, especially if they cater to scuba divers and have a rinse area. Then you can also let the gear dry out overnight, and go have dinner locally and enjoy whatever the diving area has to offer in vistas or entertainment.

Driving back is usually the morning or afternoon of the last weekend day or holiday.

Re-rinsing, drying, and staging for the next dive can then happen at home, several days later.

Trying to do all this in 1 or 2 days can be exhausting, yes. Especially if you also must move gear from your vehicle to a tarp, and back, as well.

When I am diving at a resort, I am usually one of the few, if not the only person, who brings my gear back to the hotel room to rinse it myself. I normally do this after every dive day, before going down to get dinner. I don't like leaving my gear on the boat, ever.

 

[airsix]

I had a crazy idea of getting a small enclosed trailer & making some mods:

• wall the inside with shower-board
• seal it up and put a drain in the bottom
• duct in some vents and a fan
• plumb some popup lawn sprinklers into the ceiling
• install racks for hanging gear & securing for travel

After a dive you just drive home and plug the garden hose into the quick-disconnect, and turn on the water to activate the 'big mobile dishwasher'. To make it more green you could put a valve on the floor drain and recycle the wash water with a pump. After the wash, just drain the water and run the ventilation fan for a while.
I know I'm nuts, but the beauty of this is that it doubles as permanent gear storage. Gear only leaves the trailer to dive.

-Ben