Gear longetivity...

[NadMat]

I was going over my gear, looking at what needed to be upgraded, serviced, replaced, and added. It got me thinking about how well my gear has served me thru the years.

Gear 1980

Reg- SP MKV
BCD- SeaQuest Jacket BC
Fins- SP Jets
Mask- SP mask
Snorkel- SP snorkel
Knife- Wenoka Knife(lrg)
Booties- Blue booties
Gloves- Cheap gloves
Lights- 8C halogen primary, 2 AA halogen backup
Wetsuit- Rented or borrowed (dad had a 7mm farmer john I used a lot, summer in travis does not require one above 90’)
Gauges- SP SPG and SP depth gauge

After 2005 Cozumel trip, first blue water in forever, was inspired to repair or replace current gear as needed, diving bug had bit hard again.

Gear 2006

Reg- SP MKV(original, maintained and upgraded, still under warranty. Have gone thru various octo configurations, from none to normal to BCD integrated, currently have BCD integrated AirSource)
BCD- New SeaQuest Pro QD(still have original SQ jacket, but inner bladder bad as of 2 years ago and replacements not available, however with over 400 dives on it, and over 2 decades of faithful service, I feel I got my moneys worth)
Fins- SP Jets (still originals, straps replaced from time to time)
Mask- New mask(still have original SP, but old black plastic has gotten hard over time and no longer seal well)
Snorkel- New snorkel(actually no snorkel, or only half of new snorkel, recently lost top half of new snorkel I bought when bought new mask, kind of funny since only part of original SP snorkel I have is top half, How do I keep loosing half a snorkel?)
Knife- Wenoka Knife(sml)(still have original large knife, just like smaller bcd mount version better)
Booties- Blue booties(still originals)
Gloves- Cheap gloves(still originals)
Lights- New Princeton tec eled 8C primary, Ikelite PC 4C backup(I loaned someone originals and were not returned)
Wetsuit- New Neosport 4/3 full
Gauges- SP SPG and SP depth gauge(still originals)



Upgrades and additions for 2007

New Camera Housing (for my digicam, currently on way, may be part of 2006 gear if makes it here on time)$100
New Booties (original blue ones still work, but recent long hikes to water at travis have taken there toll)$??
New Gloves (pair of reef gloves, and pair of warm neoprene gloves, original reef gloves lost, original neoprene glove functional, were not used often, a bit small, but better than nothing when cold)$??
New Snorkel (looking at folding snorkels, or will get duplicate of last snorkel and have extra mouthpiece for it)$??
New Hooded Vest (to wear under full for colder water)$??
Computer (have been diving without forever, usually only rent for vacation diving when really want to maximize bottom time doing repetitive dives, but love to play with downloading features)$???


Also rebuilding save a dive kit, looking at a new SMB, and new dive flag/float and forever looking for new additions to add to my dive locker. In 2008 I plan to buy a tank or 2, maybe sooner if I am diving a lot this summer.

But when look at what I have spent on gear over years and how much enjoyment it has given me, I can honestly say I do not regret a dime spent on diving. I feel I got plenty of bang for my buck. I wish I could say the same about some of my other expenditures.

So how has your gear treated you?

 

[Diver0001]

OK, I'll play:

My orignal gear:

ca. 1985:

reg: Aqualung aquarius. Manufactured in 1972, aquired 2nd hand.
no octopus, but retrofitted in 1987 with a seaquest AirII type thing.

mask: several. Some given to me as gifts, one bought for my OW course. All leaked because of large amounts of facial hair. None would be considered low-volume by today's standards.

snorkel: Dacor ... *with* a brand-fangled-new invention....the purge valve. Blue and white. Still popular colours.

fins: 2 pair. The Dacor white plastic jobbies and a scubapro jet-fins. The jet-fins were much too heavy and dragged my feet down so I gave them away. I still have the Dacor's. My "new" rubber fins are 15 year old Poseidons that aren't as negative as the jet-fins were.

Suit: a custom made bright blue one from a new upstart company called "Fitzgerald" (eventually to be called "Bare"). It was one of the first trilaminate suits on the market and I got it through the shop that trained me for pretty much nothing on the condition that I would report back to them once a year with feedback.

Weights: I was an early adopter of the soft weight belt. Every dive my suit was covered with the milky white residue that leaked out of the weight belt.

Tanks/BCD: The tank was a yellow luxafer made from the aluminium that you shouldn't keep in the trunk of your car. The BCD was a generic horse-collar (probably dacor) that I never actually inflated under water.

C.a. 2006:

regs: All Aqualung. I still have the Aquarius, which served me well over something like 600 dives before it retired. My other regs are 2x Titan, 1x Legend LX supreme and 1x Calypso. On some dives I take them all with me.... and I trust them all with my life. In the intervening years I had a Sherwood Maximus, which is a great regulator but I sold it shortly after moving to Holland because it can only be serviced locally by a *completely* (and I mean *completely*) incompetent tribe of dancing baboons (known locally as Holland Diving). The AirII thingy is in my attic collecting dust. I doubt I'll ever sell it and I doubt that anyone would want it....

Mask: I still have three. The one I use the most often is a "technisub look". After 20-odd years in this game, I'm still looking for a mask that more or less seals over a moustache. The day someone invents one I'll buy 100 of them.

Snorkel: blue and white. I'm not sure who made it, but it has a purge valve. I need it for training students but I never dive with it. For snorkeling it's great!.

Fins: 4 pair. The orginal pair of Dacor plastic jet-fin ripoffs from 1985. The Poseidon rubber fins from who-knows-when and a pair of Aqualung Blades which I got with my "new" drysuit. Of the three I use the Poseidon fins most often. The Dacor fins I use on vacation in the tropics (which gets the occasional "WOW!" from local DM's who started diving in the "octopus age" ... ) The other pair of fins are short blue things that work great in the pool. They're useless for diving but for training they're compact and stay out of the way in a crowded pool.

suit: I have 2. One is a Bare CD4. It's a 4mm compressed neoprene drysuit. Very bouyant but absolutely bullet-proof. I wear this suit about 90% of the time and it's severely worn-out and in need of replacing. Even the inflator valve had to be replaced because the plastic stem inside the valve had worn down to the point that no size of o-ring could keep it from free-flowing...... People I don't even know have offered suggestions about which suits they like.... LOL.... The other suit is a 7/5 wetsuit. I wear the outside layer of it in the pool for training (it's now grey instead of black) and the other part of the suit gets worn in the tropics. (what can I say...I hate being cold). The original blue "Fitzgerald" drysuit was still intact and going strong but I had to sell it because I weighed 72kg when I bought it and .... well.... I now weigh a little more .... :11: Basically, it just shrunk with age (mine...)

Weights: no more lead-oxide leaking softweights. I now have a few kg of various sorts of weights and I no longer strap an anchor to my butt when I go diving. It also makes me realize that I shouldn't have sold my jet-fins when I did because my buoyancy was the problem and not the fins.... lessons learned....lessons learned.

Tanks/BCD: here is the biggest change: I've moved to Europe since I learned to dive and I've discovered STEEL.... ! The tanks I dive with most are 2x12 litre + much of the time a 7litre stage of some kind of deco gas. I also have a 15 litre steel tank (on it's 2nd hydro) for what I call "puddlestomping". It has a Y valve on it so I don't need to totallly re-configure for training.... but in fact, of the 70 or so OW dives I make in a year, I think 60 of them are made with either the 2x12 or an AL80 (in the tropics). The time-bomb yellow Luxifer (J-valve and all) is now standing in my friends garage but it's been hydroed multiple times and he wants to keep it as a reminder of our early days. He hasn't gotten it hydroed since about 1998. To him it has the value that the Aqualung Aquarius has to me. it's not useful diving gear any more....just a momento of where we were and where we are.... It will probably never go under water again..... As for BCD's.... The horse collar leaks and isn't safe for diving. I've had several BCD's since then but I still have 2. One is a "wing", which I need to keep the 2x12 up in "basket-and-blimp" formation and the other is a Seaquest Pro-QD from 2001 or so that I use for training.

R..

 

[Hemlon]

All of my gear is less than 10 years old. Can I still play?

 

[Diver0001]

Sure....if you've replaced anything for good reason then this is what the thread is about....

R..

 

[Bob3]

geeze... started diving in the early - mid '60s. My first "weight belt" was a chunk of logging chain tied with binder twine. double hose Nemrod Snark III & 72 cu ft steel tank from the Sears & Roebuck catalog ($125).
Found a lot of lead on the bottom & poured my own weights, used the jock strap from the backpack as the weight belt.
I "upgraded" to a Poseidon Cyklon 300 in the mid '70s, still using it yet.
Worn out/outgrown several wet & dry suits, masks, still have the Duck Feet fins from the '60s but have several "new" pairs.

 

[Crazyduck]

If you are an active diver this is not a hard thing to work through.
Educating divers in what gear they can use know and grow into is very important.
That’s where mentoring is such a huge benefit.

Regulators-
Started with a Mares MR12/ Dacor Octo /sold it/
Zeagle Tech 50D- Awesome /traded for/
Poseidon Odin? /ok, still have/
Scubapro mk25/G250HP /Broke while diving- sold immediately after servicing/
Poseidon Cyklons /Love it/
Next regulator- Probably Diverite or Atomics.

Computers
Diverite Bridge II- Awesome computer- sold
Uwatec Samrt comm.- Awesome still have
Diverite NitekIII- Technical computer
Next –Sherwater Closed circuit computer or the next Diverite closed circuit computer.

BC-
Pool BC Seaquest- sold
Backplate and wings- sold wings.
Zeagle Niterunner- 5years old and still rock’in
Next- converting to Zeagle niterunner to backplate and transplate harness.
Eventually- Transpac with dual Rec wings or a nomad

Wetsuits- too many to mention
Drysuit- Bare CD4 Pro
Next DUI TLS350 or Diverite drysuit

Masks-
Mares original 1990 (developed a leak about 1999)
Cressi free diving mask /still have/
Low Volume no-name (3 of them broke them all.)
Mares version of big eyes /still have/
Prescription mask 2006 before honey moon- loved it.

Fins-
Scubapro seawings / didn’t like/
Mares Tiger / broke during rescue class- ticked me off/
Mares Quattro- two pairs with spring heel straps (wet and dry)
Regular pair was stolen while in Mexico 2006- out of the rinse tank
Diverite fins- too small /still have need to sell- awesome/
Next- OMS rubber jetfins

Knife-
Had a dive sword- shelved it
Now folding spyderco with brass clip
Diverite line cutter on dive computer

Future Purchases-
Digital camera and case.
Closed Circuit rebreather- no more bubbles.
Commercial strobe- open ocean diving
Full conversion to sidemount

 

[sharky60]

Still using my USD Conshelf XIV, reg, ScubaPro Jet fins & snorkel I purchased in 1981.

just replaced my ScubaPro "international orange" BCD last year also purchased in '81.

moved on to a computer after several guage changes over the years.

Oh! I don't wear it much, but I do still have my beavertailed jacket/ 2-piece wet suit from '81 also