Lurked around for a while, had been out of diving for a number of years. Finally got back into it after planning a trip to Pompano Beach, Florida, when I realized I needed to get back into diving. I'm in the position where I need to replace most all of my equipment which is 23 years old. Wet suits were fine 20 lbs ago. Not so much now.
My daughter just recently got certified in preparation for a trip we took to Florida where we shore dove Lauderdale by the Sea (LBTS) a few days. Linked up with a local dive shop there, Aqui Divers. An excellent shop that really catered to our needs. I would highly encourage anybody in the LBTS area to check them out. Long story short, I was so pleased with their service and rental equipment I ended up purchasing and coming home with a Xdeep Zen BP/wing setup from Aqui.
Used to dive the SoCal channel islands quite a bit. When I first moved out to Southern Nevada back in late 99, at least once a month I'd take off into Long Beach or Ventura harbor right after work on Friday. Ideally I'd grab a bunk on the boat and sleep there, or just pop the seat back on my old Jeep Cherokee.
Met the woman who became my wife and we did some dive trips to La Paz, St. Marteen, as well as Catalina and the local stuff on Lake Mead and the Colorado River. But my bride didn't care much for the cold California or Lake/Colorado waters. Donning a thick wetsuit for a dive in 55 degree river with an ambient air temperature of 110 wasn't her cup of tea. Diving pretty much fell off the radar in 2004 when I took off for an all expense paid trip to Iraq for a year. Never did much with diving once I got back as I had the new family thing going.
So, fast forward to the present and I'm looking at rebuilding my equipment. Picked up about 20 lbs since I bought my wetsuit, so the Large needs replacing with an XL. My trusty old BCD, a US Divers Calypso, has a torn corrugated hose and the cummerbund isn't quite as overlapping as it used to be. My regulator set, an Aqualung Micra, I'm told would cost more to service at this point than it is worth. Same story with the wife's Oceanic Delta 3 reg set. A shame, she quite liked that setup with the turreted first stage. But my mask, snorkel, and fins (at least the Scubapro Jet Fins never went out of style) are still trucking on along. My old Suunto Spyder dive computer would cost as much to get the battery changed/pressure tested as its even worth.
Diving in a weight integrated BCD took some getting used to. I was used to wearing a weight belt with that trim and clean Calypso BCD. Never thought much about it until I had 18 lbs of lead added to the BCD. The belt was easy. I could have 20+ lbs on it and easily throw it on and walk around without much regard. Adding all that weight to the BCD though makes it a bit more cumbersome donning and doffing from shore and puts all the weight on the shoulders than on the hips/waist that the belt did.
As mentioned earlier though, I wound up purchasing an Xdeep aluminum Zen backplate and wing setup from Aqui divers. Their rental gear consists of backplate and wing setups and I always looked at those as uncomfortable and unforgiving. How could a slab of metal on the back and a strap up my crotch be a good thing? Well, I was quite wrong. It was amazing how comfortable and stable the setup was. I also liked how streamlined the whole system was. No big bulky pockets or plastic buckles to break. I had been looking at a Mares Magellan BCD at a local dive shop and it appealed to me based on how compact it was. No bulky pockets, save for a small shell pocket that could be rolled up. But the backplate and wing setup took this to a whole new level. While there's no shell pocket on it, if needed I could simply snap one onto a D-ring.
I had ordered a new dive computer (Genesis Centauri) from a local dive shop but it wasn't able to arrive before my Florida trip. Fortunately, Aqui outfitted me with a Deep 6 Excursion computer, pretty much the same thing as the Genesis I had ordered. I learned that I much prefer the NATO band on the Deep 6 computer vs. the rubber band on the Genesis that I have since received. And come to find out the Deep 6 product retails for less than the Genesis. I had recently used a Suunto console mount in some rental gear and couldn't figure it out for the life of me. Too many small buttons to deal with and it basically just got used as a glorified depth gauge. The Deep 6 Excursion was fairly intuitive and I had no issues with it.
So I'm looking at jumping back in as much as I can. With my daughter as my new dive buddy, I'd like to get her out to the Channel Islands sometime soon, but need to work around her school schedule. While I might not get back to my once/twice a month trips into California for some time, I hope to get out there at least a few times before the year's end.
My daughter just recently got certified in preparation for a trip we took to Florida where we shore dove Lauderdale by the Sea (LBTS) a few days. Linked up with a local dive shop there, Aqui Divers. An excellent shop that really catered to our needs. I would highly encourage anybody in the LBTS area to check them out. Long story short, I was so pleased with their service and rental equipment I ended up purchasing and coming home with a Xdeep Zen BP/wing setup from Aqui.
Used to dive the SoCal channel islands quite a bit. When I first moved out to Southern Nevada back in late 99, at least once a month I'd take off into Long Beach or Ventura harbor right after work on Friday. Ideally I'd grab a bunk on the boat and sleep there, or just pop the seat back on my old Jeep Cherokee.
Met the woman who became my wife and we did some dive trips to La Paz, St. Marteen, as well as Catalina and the local stuff on Lake Mead and the Colorado River. But my bride didn't care much for the cold California or Lake/Colorado waters. Donning a thick wetsuit for a dive in 55 degree river with an ambient air temperature of 110 wasn't her cup of tea. Diving pretty much fell off the radar in 2004 when I took off for an all expense paid trip to Iraq for a year. Never did much with diving once I got back as I had the new family thing going.
So, fast forward to the present and I'm looking at rebuilding my equipment. Picked up about 20 lbs since I bought my wetsuit, so the Large needs replacing with an XL. My trusty old BCD, a US Divers Calypso, has a torn corrugated hose and the cummerbund isn't quite as overlapping as it used to be. My regulator set, an Aqualung Micra, I'm told would cost more to service at this point than it is worth. Same story with the wife's Oceanic Delta 3 reg set. A shame, she quite liked that setup with the turreted first stage. But my mask, snorkel, and fins (at least the Scubapro Jet Fins never went out of style) are still trucking on along. My old Suunto Spyder dive computer would cost as much to get the battery changed/pressure tested as its even worth.
Diving in a weight integrated BCD took some getting used to. I was used to wearing a weight belt with that trim and clean Calypso BCD. Never thought much about it until I had 18 lbs of lead added to the BCD. The belt was easy. I could have 20+ lbs on it and easily throw it on and walk around without much regard. Adding all that weight to the BCD though makes it a bit more cumbersome donning and doffing from shore and puts all the weight on the shoulders than on the hips/waist that the belt did.
As mentioned earlier though, I wound up purchasing an Xdeep aluminum Zen backplate and wing setup from Aqui divers. Their rental gear consists of backplate and wing setups and I always looked at those as uncomfortable and unforgiving. How could a slab of metal on the back and a strap up my crotch be a good thing? Well, I was quite wrong. It was amazing how comfortable and stable the setup was. I also liked how streamlined the whole system was. No big bulky pockets or plastic buckles to break. I had been looking at a Mares Magellan BCD at a local dive shop and it appealed to me based on how compact it was. No bulky pockets, save for a small shell pocket that could be rolled up. But the backplate and wing setup took this to a whole new level. While there's no shell pocket on it, if needed I could simply snap one onto a D-ring.
I had ordered a new dive computer (Genesis Centauri) from a local dive shop but it wasn't able to arrive before my Florida trip. Fortunately, Aqui outfitted me with a Deep 6 Excursion computer, pretty much the same thing as the Genesis I had ordered. I learned that I much prefer the NATO band on the Deep 6 computer vs. the rubber band on the Genesis that I have since received. And come to find out the Deep 6 product retails for less than the Genesis. I had recently used a Suunto console mount in some rental gear and couldn't figure it out for the life of me. Too many small buttons to deal with and it basically just got used as a glorified depth gauge. The Deep 6 Excursion was fairly intuitive and I had no issues with it.
So I'm looking at jumping back in as much as I can. With my daughter as my new dive buddy, I'd like to get her out to the Channel Islands sometime soon, but need to work around her school schedule. While I might not get back to my once/twice a month trips into California for some time, I hope to get out there at least a few times before the year's end.
