FredT
Guest
From here I can drive to most ports between Orange, Tx and PC for a 2 day trip. A "dive trip" may be a week in the S FL area diving both coasts and middle keys. Hardware taken includes gear for my wife, and maybe my kids too.
"Local" diving is on oil rigs or wrecks from Grand Isle to Pensacola. # of tanks taken is dependent on boat payload capacity. A hunting rig trip may be 8 to 15 dives a day, but boat payload may be limited to 3 tanks. Dives are short but intense, with the target to be on board with 30-100 pounds of meat with less than 500 psi out of the tank so it can be used for several dives.
My "dive buggy" is a 1 ton Dodge 3500 Maxivan. I've had too many friends loose gear out of a pickup bed (normally at a lunch stop) to stack gear in something that can't easily be locked. Tossing gear out from under a "camper top" is more of pain in the back than it's worth. Having been badly bitten by air station operators/schedules conflicting with boat schedules before I try to avoid the necessity of "must have" tank refills during a trip. If planning a 2 or 3 tank afternoon dive followed by a morning dawn patrol 2 or 3 tank trip, then I'll bring 5 or 6 tanks/diver. BTW the tanks are mine. I don't run a retail dive store or training facility but I have spent 30years "collecting" tanks. When I get a chance to buy them at a good price, often at garage sales I will. Steels last almost forever if properly maintained. Regularly used Aluminum bottles seem to be a 10 or 15 year investment no matter how well maintained. Right now I'm up to about 30 servicable bottles, most being steel 72s.
Minimal air travel gear is what I took to Singapore a couple years ago. 1 minimal displacement mask, 1 BC, and a single reg with simply a single second stage and a SPG. My "exposure suit" was the pair of coveralls I worked in during the week. BC was an old SP jacket. I borrowed fins from the dive shop running the charter. I'd arranged to rent some very negative steel tanks so weights and a belt weren't needed.
My entire gear set fit in my briefcase after a bit of disassembly for better nesting!
FT
"Local" diving is on oil rigs or wrecks from Grand Isle to Pensacola. # of tanks taken is dependent on boat payload capacity. A hunting rig trip may be 8 to 15 dives a day, but boat payload may be limited to 3 tanks. Dives are short but intense, with the target to be on board with 30-100 pounds of meat with less than 500 psi out of the tank so it can be used for several dives.
My "dive buggy" is a 1 ton Dodge 3500 Maxivan. I've had too many friends loose gear out of a pickup bed (normally at a lunch stop) to stack gear in something that can't easily be locked. Tossing gear out from under a "camper top" is more of pain in the back than it's worth. Having been badly bitten by air station operators/schedules conflicting with boat schedules before I try to avoid the necessity of "must have" tank refills during a trip. If planning a 2 or 3 tank afternoon dive followed by a morning dawn patrol 2 or 3 tank trip, then I'll bring 5 or 6 tanks/diver. BTW the tanks are mine. I don't run a retail dive store or training facility but I have spent 30years "collecting" tanks. When I get a chance to buy them at a good price, often at garage sales I will. Steels last almost forever if properly maintained. Regularly used Aluminum bottles seem to be a 10 or 15 year investment no matter how well maintained. Right now I'm up to about 30 servicable bottles, most being steel 72s.
Minimal air travel gear is what I took to Singapore a couple years ago. 1 minimal displacement mask, 1 BC, and a single reg with simply a single second stage and a SPG. My "exposure suit" was the pair of coveralls I worked in during the week. BC was an old SP jacket. I borrowed fins from the dive shop running the charter. I'd arranged to rent some very negative steel tanks so weights and a belt weren't needed.
My entire gear set fit in my briefcase after a bit of disassembly for better nesting!
FT
