Leaving for Hawaii: Analyze my gear please...

[sabbath999]

I will be in Kona for 8 dives in a couple weeks, and I want to take the appropriate gear.

On the one hand, I want to be prepared for what I need, but on the other hand I don't want to be walking around looking like a Christmas tree lugging around a ton of stuff I don't need and won't use.

Will be taking my AOW, doing Deep, Navigation, Buoyancy, Night and Boat, plus 3 other dives. I will be doing a Manta dive.

Here's what I am planning on taking:

Regs w/SPG only

Mask

BC (weight integrated)

Wetsuit (3 mil) & reef gloves

Fins & boots

Wrist Computer

Wrist Compass

DAN SMB kit (SMB, storm whistle, mirror) & finger spool.

Small flashlight as secondary light (will rent good main light there if I need one).

Small (2 inch) flat tipped dive knife (I am hoping Chuck Norris has cleaned out the seas of all the great white sharks so I don't have to carry a footlong Bowie diving knife).

Surface Alert Air Horn.

Snorkel (will be doing snorkeling a couple other days)

On the boat:

Boat bag.

Spare o-rings, spare mask strap, snorkel keeper, spare fin strap (just switched to spring straps)

Stainless EMT scissors to be used in place of dive knife (one or the other).

Too much? Too little?

I am used to quarry diving (no need for SMB's or other signaling devices) so it seems like a lot of kit... but I don't really want to star in my own movie about drifting off in the ocean unseen.

Can ya help a NOOB out?

 

[NudeDiver]

I don't see anything there that looks excessive.

I would add hat, sunglasses, and sun protectant to the mix though. Get one of those hats you can fold up nice and tight and stuff in a BC pocket. That way - if you're out floating about and have a wait to get picked up, at least you can be in the shade. Sunglasses you can tuck in your BC are good for the same reason.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

I will be in Kona for 8 dives in a couple weeks, and I want to take the appropriate gear.

On the one hand, I want to be prepared for what I need, but on the other hand I don't want to be walking around looking like a Christmas tree lugging around a ton of stuff I don't need and won't use.

Will be taking my AOW, doing Deep, Navigation, Buoyancy, Night and Boat, plus 3 other dives. I will be doing a Manta dive.

Here's what I am planning on taking:

Regs w/SPG only

Mask

BC (weight integrated)

Wetsuit (3 mil) & reef gloves

Fins & boots

Wrist Computer

Wrist Compass

DAN SMB kit (SMB, storm whistle, mirror) & finger spool.

Small flashlight as secondary light (will rent good main light there if I need one).

Small (2 inch) flat tipped dive knife (I am hoping Chuck Norris has cleaned out the seas of all the great white sharks so I don't have to carry a footlong Bowie diving knife).

Surface Alert Air Horn.

Snorkel (will be doing snorkeling a couple other days)

On the boat:

Boat bag.

Spare o-rings, spare mask strap, snorkel keeper, spare fin strap (just switched to spring straps)

Stainless EMT scissors to be used in place of dive knife (one or the other).

Too much? Too little?

I am used to quarry diving (no need for SMB's or other signaling devices) so it seems like a lot of kit... but I don't really want to star in my own movie about drifting off in the ocean unseen.

Can ya help a NOOB out?

Of course, if I say leave something home and then you have an epic, you will write a book, it will be made into a movie, you will become rich, and never give me a cent. I am prepared to live with that.

I would take the emt shears AND the knife. It's what I do now. Just make sure they are n separate places for the one in a million chance that you can't reach one due to the entanglement or one gets lost and you are entangled. I would put the shears in a pocket, clipped or velcro'd to a ring in that pocket in such a way that you can get them out if you ned them but they won't wander away on their own.

I would carry some sort of backup depth device and backup bottom timer. I happen to own a dive watch that shows depth and time underwater, so that plus a computer has always been enough. If I couldn't take the watch I might buy a depth gauge and a timer of some sort. The depth gauge could go in a pocket, it's only for backup and consoles are clutter incarnate.

I don't think you need a secondary light for anything except the night dive. So take it. Snorkels are a whole 'other debate, but you plan to actually snorkel, so take it. Air horn? I would leave this at home. If you are going on guided dives and doing your AOW, what are the chances of being lost at sea and neither the whistle nor the mirror
gets the boat's attention?

I would get a hood, I haven't found an ocean warm enough for my personal tastes, and you can chill taking multiple dives a day.

JM2C...

 

[kouhoutek]

Looks like a good list.

I am sure you meant to include these:

Dive Log
Certification/Nitrox cards

I know they are automatic, but it is good to have them on the check list, just in case.

I would add:

tank light
energy snacks
decongestion kit (saline, sudafed, Afrin, etc.)
towel
silver sharpie

 

[Teamcasa]

Don't forget the camera for the Manta dive. Have nothing but fun!

 

[sabbath999]

Looks like a good list.

I am sure you meant to include these:

Dive Log
Certification/Nitrox cards

Sorry, yes absolutely to both.

 

[sabbath999]

I would carry some sort of backup depth device and backup bottom timer. I happen to own a dive watch that shows depth and time underwater, so that plus a computer has always been enough. If I couldn't take the watch I might buy a depth gauge and a timer of some sort. The depth gauge could go in a pocket, it's only for backup and consoles are clutter incarnate.
I would get a hood, I haven't found an ocean warm enough for my personal tastes, and you can chill taking multiple dives a day.

JM2C...

I actually own a brand new second computer, a Mares M2 nitrox compatible one... as well as my "main" computer, which is a Uwatec Aladin Prime.

It is still in the box, unopened... I bought it "just in case" my Aladin Prime didn't show up (I bought it in September, and I just picked it up Saturday, they are THAT backordered... came "free" with the regs and BCD). My wife has an Aladin Prime and we have the software/interface for it already, and I was thinking it would be good to have the same brand of computer so that our profiles would be fairly close if we stick together (i.e. one of us not having a much more conservative computer than the other).

I bought the Mares with the idea of having a spare and putting it in my BC pocket, so that if the Aladin dies then I would have a spare, and also so that I would have a "backup" depth gauge.

I am thinking about that... again, I don't want to swim around like a Christmas Tree with ornaments, but on the other hand I don't want to have bad records of depth and dive times if my brand new (and as of yet untested "main" computer craps out).

Thanks for the thought.

 

[sabbath999]

Don't forget the camera for the Manta dive. Have nothing but fun!

AH yes... I didn't list that, a Canon A710IS with Canon underwater housing weighted to be neutrally buoyant in salt water, attached to a bungied clip... check... can shoot both stills and video.

 

[Teamcasa]

AH yes... I didn't list that, a Canon A710IS with Canon underwater housing weighted to be neutrally buoyant in salt water, attached to a bungied clip... check... can shoot both stills and video.

Good! Just a taste of coming sights.

 

[rstofer]

Just bring your credit card. Anything you have overlooked will be available.

Richard