Leaving for Hawaii: Analyze my gear please...

[White Knight]

Don't forget your wife!!!

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

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

...

Please do the buoyancy dive on your first boat trip!

Please also send this list to your intended instructor. If you do not receive a stern lecture about the fact you consider your gloves to be reef gloves, find a different instructor.

There is no reason for 99% of recreational divers to wear gloves in Hawaii. Hand models and skinny women prone to hypothermia in luke warm bath-water have my permission.

We have no fire coral here, so the occasional gentle touch will do neither you nor the coral any lasting harm. If you make hand/reef contact with enough force to scrape or cut your hand, you deserve to be scraped or cut (karma baby).

The Manta night dive is your only dive that I consider gloves as possibly OK. I did that dive late November '04, in a significant swell, and never once thought "gee, that would have been better with gloves."

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

There is no reason for 99% of recreational divers to wear gloves in Hawaii. Hand models and skinny women prone to hypothermia in luke warm bath-water have my permission.

We have no fire coral here, so the occasional gentle touch will do neither you nor the coral any lasting harm. If you make hand/reef contact with enough force to scrape or cut your hand, you deserve to be scraped or cut (karma baby).

I never met a body of water warm enough to dive without a full body wet suit, hood, and at least lycra gloves for warmth, including Cuba and The Bahamas. That being said, I recall that in Roatan, the marine park actually bans gloves to prevent people touching the reef.

So I'm torn. I think you I should wear gloves and not touch the reef, but I know that a few bad apples spoil the basket, so if we are devising a general policy I vote for no gloves for anyone.

 

[sabbath999]

Please do the buoyancy dive on your first boat trip!

Please also send this list to your intended instructor. If you do not receive a stern lecture about the fact you consider your gloves to be reef gloves, find a different instructor.

How about a different store then?

That's what the place I bought them from CALLS them... I guess I could invent my own name for them

Tilos Reef Gloves (Scubatoys)

We are DEFINITELY doing buoyancy on the first dive, absolutely... I am hoping to get more out of that instruction/dive than any of the rest... I want to be that guy who everybody else says "man he has great buoyancy control" about when I grow up and become a real diver.

 

[Thalassamania]

I'm currently serving on a committee that is charged with the development of self regulations for diving operations and wildlife encounters on the Big Island. Gloves have been a topic of discussion and I think it safe to say that no one would have problems with people wearing gloves as long as they exhibit good buoyancy and trim.

 

[kouhoutek]

OK, being a newbie myself, I'll ask.... Why a Silver Sharpie??

I find that the initials on my gear are not as permanent as I like, and different items wear at different rates. And who knows when I am going to pick up a new piece of gear?

So the sharpie is part of my kit. Most gear is dark, so I have found silver offers the best combination of readability and durability.

 

[spoolin01]

There is no reason for 99% of recreational divers to wear gloves in Hawaii.

Except to protect your hands. If you shore dive or hunt lobster, you'll appreciate the gloves. I find they work well in all situations. By the way, you can buy them probably more cheaply in Hawaii at WalMart or KMart.

 

[aquanex]

Definitely dive with the backup computer. I just returned from liveaboard where my new main computer failed on day 4, dive 16. My backup saved the rest of my dive trip! Cheap insurance.

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.

 

[Tortuga68]

storm whistle, mirror

Surface Alert Air Horn

Since you mentioned the minimalist approach, I will chime in and say I don't carry any of the above, as I don't feel they are necessary for the conditions I dive in

But that's just me