Retired Instructor out of action for 25 years, what's with the new gear?

[lowwall]

...New at this. When I signed up I thought I would get an email saying if and when someone replied--didn't know 20 people would! Only got internet up a few hours ago and thought to check the board--yikes!

A lot of us are landlocked thanks to Covid so direct our diving energies here. It's also a fun topic for those who have been diving awhile. I've only got 20 years, but often worked as a lifeguard at the diving classes at my college in the late '80s and followed the sport by reading the magazines from then until I got enough money together to get certified. I actually got my AOW card in Oahu in 2001.

As to the gear... As a swimmer first, I wanted to feel as free underwater as I did on the surface, so my gear journey has been about removing as much as possible. I'm happiest in warm water with a steel backplate (which lets me skip a weight belt) with small wing, shorts and full foot fins.

 

[Mark IV]

Thanks Mark! I got a bit overwhelmed with all the replies (first time with something like this). Have to say I found your post to be the best and most relevant to my situation. Again, newbie at boards, so is there a way I can just send a question to you? Thanks - Deb

Sure, no problem. Just click on my forum handle (Mark IV) under my Alfred E. Neuman avatar, then click on "start a conversation". (I believe most forums call them PM's, or Private Messages, but it's the same thing).

 

[MichaelMc]

Wow

Thanks Michael! Looks like I have some catching up to so with backplates and sidemounts. So what do your dives at UC Berkeley entail? I was a research diver at UCSB. We'd take the Boston Whalers out to the Channel Islands and basically be the grunt workers for the grad student's projects.

Boston Whalers to the Channel Islands sounds like a trip.

I'm a grad student in computer science but got involved in the Scientific Dive program for fun. I got my 30' cert and then assisted in teaching it the next three years. It was fun and I even have a grand total of one scientific dive at the Catalina research station as buddy for a women doing cone snail research, as opposed to dives classified as training dives. It was that trip's 'orienting to the area' dive, so maybe not huge on the science part. But it was a working dive on that science project. All the rest of my dives in the program were assisting in training students in the basics, learning them myself or as part of staff training. Some of our staff wound up on the Island the next year for several days of training. Some beautiful kelp forest out there. Almost all my dives under the auspices of scientific diving are 30' and above except the staff training dives.

Being part of the Santa Barbara program would have been great. They have more active projects than ours.

 

[GameChanger]

If you plan to do boat dives or dive trips with Dive Ops, do not be surprised when they request that you take a refresher course of some type. Your past diving experience will be moot to most.
I have been diving since the early 70's (NASDS) and even though I had dive logs for recent dives, many of the dive shops/dive Ops either required proof of a "refresher course" (e.g. PADI) and/or refused to recognize the NASDS C-card. I eventually got tired of it all and took a PADI OW course a few years back just to get a card that everybody accepts.

I will save my opinion on the quality of the PADI course...

 

[Edward3c]

Hi @HonuDeb,

One thing not mentioned so far, at least I haven’t seen it, is the tie up between training agencies and manufacturers, for example SSI and Mares are both owned by Hood.

 

[lowwall]

That's Head, the folks once known best for skis and tennis rackets.

The largest players seem to be trying to build vertical scuba groups. Head has owned Mares for decades, but purchased SSI in 2014. Last year, they bought liveaboard.com.

PADI is now owned by a private equity firm and the investment office of part of the billionaire Louis-Dreyfus family.
PADI bought the largest online scuba travel agency 2 years ago and rebranded it as PADI Travel. Last year, PADI swept up most of what remains of the diving magazine industry including Skin Diver, Scuba Diving, and Sport Diver as vehicles to promote their training and travel subsidies.

 

[lowwall]

Another company, Huish Outdoors, collects equipment manufacturers. They currently own Atomics, Bare, Hollis, Oceanic, Suunto and Zeagle. The company was founded as a side project by Dan Huish, who was presumably bored after selling his previous company Huish Detergents. He also bought a big cattle ranch in Wyoming and a nice house in Kihei. He obviously needed a boat, so Atomic: built for comfortable long-range cruising. I wonder if the profits from Huish Outdoors even covers the cost of owning a 150' yacht.

 

[Mark IV]

..... I wonder if the profits from Huish Outdoors even covers the cost of owning a 150' yacht.

Having crewed on a few big boats, and seeing first hand what mind-boggling money-pits they are, my guess would be NO, his profits from a few scuba-gear operations probably don't cover it. But he was apparently independently wealthy by this point, plus, he probably has the boat written-off as facilitating work-related research, and who-knows how many other accounting tricks/deductions, so there's no telling how much cost he's able to mitigate and pawn-off on the corporation. And even if he's only breaking even, or just in the neighborhood, you can't take it with you, so more power to him !

 

[HonuDeb]

Boston Whalers to the Channel Islands sounds like a trip.

I'm a grad student in computer science but got involved in the Scientific Dive program for fun. I got my 30' cert and then assisted in teaching it the next three years. It was fun and I even have a grand total of one scientific dive at the Catalina research station as buddy for a women doing cone snail research, as opposed to dives classified as training dives. It was that trip's 'orienting to the area' dive, so maybe not huge on the science part. But it was a working dive on that science project. All the rest of my dives in the program were assisting in training students in the basics, learning them myself or as part of staff training. Some of our staff wound up on the Island the next year for several days of training. Some beautiful kelp forest out there. Almost all my dives under the auspices of scientific diving are 30' and above except the staff training dives.

Being part of the Santa Barbara program would have been great. They have more active projects than ours.

Cataluna is (or was) nice. Mostly trips to Anacapa. I'm liking the 75 degree water, though, here on the Big Island (warmer as summer progresses).

 

[HonuDeb]

If you plan to do boat dives or dive trips with Dive Ops, do not be surprised when they request that you take a refresher course of some type. Your past diving experience will be moot to most.
I have been diving since the early 70's (NASDS) and even though I had dive logs for recent dives, many of the dive shops/dive Ops either required proof of a "refresher course" (e.g. PADI) and/or refused to recognize the NASDS C-card. I eventually got tired of it all and took a PADI OW course a few years back just to get a card that everybody accepts.

I will save my opinion on the quality of the PADI course...

Good advice--thanks-- signed up for refresher on Thursday.