Saving Your Dive
- Thread starter boulderjohn
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IMNSHO the choice of site is the most important concern if the seal(s) is/are iffy. When one of my clubmates had a torn neck seal which was fixed with my patch kit, we chose a site which enabled him to walk up to the shore to get out of the water if SHTF.
I think the more important discussion is, what is most likely to fail, and what is required to remedy those failures. What is the risk of having an unfixable failure? Are you willing to manually inflate for a dive or two if you have a leaky inflator? Do you know your SAC rate well enough to do a shallow reef dive without an SPG? What compromises are you willing to make with your diving? If you are unwilling to make any compromises, your kit should cover more contingencies. If you're willing, you could dive with a single second stage, no SPG, and no inflator, and still have perfectly acceptable dives.
That being said, you can hedge your bets with a couple small bits and pieces that may minimize these compromises.
HP hoses leak from the spool often enough that an extra spool is worth carrying, and weighs virtually nothing. An extra reg set might sometimes be a tough sell. A $14 inflator and a zip tie is more convenient than an LPI rebuild kit and tools, more expensive, but not necessarily any real weight penalty and any monkey can swap one out, but definitely takes up more space. An extra HP seat for a quick swap will often get a reg through a vacation until you can get it home and do a full rebuild, again, small and virtually no weight penalty, but you'll need to be able to take the reg apart. A little bungee and some zip ties can go a long way.
For recreational diving in most places, if your kit takes up more space than half a mask box, you've got too much stuff. Depending on what compromises you're willing to make, you could fit you whole kit in an empty cigarette pack. It's all choices based on judgement. If I'm tropical recreational diving, I take virtually nothing. If I'm CCR cave diving, I've got half a tool box.
That being said, you can hedge your bets with a couple small bits and pieces that may minimize these compromises.
HP hoses leak from the spool often enough that an extra spool is worth carrying, and weighs virtually nothing. An extra reg set might sometimes be a tough sell. A $14 inflator and a zip tie is more convenient than an LPI rebuild kit and tools, more expensive, but not necessarily any real weight penalty and any monkey can swap one out, but definitely takes up more space. An extra HP seat for a quick swap will often get a reg through a vacation until you can get it home and do a full rebuild, again, small and virtually no weight penalty, but you'll need to be able to take the reg apart. A little bungee and some zip ties can go a long way.
For recreational diving in most places, if your kit takes up more space than half a mask box, you've got too much stuff. Depending on what compromises you're willing to make, you could fit you whole kit in an empty cigarette pack. It's all choices based on judgement. If I'm tropical recreational diving, I take virtually nothing. If I'm CCR cave diving, I've got half a tool box.
Wrenches. Stainless steel, thin, you don't need a full set...not that many different sizes in scuba gear. These are great:
Dive Open End Flat Dive Wrench 7/16
Dive Open End Flat Dive Wrench 11/16
Dive Open End Flat Dive Wrench 5/8
I've never been on a rec trip that somebody in my group hasn't had a bad SPG spool. I carry extras, just change them out.
In the last few years, I've replaced four LPIs for folks....if they have the generic kind. Oceanic inflators can't be fixed easily, and some corrugated hoses are the wrong diameter.
The most common thing I provide to keep a dive going is an octo holder, the stretchy silicone kind.Useful for lots of things.
Dive Open End Flat Dive Wrench 7/16
Dive Open End Flat Dive Wrench 11/16
Dive Open End Flat Dive Wrench 5/8
I've never been on a rec trip that somebody in my group hasn't had a bad SPG spool. I carry extras, just change them out.
In the last few years, I've replaced four LPIs for folks....if they have the generic kind. Oceanic inflators can't be fixed easily, and some corrugated hoses are the wrong diameter.
The most common thing I provide to keep a dive going is an octo holder, the stretchy silicone kind.Useful for lots of things.
The core of my save-a-dive kit consists of
- a bicycle tool. It has every size of hex wrench you'll ever need
- a swiss army knife.
- two small adjustable "crescent" wrenches
- a bunch of odds and ends like spare mouth pieces, mask straps, o-rings, clips etc.
- a variety of tie wraps
- a length of line from a wreck reel
- a length of 2mm bungee
- a role of duct tape (yes... really)
- some creativity
If anything serious enough is wrong that I can't MacGyver a fix for it using that then the dive gets cancelled.
R..
- a bicycle tool. It has every size of hex wrench you'll ever need
- a swiss army knife.
- two small adjustable "crescent" wrenches
- a bunch of odds and ends like spare mouth pieces, mask straps, o-rings, clips etc.
- a variety of tie wraps
- a length of line from a wreck reel
- a length of 2mm bungee
- a role of duct tape (yes... really)
- some creativity
If anything serious enough is wrong that I can't MacGyver a fix for it using that then the dive gets cancelled.
R..
I travel to dive and always at my checked bag limit but I carry as much spare gear as feasible. My tool kit has the usual assortment of o-rings and a pick, 2 adjustable wrenches (yes I know they can mar the surface), DGE multi tool screwdrivers and allen keys, shears and a tank valve knob tool. Ever been on a dive when the rental tank valve knob fell off in your hands? Plus other asundry items mostly already mentioned.
We have had all the usual failures but have yet to miss a dive. @JohnnyC has a good point about what failures and suboptimal gear one is willing to dive with.
We have had all the usual failures but have yet to miss a dive. @JohnnyC has a good point about what failures and suboptimal gear one is willing to dive with.
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We did have one new to us failure on our recent Cozumel trip. We were checking our gear for the first dive of our last day. The day before Eric had noticed his wing wasn’t holding air. We found that Erics corrugated hose was split almost in half. In fact, it did split completely apart as we were inspecting it.
Fortunately the dive op (shout out to 3Ps and @gopbroek) had a spare rental jacket on board. They offered to let Eric use it but that didn’t go over well with Eric. He hasn’t been in a jacket BCD since the early days of our open water course. So plan B was switch out the inflator units. But of couse the elbows had different threads. So together they removed the hose from the rental and ziptied it to Eric’s wing. Dive saved!
Fortunately the dive op (shout out to 3Ps and @gopbroek) had a spare rental jacket on board. They offered to let Eric use it but that didn’t go over well with Eric. He hasn’t been in a jacket BCD since the early days of our open water course. So plan B was switch out the inflator units. But of couse the elbows had different threads. So together they removed the hose from the rental and ziptied it to Eric’s wing. Dive saved!
Attachments
CuzzA
Wetwork for Hire
A couple weeks ago, we ventured 25 miles offshore in 3-5's. Got our butts kicked pretty good until it layed down. Unfortunately my rig fell and apparently hit the swivel turret pretty hard on something and bent an internal componet which resulted in IP creep and a free flowing second. After the first dive I went to my backup reg. No spare o ring was going to save that day.
CuzzA
Wetwork for Hire
TrimixToo
Contributor
Over the years...
I have given away three or four fin straps, complete with Mares buckles. Someday, I'll run out (I use springs these days).
I have given away several O-rings. Yoke, both sizes of first stage O-rings, even spool O-rings.
I have given away a first stage LP plug, with O-ring.
I have given away several yards of bungee and a couple yards of silicone tubing.
I have given away jellyfish anti-sting/cleanser and wet suit cleaner.
I have given away any number of golf pencils (which I don't use any more).
I have "loaned" a tube of Aquaseal, two Zip Seals, bolt snaps, dog clips, SS wing nuts, and both spare dry suit valves. (I either got replacements or the originals back).
I have loaned spare regulators, a spare computer (twice; once underwater!), a primary light, a backup light, and a large reel (380' of line is a lot in wreck country).
I can't count how many times my tools have helped someone or another.
This equipment stuff...can break. Who knew?
I have given away three or four fin straps, complete with Mares buckles. Someday, I'll run out (I use springs these days).
I have given away several O-rings. Yoke, both sizes of first stage O-rings, even spool O-rings.
I have given away a first stage LP plug, with O-ring.
I have given away several yards of bungee and a couple yards of silicone tubing.
I have given away jellyfish anti-sting/cleanser and wet suit cleaner.
I have given away any number of golf pencils (which I don't use any more).
I have "loaned" a tube of Aquaseal, two Zip Seals, bolt snaps, dog clips, SS wing nuts, and both spare dry suit valves. (I either got replacements or the originals back).
I have loaned spare regulators, a spare computer (twice; once underwater!), a primary light, a backup light, and a large reel (380' of line is a lot in wreck country).
I can't count how many times my tools have helped someone or another.
This equipment stuff...can break. Who knew?
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