Travelling with gear

[Ice9]

The only tip I can offer is that you may want to keep your reg assembly spererate, as a carry-on item...

 

[K9trnr]

hi everyone,
this is my first post on here and i am also going to cuba, i am going this february and thinking about taking my own gear. i have never travelled with my gear before and i have heard that if you take tanks or spare air that you have to completly remove the valves so they can be inspected internally. im wondering if anyone can comment on how safe this is as far as contamanation of your tanks or if i am just better off to rent tanks when i arrive. any advice would be appreciated.
Mitch

The only time I heard of someone taking their own tanks was when the guy was a private pilot that flew his own aircraft and was a certified tank inspector. He'd just slap a new vis inspection sticker on once he landed the plane, and then have it filled. Otherwise it's just so much easier to rent.

 

[Cheekymonkey]

Yea no kidding, or unless your traveling for a month or two I guess, extended periods might make that more cost effective.

 

[Diver Dennis]

I just returned from a 3 month trip and found traveling in Asia a problem because of a 20kg weight limit on most carriers. For some legs I had to leave behind one bag in Manila, my base. Singapore and Malasia allows you a 10kg allowance for dive gear, 30kg total, but that is far less than the 64kg limit coming from North America.

I travel with 2 carry ons of camera gear and a laptop and check the rest in regular hard sided suitcases, including my housing and all my regs and dive gear. I lock everything with TSA locks. The only problem I've had with those locks is when I went through LA and they left them off after going through the bags.

 

[Cheekymonkey]

]The only problem I've had with those locks is when I went through LA and they left them off after going through the bags.

Think that happens more often than you expect.

 

[Diver Dennis]

I don't know, I rarely travel through the US. Have you had problems there?

 

[Cheekymonkey]

Our TSA is ridiculous, they just don't like locks in general, and they feel the need to mess with everything because the can, regardless of whether they are even going to search it, too many people on powertrips.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Not much of a problem in Canada or in Asia. They do have extra security in Hong Kong for American bound flights or flights like mine that go through Canada and on to the US.

 

[K9trnr]

I flew from Los Angeles to Jamaica with a bag that was locked, and they never asked me to unlock it. I carried my regulator, dive computer, camera, and camera housing in a carry-on. They did search that. My guess is the machine showed the carry-on had a whole bunch of things with metal parts they didn't recognize, so they took a quick look inside the bag and sent me on my way. The locked bag just had fins, mask, suit, and BC, so they were happy with just scanning it while I stood there with the key (just in case).