What Dive Gear & Accessories Have You REMOVED from Your Kit, or replaced with something different?

[mcohen1021]

Aeris oceans 5 BC, bought it to downgrade to back inflate, weight integrsted, and bc old medium no longer fit. Decided to drop 35# and replaced that bc with a medium cressi travelight.

Cressi backup mini spg, replaced my oceanic spg/veo computer. Upgraded to a shearwater teric air integrated pc and transmitter.

 

[Bob DBF]

I suppose the answer is everything has been replaced, obsoleted, broken, lost, and/or dive dependent. Thinking about this has been a trip down memory lane. My 60 year anniversary of starting Scuba school is this summer.

There are a few things I miss, several things that are around 30 years. Everything has been modified. The most important thing I miss is my cold-tolerance and endurance that was lost a sea about 35 years ago.

I imagine this will be true for everyone if you are lucky enough to keep diving long enough.

Looks like you wrote my post for me. Starting out with minimal gear, and no BC, there wasn't much to remove without handicapping myself. Since I've been doing on the cheap, most of the time, I didn't ever have more than the basics for the dives I made.

I did try the Spare Air, but it did not hold up to the conditions I dove in. I went back to surface as redundancy for recreational depths until I recently got old.

The first version of the Farrafin is the only piece of gear I really miss.

 

[gmerick]

Ditched my compact sidemount wing -- Descended to 110ft with 2x15l tanks, and 7mm farmer john wetsuit. Found out in a hurry I didn't have enough lift, and only had 6lbs of accessible weight to dump -- all the rest was on a spine pad.

 

[mcohen1021]

Reef sticks, back inflate bcs, gloves and snorkels!

 

[LFMarm]

I ditched
(1) ditch-able weight pockets for trim pockets
(2) rotating turret first stage for backmount for fixed first stage
(3) open DSMBs for closed ones
(4) rubber fin straps for steel ones
(5) regular DSMB line for flat line

 

[Puppeteer]

Stuff that I've ditched

• Wrist slate - uncomfortable and useless. A slate was mandatory for my AOW. I keep a small slate in a dive pocket now, but have only used it once.
• Fancy snorkel. - I now only use it if snorkeling, and keep a clip on my mask and have a rolled up snorkel in a dive pocket. A snorkel is mandatory in most places I dive. I've used it for long surface swims, and it's easy to clip on and off to my mask.
• Kaiser Baas GoPro style camera. Replaced with TG6. It was OK, but I'm more focussed on quality shots now, and TG6 is leaps and bounds better.
• Standard Mask - was actually really good, but I got a new one with custom prescription.
• Old snorkeling fins. Had a rubber strap, but kept coming off.
• Old second hand Dive Computers (Aladdin Pro) - Keep them on my Console as backups for now, now dive Ratio. The Aladdin's don't have a backlight and don't support Nitrox. Most of my dives are either Nitrox or night dives. My backup has saved some dives though, where my Ratio was in Freediving mode once, so it's been worth having them.

Stuff marked for replacement

• SMB - will replace with DSMB
• SPG/Console/Computer - it's bulky so will eventually replace with a Oceanic BUD, and a small SPG/Compass Combo. Just for streamlining and reduce bulk.

Stuff I've bought and kept

• SP Nova fins. Great for scuba, tiring for surface swims and not ideal for snorkeling, but 90% of the time I'm underwater, so they stay. May get some Nova II's so I don't have to fly with fins between my 2 main diving spots.
• Second hand franken regs (Apeks 1st Stage, Scubapro G250 second stage and Oceanic Omega 2 Octopus, with Aladdin Pro's). I got 2 x sets plus 2 additional 1st Stages for $400 AUD and they are all kinds of awesome.
• BCD - Performance Diver Pro 3000. It was cheap, has big pockets, can take a twin mount and just works without too much bulk, especially when you get your weights optimized. I need very little air in my BCD to maintain neutral buoyancy. I'm considering a second so I have less stuff to travel with.
• Ratio Dive Computer. All kinds of awesome, and best bang for the buck out there.
• Olympus TG6
• 12.2L Steel Tank. It makes diving cheaper in the long run. May get a second so I can do without hiring a 2nd tank on boat dives.

Stuff for the future

• Video light with UV (Looking at the Kraken Hydra 4000 or 6000)
• Whatever shiny things I see when I'm at the dive shop.

 

[Bigbella]

Over the last few years, most of my octopuses have now found their way onto pony bottles, along with secondary LP hoses for dry suit use.

if I have jettisoned anything over the years, it involved even the notion of necklaces for regulators; beaver tails on wet suits; and the use of any damnable crotch straps on BCs.

Life’s too short . . .

 

[SlugLife]

Stuff that I've ditched

• Wrist slate - uncomfortable and useless. A slate was mandatory for my AOW. I keep a small slate in a dive pocket now, but have only used it once.
• Fancy snorkel. - I now only use it if snorkeling, and keep a clip on my mask and have a rolled up snorkel in a dive pocket. A snorkel is mandatory in most places I dive. I've used it for long surface swims, and it's easy to clip on and off to my mask.
• Kaiser Baas GoPro style camera. Replaced with TG6. It was OK, but I'm more focussed on quality shots now, and TG6 is leaps and bounds better.
• Standard Mask - was actually really good, but I got a new one with custom prescription.
• Old snorkeling fins. Had a rubber strap, but kept coming off.
• Old second hand Dive Computers (Aladdin Pro) - Keep them on my Console as backups for now, now dive Ratio. The Aladdin's don't have a backlight and don't support Nitrox. Most of my dives are either Nitrox or night dives. My backup has saved some dives though, where my Ratio was in Freediving mode once, so it's been worth having them.

Stuff marked for replacement

• SMB - will replace with DSMB
• SPG/Console/Computer - it's bulky so will eventually replace with a Oceanic BUD, and a small SPG/Compass Combo. Just for streamlining and reduce bulk.

Stuff I've bought and kept

• SP Nova fins. Great for scuba, tiring for surface swims and not ideal for snorkeling, but 90% of the time I'm underwater, so they stay. May get some Nova II's so I don't have to fly with fins between my 2 main diving spots.
• Second hand franken regs (Apeks 1st Stage, Scubapro G250 second stage and Oceanic Omega 2 Octopus, with Aladdin Pro's). I got 2 x sets plus 2 additional 1st Stages for $400 AUD and they are all kinds of awesome.
• BCD - Performance Diver Pro 3000. It was cheap, has big pockets, can take a twin mount and just works without too much bulk, especially when you get your weights optimized. I need very little air in my BCD to maintain neutral buoyancy. I'm considering a second so I have less stuff to travel with.
• Ratio Dive Computer. All kinds of awesome, and best bang for the buck out there.
• Olympus TG6
• 12.2L Steel Tank. It makes diving cheaper in the long run. May get a second so I can do without hiring a 2nd tank on boat dives.

Stuff for the future

• Video light with UV (Looking at the Kraken Hydra 4000 or 6000)
• Whatever shiny things I see when I'm at the dive shop.

re: Above list

• Wrist slate - I ditched mine too. Wet-notes are smaller and lighter, but I honestly don't bring them either due to trying to eliminate clutter and mostly diving solo. I might add it back in, once I build my "scuba-gauntlet", perhaps cutting a notepad in half.
• Snorkel - I can't stand snorkels hanging off my mask when I'm not using it. I haven't heard of snorkels being mandatory anywhere, it must be a location or culture thing.
• Standard Mask - It might make a decent backup mask, if you start doing deep/night dives. A generic DGX mask is my backup, and surprisingly fits really well, despite me trying on about 80 different masks at dive-shops and only finding one that has an ok seal.
• DSMB - I highly recommend the upgrade. As a bonus, they can act as redundant buoyancy during a BCD failure, pulling the dump-valve as you ascend. I'm a fan of this DSMB form DGX. Inexpensive, 2 colors, no complaints on quality.
• SP Seawing Nova fins - I like mine. I simply have problems with making them do a frog-kick or reverse kick, but that may be my fault. For snorkeling, or swimming, I find a very short-stroke flutter-kick can provide some really high speeds when you don't have scuba-gear on.
• Regs - Your frankenset sounds great. To be honest, I can't tell a difference between my 2 sets of SP Mk25 + S600, versus multiple sets of SP MK10 + G250.

Whatever shiny things I see when I'm at the dive shop.

Bad diver! Bad! Oh crap, is that a DGX window open in my browser?

and the use of any damnable crotch straps on BCs.

I keep forgetting to try diving without one on mine. I dive sidemount, so it may be a little different, but I keep wondering if I really need it.

 

[Searcaigh]

Snorkel - I can't stand snorkels hanging off my mask when I'm not using it. I haven't heard of snorkels being mandatory anywhere, it must be a location or culture thing.

Mandatory in Queensland Australia, at least when I last visited a few years ago. I just told the dive op that I had a folding one in my pocket

 

[Puppeteer]

Yes, mandatory in Queensland. You must dive with a snorkel, SMB and Whistle, though the snorkel doesn't need to be used or on your mask, only on your person. I keep it in a dive pocket.