One thing I have always kept in my wetsuit pocket or BCD pocket is a pair of strong wire cutters. I have amazed myself of stuff I can snag or worse when diving. If you can find stainless steel ones…all the better..
What do you carry with you when diving?
- Thread starter cburdick1
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Zach The Diver
Contributor
Lights (with redundancy) even in daytime tropical environments. It’s a SIGNALING device, not just a method of illumination.
Start carrying a backup mask.
I like carrying a backup cutting device but that’s just me. My primary is a small line cutter on my left hip (I use BPW). I have a Spyderco Salt in my right pocket.
Compass on left wrist.
Computer on right. Recommend a Shearwater product.
Get rid of the snorkel unless you’re actually snorkeling.
It’s smart to think the way you’re thinking. Just don’t become a Christmas tree diver in the process.
halocline
Contributor
You’ve got plenty of stuff. Maybe some Dijon mustard to go with that sausage.
It’s very unusual to carry a back up mask on recreational dives. We do it for technical dives where you can’t simply surface if something goes wrong, but I certainly wouldn’t bother on a warm water NDL recreational dive. Not a bad idea to have one on the boat if you’re doing multiple dives off a boat. The SMB is a good idea for ocean diving, make sure you practice with it. If your computer doesn’t have a compass, that’s a nice thing to have for self-guided shore dives.
Zach The Diver
Contributor
How is carrying a backup mask on a recreational dive unusual? I always carry one as do many divers I know. I put it in my right dry suit/tech shorts pocket secured with a double-ender.
The answer is to be able to manage the problem appropriately, not jump straight to “simply surface” to manage a simple lost mask. “Simply surface” shouldn’t be a first resort for anything as that carries its own inherent risks even on a warm-water NDL recreational dive.
You should be able to easily make a safe ascent including a safety stop without a mask. It's admittedly uncomfortable in seawater, but not difficult.
The post you were responding to specified "warm water". I don't wear anything with big pockets when diving warm water.
Zach The Diver
Contributor
My tech shorts are hardly “big pockets”, can carry SMB, backup mask, wet notes, and even a Spyderco Salt no problem and I stay streamlined.
Sure you can do those things but I’d scarcely call it safe. How are you going to know or gauge your depth/rate of ascent without a mask and if you got separated from your buddy?
halocline
Contributor
The fact that you wear tech shorts on a warm water recreational dive already makes you unusual. If you want to approach dives like this more like more technical diving, that’s certainly fine and I’m not trying to convince you otherwise. But it is NOT the norm.
You might feel that is is ‘scarcely safe’ to do warm water recreational diving without a back up mask, but the act is that millions (literally) of warm water recreational dives have been completed without one, there is to my knowledge no reported deaths due to mask failure in these millions of dives, and so it is clearly safe practice.
Zach The Diver
Contributor
I never said tech shorts were the norm, I said carrying a backup mask isn’t that unusual.
Read into what I said… obviously the lack of a mask isn’t going to kill you, it’s the increased risk associated with decreased situational awareness and task loading which can lead to uncontrolled ascent and drift away from your dive team. Few issues become dangerous in isolation… it’s just easier for something dangerous to happen without a mask.
No one “dies” from mask failure, and that was not the implication with my statement.
Don’t some mfgs make ‘foldable’ masks that you can carry almost anywhere secure and accessible?? Although I probably wouldn’t use it ( …as I am a ‘vintage’ diver, ) I have an MLW mask from the ‘50s that came with a pilot rescue pack. It folds flat, opens up up to a full size working dive mask that seals, and has equalizing pockets and can be easily purged…it could be tucked in a large BCD pocket or just under a wetsuit jacket. Look at dive shops for foldable masks…
Zach The Diver
Contributor
I’m unaware of them but I’m sure they’d exist and be a great option for those with minimal storage space.
I use a Halcyon H-View as my primary mask and a TUSA Freedom Elite as my backup, but I’d probably say that the TUSA is a bit on the large side.
Similar threads
