What is scuba diving's orange shovel?

[thomjinx]

Very interesting thread. It seems more posts illustrate personal (perhaps regional?) bias than actual noobiousness.

Orange whistle on a D-ring? There are places you are required to have a whistle, should I bury it in a pocket?

Neoprene slap strap? Is it more macho to lose some hair to a silicone strap every time I put on my mask?

New color coordinated gear? Does this include all black?

loosebits, I would have loved to have seen the girl you describe, though!

And no one has mentioned a Spare Air yet?

 

[DarthWader]

Or dive flag anything. If you need to advertise you're a diver, you're probably doing less than 50 dives a year. Not that that's horrible - I mean, if you want to feel like a diver, rock on.

Its just better to dive.

And BTW - 50 million Elvis fans ARE wrong. He still sucks. Turn the page, baby boomer.
---
Ken

Oh c'mon! I'm a noob supreme here and you've crushed my sensitive spirit.:shakehead I'll be lucky to pull off 20 dives a year up here, but I am happy to display my enthusiasm; I just hope that diving doesn't become mundane enough that I shun all iconic displays. As of this posting, all I have is the green cross I received from ANDI displaying my affiliation with my certifying agency. But The one symbol I thought was the coolest(I hope it's not an "Orange shovel") was the bone diver logo. I don't have anything with that image on it. . . yet, but was looking for a coffee cup for work so I could stand out as the "cool diver":14:

AND, BTW, Elvis is cool, it just so happens that I'm more of a Beatles fan, but I guess they're equally archaic.

I don't see a tongue-in-cheek emoticon, too bad, I guess this one will have to do then

Bruce

 

[Walter]

90% of all instructors are incompetent because they wear BCs with padding and/or a cummerbund?

(See where this goes, yet?)

Nope, it's merely a symptom. They are incompetent (I don't know the %, but certainly the majority) because they don't know how to teach and they produce incompetent divers. It's not their fault, they honestly don't know any better.

 

[ajames54]

DAmn the matching gear thing has my wife and I tagged..even if it was a complete accident and we didn't notice until it was pointed out to us (honest).

Got the tank banger though ..still with its origional stickers.. Used once only..

The day I brought it back from the shop..
Wife: "Whats that?"
Me: " I figure next time you get distracted and I have to come back and get you I'll just use this instead"
Wife: "F......f"

Problem solved.. it was a great purchase.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Hahahahaha.... Doesn't sound like she was favorably impressed with your purchase. LOL

And FWIW, I grew up on Elvis, the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers, the Beach Boys, and the American Graffiti Soundtrack. Elvis rocked, man... (and no, I'm not a Boomer)

 

[ScubaThor]

Guilty as charged...except my Scum Ball was Neon Yellow.
I, too, am in favor of neoprene mask straps, as they keep my hair where it belongs - my head. I would also never ever do an ocean dive without a whistle, sausage and signaling device.
My Orange Shovels: cheap-***** "bungee" console retractor from LP...you know the kind...elastic chord with black plastic tubing over it...and divers wearing t-shirts from places they haven't dove.

 

[aowdan]

Although not entirely useless.. A complete set of brand new color coordinated dive gear. Stay away from this person.

A couple with matching gear is a double whammy

Wait! you see me dive almost every weekend, and yes alot of my stuff is blue, but that just happens to be the color available at the time of the clearance sale!

although the matching couple...yes, watch out for them!!

to the snorkel people. $10? wow 'spensive. for some reason (and not the attachment) i get about 5 dives per snorkel.

 

[GA Under Water]

I forget. What's the emergency hand signal for "I need the PADI wheel"?

Will try and figure one out maybe make my Buddy to the SCUBA Funky Chicken then Drive the bus HA HA!! I REALLY think the "Funky Chicken" in full SCUBA woud be funny at neutral.

 

[Blitz]

Very true. I have winter gear, summer gear, ultra light, medium weight. Stuff used only during hunting season..... Its just as bad with dive gear. Doubles rig, singles rig, tropical singles rig.... Shallow deco bottle (50% bottles), deep deco bottles(For dives when 100% are needed) Drysuit for summer, drysuit for winter......

I've never found that to be true, what a backpacker carries might be minimalist at the time, thats just cause carrying it all is a pain. Chances are they've got 3 more in different colours at home
knives, sleeping bags, lights, tents, stoves.
different ones for different hikes
different times of year.
especially the ultralight packers, they have lots for different trip profiles.

 

[3-Ring Octopus]

I'm sorry that not having gear that looks like my dog chewed on it, then peed all over it makes me look like a "n00b". I'd personally shy away from the guy who looks like he got all his gear from 18 different Ebay auctions before I'd shy away from the person who coordinates a bit (not excessively...entirely new TUSA gear,head to toe, all the same color for instance is a bit "too much"). After all...what's the second rule of diving?

I'm also sorry that I prefer the comfort and convenience of my neoprene slap strap with my LDS logo plastered on it over the "l33t diver" pain/pleasure of having a rubber strap either remove hair or break on me after 3 dives.

Let me also apologize for wearing my AquaLung hat around quite often. You see, even though I received it for free, and appreciate the fact that it's a nice simple hat that occassionally strikes up a conversation and gets new people to come out and try our AMAZING sport/lifestyle, I realize that I must be a complete "n00b" to want to try and be a bit of an ambassador to the population at large. After all...why would anyone want to try and introduce others to diving? I mean...doesn't having more people doing it take away from our own extreme "l33tn355"?

Blah...do what you will...but I'd rather see an orange shovel (color coordination) than a bunch of red flags (ancient gear that's been patched seventeen times and that has probably been purchased second-hand...who knows if it works?).

Cheers,
Austin