Who do you trust with your gear?

[drbill]

I prefer to check my own gear... especially if it is mine and not rental stuff while traveling. I don't mind a DM checking it out before I enter, but I prefer they ask me before touching anything. I've had several suggest I alter the configuration of my gear, but I prefer it the way it is... thank you.

I had one DM in Tahiti who checked my tank valve before I descended. I had opened it up myself... she closed it and I didn't check before rolling over and descending. As I tried to ascend to the surface to get a breath, she grabbed my leg and tried to hold me down... then chewed me out for ascending too fast from 15 ft. I tried to explain to her that I had not breathed any compressed air, just surface air but she didn't seem to understand.

Funny thing is that a couple came up to me in the dive park a year or two later and said "You were the one who didn't turn your tank valve on in Tahiti." I explained to them what had happened and we had a laugh over it.

I would trust any of my regular buddies to set up the gear, but there's no reason for them to. I trust them with my life.

 

[Steve50]

I prefer to check my own gear... especially if it is mine and not rental stuff while traveling. I don't mind a DM checking it out before I enter, but I prefer they ask me before touching anything. I've had several suggest I alter the configuration of my gear, but I prefer it the way it is... thank you.

I had one DM in Tahiti who checked my tank valve before I descended. I had opened it up myself... she closed it and I didn't check before rolling over and descending. As I tried to ascend to the surface to get a breath, she grabbed my leg and tried to hold me down... then chewed me out for ascending too fast from 15 ft. I tried to explain to her that I had not breathed any compressed air, just surface air but she didn't seem to understand.

Funny thing is that a couple came up to me in the dive park a year or two later and said "You were the one who didn't turn your tank valve on in Tahiti." I explained to them what had happened and we had a laugh over it.

Bill
Sounds like a hired hit person

 

[Diving Doc]

Absolutely NOBODY touches my gear.......I dont even let my dive masters touch mine and I have trained them.

Way i look at it, its my gear, its my life, if i screw up i only have me too blame.

Also, as i am in touch with my own mortality, nobodies gonna be as careful with my gear as i am!!

 

[Buoyant1]

I set my own gear up, that way I know it's set up and everything that's supposed to be turned on is on, etc.

I've been on boats where the crew tried to be very accomodating, but I still make sure it's all set etc.

It's my large butt that's on the line once I jump in!

 

[gangrel441]

Only been on a liveaboard once. The only thing that was set up once for the week was mounting the BCD on the tank, and we did that ourselves. On occasion, the DM would take my reg off of the tank valve to fill the tank, but he would never put it back on or turn on the valve.

Most all-inclusives I have used, I have carried my gear onto the boat each day and set it up on the way to site #1. The one time I know of when my gear was set up for me, I thoroughly inspected it before every dive. I don't recall anything being set up screwy all week.

 

[Spratman]

I just about trust myself with my gear. Even then i check it after setting up and again before kitting up.

Anyone trusting their gear setup to someone else blindly is quite bluntly an idiot.

Ditto. Plus, if something gets screwed up, I don't want that person to have to live with it for the rest of their life.

Hey Almighty....

Next time tell us how you really feel...

 

[FDdiver]

I dont let any one set up my gear. I was in Cancun last year and the boat crew tried to set up my gear. I took it all apart and set it up to my liking. The DM wanted me to set it up his way. I dont even let the other fireman i work with set up my air pak at the firehouse. I check it every day befor duty.

 

[RJP]

I set up my own gear. There are about 5 people on the planet I'd trust to do it for me, not that I'd want them to set it up, but I would let them in a pinch. There have been about two times I've gotten on a boat and found my gear already set up. I immediately break it completely down and set it up myself.

How'd your gear get to the boat?

 

[RJP]

In NJ we use the buddy system.

As in...

"Hey buddy, get your hands off my gear."

 

[Mossman]

On Grand Cayman, many dive ops will try to set up your gear for you, so you need to be clear with them in advance. Many tourists seem to consider this to be the ultimate sign of a great dive op, as in: " I LOVE diving with XYZ - they even set up your gear for you!"

No, the ultimate sign of a great dive op is when they not only set up the gear for you, they also break it down and wash it. On the Galapagos Aggressor II, Ricardo even cleaned and sanitized my Draeger. Now that's service.

I really can't understand what's so difficult about letting someone who presumably knows what they're doing accomplish the oh-so-easy task of assembling gear. It ain't rocket science. Rebreathers, I can understand. The absorbent has to be packed just right, etc. And I can understand new divers wanting to gain the experience and being paranoid that it's done right because they're not really so sure themselves. But it makes me scratch my head to see divers who profess to have thousands of dives insisting that they're the only ones to assemble their own gear, just because.

Assembling open circuit gear means putting a BC strap around a tank, optionally putting weights in weight-integrated BC pockets, and putting on a regulator. Once someone has put both flavors of regulator on a tank, DIN and yoke, there's absolutely no difference. Maybe the regulator topology can vary (I like mine upside down) but this is a very easy item to check and redo if necessary. Maybe you like your BC straps in a certain place. This is likewise easy to check and redo if necessary. Better yet, show the DM how to do it right, and they will do it right the next time.

So I pose a question to all those experienced divers who insist on setting up their own gear, especially those really silly divers who see their gear assembled correctly and undo and reassemble it just for the sake of being obstinant: what are you afraid of?