Why hang stuff up?

[carrielsal]

No need to go out and buy the expensive hangers. For my wetsuit and drysuit, I take several of ordinary tubular plastic hangers and duct tape them together. 3 hangers for my wetsuit and 5 for my drysuit. Once the wetsuit is dry, it goes right back into my gear back with the rest of my equipment for the next dive. If you're not going to use your wetsuit for a while, it should stay hanging. Creases in neoprene for an extended amount of time can become permanent, since this has the potential of breaking the bubbles down.
For my BC, I half fill it with air and it sits on a shelf in my closet.
Hoses should be loosely coiled if not used for an extended period of time. I have an assortment of regs, and they are all stored in large reg bags.

Carrie

 

[Lee Taylor]

I lay mine flat half of the time and hang it half of the time. I have heard that small spiders will build webs inside the inflator if you do not keep the cap on.

As time passes you will find salt crystals form inside the BC bladder. The salt needs to be washed out. Idealy you should never find salt crystals in the bladder but it is hard to prevent it completely.

As the BC ages you will find that fasteners break, hose joints leak, and tank straps (especially the plastic part) break.

Any metal parts inside the inflator (the ones that have a small bit of iron in them) will show a small bit of rust in time.

Inflators mechanisms wear down, slowly leak air, and eventually wear out.

Diving to the bottom of the local swimming pool at the first of the dive season will usually cause problems to expose themselves prior to getting on a dive boat. This will give you time to address the concerns.

Hose degradation is not easy to see. If you inspect the hose under a bright light while bending and stressing it, you will see cracks in the rubber. If not, you are good to go.

Silicone is a good product to extend the life of your BC. Use the silicone sold in dive stores. Do not use the silicone that contains acetone. (commonly found in Lowes, etc)

Monitor your gear closely, repair, replace, maintain, dive safely, and ENJOY!

 

[Brian Sharpe]

No need to go out and buy the expensive hangers. For my wetsuit and drysuit, I take several of ordinary tubular plastic hangers and duct tape them together. 3 hangers for my wetsuit and 5 for my drysuit.

Carrie

Red Green would be proud of you

duct tape can fix anything!

 

[snowflake4727]

Red Green is THE MAN!!!

 

[Scuba_HI]

We purchased one of those portable cloths hanger racks on wheels. I think we paid $80 US for it, well worth it. We roll it out side after the dive, rinse and soak everything in a clean garbage, then hang it all up outside in the shade drip drying, then wheel it back into the entry way where it sits until the following weekend and the process starts all over again. By the way we never use our front door or entry way so its free space for us, if friends are coming over we wheel all of our dive stuff into our bedroom out of sight. It really works out nice we never have to search for our dive equipment, it is all on the rack, very handy.

 

[Doc]

Contrary to some previous advice...

Why not learn the very simple and important process of changing out your dive computer battery?

Oceanic advertises this computer as capable of a "hot swap", referring to it as a useful method "while on a live aboard boat" for changing the batteries and not losing stored information.

If you get comfortable, get one of these to change out your dive watch batteries:

You really can't do much worse than the idiot Rolex dealer who botched my wife's dive watch re-seal. On battery powered waches, I usually pop the cases and let them change the batteries- then I re-seal them. It's not rocket science.

In terms of other very minor end-user things you might want to learn how to fiddle with: The Schraeder valve in your BC power inflator; the easily removed access ports on your BC (makes flushing/drying much easier); coat the knife blade with vaseline or silicone grease; careful lubrication of metal zippers; removal and re-plugging of 1st Stage hoses; Changing out an SPG and all o-rings in your hoses; etc.

I am not saying to disassemble your reg with a Swiss army knife and a rock, but the above mentioned list is really just a step above rethreading a tank cam-band on a BC. (something I still have to ponder)

Your Red Green reference might be lost on most of the Lower 48, but unfortunately we also have a similar approach to fussing with "life support equipment". We are discouraged from this practice, which works all well and good until you are "off the coast for a week of diving".

Learn your gear, service what you can, what you learn to be competent to do.

If the women don't find you handsome, at least they'll find you handy.

Quondo Omni Flunkus Mortati

 

[carrielsal]

Red Green would be proud of you

duct tape can fix anything!

Hey....he's holding the roll from my Save-A-Dive kit!

 

[snowflake4727]

Keep your stick on the ice.

 

[SolarStorm]

When we compare our wetsuits, they are like anything else. You get what you pay for. Good quality wetsuits are just that good quality. When I compare the cheap suits we have purchase, they say 3mm but feel thinner than the good 3mm suits. So my thoughts are that when people say the surface sport wet suits are cheaper or do not offer as much protection I think that is just what they have purchased. I have a full wetsuit from "Barry J's Marine" that I purchased for wakeboarding and another I purchased from Northwest Scuba. Both 3mm, both Pinacles, one 3 years older (shows the wear) but I really cant see much of a difference other than that.

 

[Jupiter31]

If you store rubber stuff wet - dive boots, wetsuits, gloves, hoods - they tend to stink - while they may dry, they smell - so unless you are doing solo diving (not advised) rinse well and hang stuff up out in the open so it can truly dry. I soak my gear overnight in a "Sink the Stink" or similar solution.

I will however, tend to agree w/ you regarding wetsuits - I have a 3mm Bodyglove which is excellent, and a 5mm Pinnacle - would probably not purchase this brand again.

When it comes to suits, regardless of price you need to get the best fit possible - and that can come from a $89 closeout, or a $600 custom.