I used my new Dive Caddy for the first time on a trip to NC last week, so here is a quick review:
I did not get the Dive Caddy with the intent of it replacing all my checked luggage, or carrying every single bit of dive gear with me. I wanted it so that I could take my most important and most expensive peices of dive gear as a carryon, to cut down on the possibility of damage or theft.
For what I wanted, it worked extremely well. I was able to make the 5-6 day trip with the dive caddy as my carryon and checked one bag (down from my usual 2 checked bags). About the only thing that I would need to dive that I didn't put in the DC was my fins. I seem to have no trouble finding fins that fit me, and the fins I have are cheap, so they went into my checked bag. The fins do fit in the DC just fine, but I didn't measure what it did to the final dimensions with them in.
One of the biggest concerns I've seen (and it was one of mine), was if the bag would be above the airline carryone restrictions. Was was very happy to find that my bag was a good bit below the allowed carryon dimesions (more about that below).
Here is what I packed:
Turtle pack (small bag on top):
Mask
Dive computer
cell phone
itouch
kindle e-reader
10watt hid primary canister light
backup light
dive log/cert cards
notebook with pens, and trip directions, paperwork, etc.
misc items like breath mints, earplugs, chapstick, etc.
Main Bag:
3mil full wetsuit
hood
gloves
booties
BC (backplate & Wing)
2 regs sets (2 first stages, 3 second stages, 2 spgs, hoses)
Spider bag:
1 change of clothes (shirt, shorts, swimsuit, underwear)
I detached the turtle pack and carried it on as my personal item (purse, laptop, briefcase). The main bag (with spider bag) was below the Southwest Airlines advertised carryon size of 24x16x10, mine came out to 24x13x8. It fit easily in the over head (wing to wing) with lots of room to spare. My bag was one of the smallest in the the overheads, with many of the roller bags that people bring on only being able to fit in the overhead sideways. And when I say lots extra room I mean it, there was no struggle at all, and no overhang, no blocking the compartment door. I should also say that I chose to put the turtle pack under the seat in front of me because I wanted to get to some items in there during the flight, it would have fit easily on top of the bag in the overhead.
Pros:
Plenty. The bag is well constructed and worked exactly as advertised (which can be hard to find these days).
The "bag" itself is not really a bag, and because it doesn't have much material it is super light. When empty, the entire thing can roll up and fit in the small turtle pack, which is great to save on space, esp. if you are on a liveaboard where there is not much room from storing luggage.
I am glad I got it and plan to use it on many future trips. I would recommend it, esp. if your needs are similar to mine.
Cons:
Not many. It is obvious that a lot of thought went into the bag. But nothing is perfect, and as this is the first version of the bag, I'm sure there will be improvements in the future.
I personally thought they put way to many logos on the bag. I believe I counted 9. I removed all but 2 from the bag. The 2 that are left can been seen if you are taking the bag apart, but cannot be seen when the bag is assembled. I don't like advertising what is in my bags, but that is just me. On the plus side, the logos are very easy to remove with a stitch ripper:
Sewing Seam Ripper
Run one of those around it and it comes right off.
There were no instructions at all in the box that the bag came in. Probably not a big deal for me because I had seen the instructions online. I think it would be a very good idea to include a small instruction manaul, or at a minimum a card or peice of paper that says "For complete assembly and usage instructions please see our webiste at blah blah blah". The lack of anything made it feel "incomplete".
There are several things that were not "cons", but things that would make this already great bag even better. For example, It would be nice to have a small handle of some kind built into the turtle pack, making it easier to carry as a seperate unit.
There you go, hopefully this will help someone out there who is thinking of buying this bag.
Fortunately when I'm under water I'm pretty much wearing most of said crap.
