Help me get my travel weight down

[MichaelMc]

In my quest for smaller and lighter for travel I have gone from back-plate to soft-plate to sidemount. I can now carry on all of my gear in a small backpack and a reg bag.

Do you think the softplate to side mount transition drops that much weight? For comparable gear? As in both singles tank or both with redundancy? It seems like it should not be that much difference. Edit: It does seem it would give you easy redundancy options with random rental talks.

 

[WarrenZ]

I found that the sidemount gear while not much lighter does pack smaller as I am using a xdeep classic Mexican style rig it rolls up nicely. I prefer diving doubles for redundancy but If I am diving a single I just add about 3-4 lbs to the non tank side.

 

[scubadada]

I took my Scubapro Knighthawk traveling for many years. I recently bought an Aqualung Outlaw and cut my BC weight in half from about 9 lbs to about 4 1/2 lbs. The weight and space saved is quite significant. The Outlaw is not perfect, but is pretty good. See post #57 Aqualung Outlaw The Outlaw is now my traveling BC, I still dive my Knighthawk much of the time in Florida.

 

[rmssetc]

Hey everybody,

I prefer to bring my own equipment when I travel, but my camera equipment/underwater housing take up a small suitcase and backpack (carryon + personal item) so I am trying to get my dive gear and clothes into one sub-50lb bag. On my most recent trip, I checked 2 bags and as you can imagine that gets expensive. Looking for some help on getting the weight of my dive gear down as much as possible.

Here's my gear breakdown:

• Aqua Lung Traveler 850 Roller Duffle Bag
• Cressi Big Eyes Evolution Mask/Case
• HOG stainless steal backplate
• HOG 23lb wing
• Edge fins
• 3mm or 5mm wetsuit
• Mares Cruise Mesh bag (for boat)
• Atomic Aquatics Z3 reg, first stage and Aqualung transmitter
• Atomic Aquatics SS1

All-in-all everything comes out to 42lbs. I think the most obvious place for weight reduction are with my BP/W and fins. Any suggestions on alternatives for my BC (I'd like to stay bp/w or back inflate) or fins? Or any other areas I could potentially reduce weight?

Are the carryon bags padded to protect the camera equipment? Eliminate padding in those bags & wrap the camera equipment with the wetsuit.

Perhaps put the regulators in carryon gear -- the first stage is the single most dense piece of equipment, and is small.

While this doesn't help much in terms of weight, you could put your small suitcase inside the mesh boat bag -- that'll give you a little more volume in the checked bag for high volume/low weight items (ie., clothing).

Where are you traveling? If you're flying US carriers, the checked baggage allowance is usually 50lbs before overweight penalties...so you can add 8 more pounds.

 

[MichaelMc]

@rgilkes,

OMS has aluminum buckles and, black, D-rings.

ForceFin Pro's weigh 3lb. 6.7oz are 17 x 12 x 4.2” and are slightly negative in fresh water with bungee heel strap, for my size M/L ones.

 

[Schwob]

They

They do fit indeed at least in sizes M and XS.
We have a weird thing going on with those so. My wife lost a fin. So I bought another set for her. She tried it in the pool and hates it.
Reason: it is incredibly stiffer than the first set she had (and still has one fin off) and the set that my daughter has, as well as my set. We all loved them, but that stiff set is garbage.
Worse, Leisurepro did not want to take it back and advised to call Oceanic. Did not find opportunity to do that yet during business hours. Not sure I care to. Learned a lesson there.

Edit: I did call Oceanic (Huish) and they were very friendly and issued an RMA for exchange. I guess I pay for shipping and see what happens...

Update:
It took me a while to send those fins to Huish in Salt Lake City, but they ultimately sent us a new set back.
Good and thank you.

But that set is yet again a very notable bit stiffer than my wife's first set (of which we still have a fin) as well as my daughter's set. It would be imposdible to pair one of the stiffer fins with one of the softer ones and not be bothered by it. As is, my wife just cramps very fast with the stiffer ones doing just pool lanes (like 10, 12) whereas 50 are no issue eith the softer set. So, she'll bortow my daughter's until we find out how my daughter "loves" the stiff ones.

There is an issue, a notable difference. Beacause of that, I don't dare to buy those fins again. It's a shame because I think it's a very good, light almost perfect travel fin otherwise...

And then Huish, tried to help and fid not care to at the same time. They got the once (in the pool) used stifff fins back from us. I know, because I had to proof ot to them by giving them proof of delivery... and yet they just shipped out another set, w/o bothering to see if it was softer... w/o offering any reason...
Just a new set of fins, equally stiff...
I know which ones my wife likes. I could not tell you if the stiff or the soft ones are meeting spec. Huish could not or would not tell me. I hope I am wrong, with what I think about them at this point, but I won't sink more time or money into it.

To me it looks like a typical case of something made far away, either insufficiently well specified in material or stiffnes properties or insufficiently well controlled - or both - but certainly happily marketed and distributed nevertheless...

To be a customer like that is weird to me. As an engineer, dealing with vendors I am used to getting to the bottom of things and cutting through webs of ignorance and / or obfuscation if / as need be... Being a consumer-customer and being treated as such (an idiot so it seems) in what seems to me to be that sort of scenario, ... I don't like it...

 

[gcarter]

I have never had an issue packing my gear, clothing, and personal effects into an Akona canvas duffel, no wheels, and meeting 50lbs. I do take my regs and computer in my carry on, but I also pack a steel plate and have ocassionally a 2 piece 7mm. Most of the time, though, a 3/2 full suit. My fins are heavy DGX no-name jet fin style. Always carry a small tool kit with some small spares, 3 -4 lbs.

Switching to a straight up canvas bag sounds like your first step if you can do without the rollers. Aluminum plate can save another 3-4 lbs.

When I have been faced with a lower weight allowance of 20kg, I have prepaid the extra baggage fee and taken advantage of the additional comfort of being to take more stuff, including some additional spares . I have always viewed it as a small cost relative to the rest of my trip.

 

[kittikat]

I met this UW photographer in a liveaboard who carried a giant padded diaper backpack for his camera gears.
The airline allowed him to claim it as a carry on. He checked in a medium size suitcase for his dive gears etc.

His buddy brought a padded cooler bag for his camera gears & a carry on suitcase. He checked in only a mesh duffel bag. Both setups were as minimalist as it could get.

My other suggestion is upgrading to a lightweight suitcase (empty at 2-3kg), medium size for your gear and clothes.
Mine is a cheap IKEA collapsible suitcase that can fit all my dive gears. It has to be medium size to keep it compact. Typically it comes up to max 15 kg total (Zeagle Zena bcd, Mikron regulator).
And yes, Aeris accel fins are great!!

 

[pelan-pelan]

Really good advice. Travelling round Indonesia we have had to cope with minimal luggage weights. I take the "mountaineer's approach". They cut the end off their toothbrush to save weight. Well maybe not, but every buckle and fastener is worth a look as someone said before. Do you really need a full tube of that? It is really worth paying attention to every little thing. The pounds mount up. The advice about using a light-weight bag/case is the place to start. Watch out for those heavy bright zipper tags. What can you hire at the destination? What can you buy there? The advice to put the reg in your carry on is one that I use. It is one of the single most heavy items. And you don't need all those clothes. Buy washing powder there and wash overnight. And what gear can you wear without getting arrested? I've seen dive boots under jeans! Dive computers on wrists and jackets decorated with caribiners and clips. Many airlines allow a handbag/tablet bag as well as carry on. So get a small bag and fill it with what you can, including flip flops to replace the dive boots during the flight. Remember they are looking to weigh the bags on your way on to the plane, not on the way off. And on small 12-seater planes between islands, yes I have seen people wearing BCs and masks round their necks.

One final suggestion. Synthetic fleece/velour jumpers. Ideal for wearing in cold weather, but also very good thermally as "woolly bears" under a lighter, thin dive suit. I've done this for years. At the end of diving, rinse the fleece and there you are all ready for cold weather.

 

[mcohen1021]

• HOG stainless steal backplate

• HOG 23lb wing

I'd ditch these items for a travel BC