nwflyboy
Contributor
I'm leaving for a trip to the other side of the world (Maldives) in about 9 days. Thought I had checked, re-checked, and triple-checked all my gear. Today, I was looking over the website of the dive live-aboard operators. And I see this:
Uh-oh. Our regs are standard yoke types. We've been diving for decades, have never seen any DIN gear (AFAIK), never mind used one. It's never been an issue, we've used our gear from Raja Ampat to the Caymans, everything has always been the same old yoke gear. Now, I'm wondering what to do. (And yes, I know that Africa and Asia are not "countries"...).
I'm gonna email the dive op, but I suspect they have non-technical, non-connected people in their office and won't be able to provide solid info. And they're half a world away, so there will be at least half a day of time lag in getting any response.
From the (poorly written) website bits quoted above, I take it that they make no guarantees that "adapters" will be available upon arrival. I will ask about that (surely this can't be an unusual thing for people to show up needing them). But I now have more questions...
We have Atomic Z2x regs. I googled "Atomic yoke to DIN adapter". It seems that it's easy to go from DIN to Yoke, but much harder to go from Yoke to DIN?
I see a "conversion kit" for around a hundred bucks (like this one here: Atomic Aquatics Yoke to DIN Conversion Kit). My local dive shop has one of these and will install it. But this may be the only time we will ever need DIN compatibility, and I hate to make a big change for this one time.
It also sounds like the boat folks have some kind of a non-permanent "adapter" they may provide (if they have enough). I don't see any such things advertised. I've searched on the two big name online scuba shops, and amazon. No results. I asked my local dive shop and they claim there is no simple, easily reversible adapter (at least none that they know of). Really?
My wife is currently in Thailand (on the way to our live-aboard, she headed out 2 weeks ahead of me - she has her regs with her). She's chatting with divers there, she says they're telling her "don't worry about it, just go, just use a simple adapter, the boat will have one you can use...don't mess with your regulators." I mentioned this to the owner of my local dive shop. He rolled his eyes and said the only kind of "adapter" he knew of is one he uses to fill DIN tanks at the LDS (he showed me one - it was a simple brass fitting with a 90 degree bend, yoke size fitting on one end, DIN on the other). He said that kind of fitting was just for filling tanks and should never be used for diving. I didn't disagree, it looked like industrial stuff, not life support gear.
So I'm stumped, confused, and worried. I need to get this sorted out pretty quick.
What do I need to safely dive using my plain-vanilla, non-DIN Atomic regs, on the operator's DIN tanks? When I can get the attention of the dive boat operators office, what should I ask them about the adapters that they might (or might not) have available for us? I'm looking for safety, and not messing up our gear.
This shouldn't be hard....right? Thank you!!!
Do you use DIN or International tanks?
All tanks are fitted with 5/8's DIN valves. We strongly advise divers with M26 regulators to note that when travelling outside Europe tanks with M26 valves or adapters to fit M26 regulators to 5/8's DIN tanks may not be available. These adapters cannot be purchased in countries such as Africa, Asia, etc and we have limited stocks available for rent. Please remember to either bring your own adapter with you or check with us regarding availability at the time of booking.
All tanks are fitted with 5/8's DIN valves. We strongly advise divers with M26 regulators to note that when travelling outside Europe tanks with M26 valves or adapters to fit M26 regulators to 5/8's DIN tanks may not be available. These adapters cannot be purchased in countries such as Africa, Asia, etc and we have limited stocks available for rent. Please remember to either bring your own adapter with you or check with us regarding availability at the time of booking.
Uh-oh. Our regs are standard yoke types. We've been diving for decades, have never seen any DIN gear (AFAIK), never mind used one. It's never been an issue, we've used our gear from Raja Ampat to the Caymans, everything has always been the same old yoke gear. Now, I'm wondering what to do. (And yes, I know that Africa and Asia are not "countries"...).
I'm gonna email the dive op, but I suspect they have non-technical, non-connected people in their office and won't be able to provide solid info. And they're half a world away, so there will be at least half a day of time lag in getting any response.
From the (poorly written) website bits quoted above, I take it that they make no guarantees that "adapters" will be available upon arrival. I will ask about that (surely this can't be an unusual thing for people to show up needing them). But I now have more questions...
We have Atomic Z2x regs. I googled "Atomic yoke to DIN adapter". It seems that it's easy to go from DIN to Yoke, but much harder to go from Yoke to DIN?
I see a "conversion kit" for around a hundred bucks (like this one here: Atomic Aquatics Yoke to DIN Conversion Kit). My local dive shop has one of these and will install it. But this may be the only time we will ever need DIN compatibility, and I hate to make a big change for this one time.
It also sounds like the boat folks have some kind of a non-permanent "adapter" they may provide (if they have enough). I don't see any such things advertised. I've searched on the two big name online scuba shops, and amazon. No results. I asked my local dive shop and they claim there is no simple, easily reversible adapter (at least none that they know of). Really?
My wife is currently in Thailand (on the way to our live-aboard, she headed out 2 weeks ahead of me - she has her regs with her). She's chatting with divers there, she says they're telling her "don't worry about it, just go, just use a simple adapter, the boat will have one you can use...don't mess with your regulators." I mentioned this to the owner of my local dive shop. He rolled his eyes and said the only kind of "adapter" he knew of is one he uses to fill DIN tanks at the LDS (he showed me one - it was a simple brass fitting with a 90 degree bend, yoke size fitting on one end, DIN on the other). He said that kind of fitting was just for filling tanks and should never be used for diving. I didn't disagree, it looked like industrial stuff, not life support gear.
So I'm stumped, confused, and worried. I need to get this sorted out pretty quick.
What do I need to safely dive using my plain-vanilla, non-DIN Atomic regs, on the operator's DIN tanks? When I can get the attention of the dive boat operators office, what should I ask them about the adapters that they might (or might not) have available for us? I'm looking for safety, and not messing up our gear.
This shouldn't be hard....right? Thank you!!!