Scientific Diving and Associated Gear

[dshorwich]

If you haven't done so, replace your wooden pencil with an all graphite one you buy at an art store. You can make 3 pencils out of one.
The size should be roughly #2, tuck the blunt in the longer side of the surgical tubing, tuck the sharpened end in the shorter end of surgical tubing. Loop the entire thing over your slate when you're traveling.
Keeps your streamlines and keeps you from loosing your pencil or snapping your tip off.

As far as writing implement goes, I'm very fond of the Aqua Pencil, which doesn't require sharpening. You can see a pair of them in the picture I posted.

You WANT to look like a christmas tree that has all it's ornaments tied down. That's the bane of being a sci diver.

This is true.

 

[fisheater]

I'm very partial to Croquis graphite pencils with bungie cords run through the top.

Hate to say it, but I like them even better than the AquaPencil.

 

[Phil_C]

I'm very partial to Croquis graphite pencils with bungie cords run through the top.

Hate to say it, but I like them even better than the AquaPencil.

Plus one for the aqua pencil ! - I spent last week doing some archaeological recording on a 300 year old wooden wreck and used one of these for the first time, was so impressed I bought one before I came home. They also do a holder which you can fix to your slate.

I now have an A4 slate (just slightly larger than US letter size) with a pen holder drilled and bolted onto the shorter edge and an aqua pencil fitted. The whole thing has a SS clip and bolt snap fitted to one corner, and easily clips and hangs to a shoulder D ring.

We were also carrying 50m reels and positioning survey frames, the reels were just clipped off on a D ring again, and the survey frames we put down a shot line and recovered with lift bags at the end of the dive.

Personally I would make sure everything had SS snap-bolts fitted and then hang them from my D Rings where I could get to them easily. The main thing is to get used to your set up, after all they are just your work tools, and diving with them should be second nature and feel normal, it should not make any difference to your buoyancy and trim, if it does then you need to practice some more.

So I would load up my gear and do a couple of dives where all I did was practice finding and removing/replacing each item whilst not looking at it, until I could dive and feel normal, remove and replace items on auto pilot without losing control of my trim and buoyancy and so on. It is early days yet though so have fun and dive safe.

P

 

[g1138]

As far as writing implement goes, I'm very fond of the Aqua Pencil, which doesn't require sharpening. You can see a pair of them in the picture I posted.

Hmmmm, but for that price I could two enchilada slathered burritos!

 

[dshorwich]

As far as writing implement goes, I'm very fond of the Aqua Pencil, which doesn't require sharpening. You can see a pair of them in the picture I posted.

Hmmmm, but for that price I could two enchilada slathered burritos!

Burritos come, burritos go; an Aqua Pencil will last you a while.


(Alternate response: it's dive gear - of course it costs more than you want it to.)

 

[VashFLCL]

Thank you guys!
Sorry for not replying since my post, but studying and midterms are just getting in the way. Perhaps I was a little dramatic with the control of buoyancy. I am not popping up or anything, but dealing with three new pieces of bulky and cumbersome gear did get me slightly flustered. I just had to remind myself "slow is pro".

Anyways, I would really like to thank all of you (especially G1138 and dshorwich) for getting things a little more manageable. As I sit here typing this out I am also looking at my new set up.
If I didn't mention before, I have the aeries five oceans back inflate. This BC is amazing except that is has one small pocket and 4 functional loops for d-rings and carabiners.
I ended up putting a carabiner on the bottom loop (closest to the shoulder strap clip). This allowed me to securely attached my tape reel closer to my body when not in use. When I want to deploy it, I have a ziptie on the handle that allows me to also clip it to my rear quick release clip (an added clip near behind my pocket).
For my slate, I seem to have the same setup as those who also do reefcheck (lanyard attatch on the left bottom hole with my pencil (now all graphite) on the right). Also, I will probably still stick to tucking it between my chest and waist straps until needed. Thanks for the all graphite suggestion. As much as I would like to get the aqua pencil, I can't justify it until I try the all graphite first. Thought I will need to check out the decktape idea.
I figure I will keep my dive light in my pocket until needed, and then I will just keep it attached to my writing hand.
I still don't know what I am going to do with these calipers, but I have a lanyard and more clips to attach them somewhere.

We have a pool session today to try and get one more shot at out gear situation before we hit the ocean this week. Hopefully my new setup works for me and not against me (all the danglys!).
I will report back this weekend and show some photos of our setup.

 

[g1138]

Glad to have helped a bit. If you really must, you can drill a hole into your Calipers and tie a lanyard from the caliper to your slate. Have a bungee loop at the base of your slate that you can tuck the caliper under when you're not using it. It's just really a lot more work and materials expended with little payoff IMO.

Usually when I'm using calipers they're the main tool used for the dive, so I just palm it for the dive.
You could lanyard it to your person and tuck it in your cumberbun. But keep in mind if it snags, I see it to be less of a risk if it were to snag while attached to your slate. You can disconnect from that and deal with it easier.

 

[VashFLCL]

Tonights pool dive went perfectly. Buoyancy back in check and no more gear fiddling. Hopefully the conditions allow us to dive this weekend, though it does look like we are going to get some nice surge.

---------- Post added September 25th, 2013 at 08:07 PM ----------

Glad to have helped a bit. If you really must, you can drill a hole into your Calipers and tie a lanyard from the caliper to your slate. Have a bungee loop at the base of your slate that you can tuck the caliper under when you're not using it. It's just really a lot more work and materials expended with little payoff IMO.

Usually when I'm using calipers they're the main tool used for the dive, so I just palm it for the dive.
You could lanyard it to your person and tuck it in your cumberbun. But keep in mind if it snags, I see it to be less of a risk if it were to snag while attached to your slate. You can disconnect from that and deal with it easier.

Tonight we cut them down to 39 cm and drilled a hole for lanyard attachment. However, it seems we only have to have all the gear in the pool. During the dive we are going to be dividing caliper and reel duty (plus the reel isn't going to be carried at all times anyway). Though I still plan on trying to carry everything and stream line it just for experience sake. I am guessing I will tuck my calipers with my slate during the dive, and have both lanyard clipped to my chest strap.

 

[g1138]

Tonights pool dive went perfectly. Buoyancy back in check and no more gear fiddling. Hopefully the conditions allow us to dive this weekend, though it does look like we are going to get some nice surge.

---------- Post added September 25th, 2013 at 08:07 PM ----------



Tonight we cut them down to 39 cm and drilled a hole for lanyard attachment. However, it seems we only have to have all the gear in the pool. During the dive we are going to be dividing caliper and reel duty (plus the reel isn't going to be carried at all times anyway). Though I still plan on trying to carry everything and stream line it just for experience sake. I am guessing I will tuck my calipers with my slate during the dive, and have both lanyard clipped to my chest strap.

That's great to hear, good luck on your ocean sessions. Just out of curiosity, what program/institution are you training out of in Arcata?

 

[VashFLCL]

Humboldt State University's Scientific Diving program. We are all NAUI certified and hopefully by the end of this class...AAUS.