What Gear Not To Buy

[DevonDiver]

No judgments on other people, but here's my newbie kit-gaff list:

1. Large S/S Calf Knife - utterly useless, inaccessible, annoying, always getting tangled. Only suitable for posers and wannabies...use the right tool for the job. To cut line, use a cutter (trilobite). To lever, use a lever. To bang, use a hammer. To catch fish, use a spear. To cut bread, take a bread knife (actually, a decent leatherman does ALL the surface cutting jobs).

2. Dacor 'pro rig' BCD - A horrible 'faux' wing-style BCD, badly designed and verging on treacherous to use. A horrible product falling sold to people who don't know better, disingenuously attributed to be suited for advanced diving use.

3. Dacor Viper Regs (now sold via Mares) - Iced up and freeflowed catastrophically at 36m. Not funny for the inexperienced diver. Dangerous....Junk...

4. A myriad of crap oct/spg holders - went through dozens before I learned to use a simple bolt-snap. None worked.

5. Expensive kevlar-reinforced tropical gloves - all wore out at the seams, despite paying premium for kevlar materials etc. I spent years looking for a decent tropical wreck diving glove; trying dozens. Eventually I was introduced to simple 3M Comfort Grip work gloves which are awesome and cost next to nothing.

6. Comfort Harness (for CD TDB wing) - lasted only my first weekend of tech training, whereupon Mark Powell utterly convinced me to simplify with a hogarthian bare harness. Added to task loading and kit complexity. Did nothing.Never looked back. A similar designed harness was attributed to causing severe DCS in a dive buddy. Ebay fodder junk...

7. Poseidon Jetstream/Cyklon regulators - decent enough regulators, but I never considered availability of spares / repairs / servicing outside of my home area. 4 sets got sold (at a big loss) shortly after I moved to SE Asia.

8. Awful top-handle reels. The market is awash with dire reels. I replaced horrible small reels with spools many years ago. In the last decade, awful rickety, entanglement prone, top-handle reels were replaced with slick side-handle primary cave reels. The junk that still gets sold genuine shocks me - especially when so much more capable products are available in the same price ranges.

 

[Reku]

No judgments on other people, but here's my newbie kit-gaff list:

1. Large S/S Calf Knife - utterly useless, inaccessible, annoying, always getting tangled. Only suitable for posers and wannabies...use the right tool for the job. To cut line, use a cutter (trilobite). To lever, use a lever. To bang, use a hammer. To catch fish, use a spear. To cut bread, take a bread knife (actually, a decent leatherman does ALL the surface cutting jobs).

2. Dacor 'pro rig' BCD - A horrible 'faux' wing-style BCD, badly designed and verging on treacherous to use. A horrible product falling sold to people who don't know better, disingenuously attributed to be suited for advanced diving use.

3. Dacor Viper Regs (now sold via Mares) - Iced up and freeflowed catastrophically at 36m. Not funny for the inexperienced diver. Dangerous....Junk...

4. A myriad of crap oct/spg holders - went through dozens before I learned to use a simple bolt-snap. None worked.

5. Expensive kevlar-reinforced tropical gloves - all wore out at the seams, despite paying premium for kevlar materials etc. I spent years looking for a decent tropical wreck diving glove; trying dozens. Eventually I was introduced to simple 3M Comfort Grip work gloves which are awesome and cost next to nothing.

6. Comfort Harness (for CD TDB wing) - lasted only my first weekend of tech training, whereupon Mark Powell utterly convinced me to simplify with a hogarthian bare harness. Added to task loading and kit complexity. Did nothing.Never looked back. A similar designed harness was attributed to causing severe DCS in a dive buddy. Ebay fodder junk...

7. Poseidon Jetstream/Cyklon regulators - decent enough regulators, but I never considered availability of spares / repairs / servicing outside of my home area. 4 sets got sold (at a big loss) shortly after I moved to SE Asia.

8. Awful top-handle reels. The market is awash with dire reels. I replaced horrible small reels with spools many years ago. In the last decade, awful rickety, entanglement prone, top-handle reels were replaced with slick side-handle primary cave reels. The junk that still gets sold genuine shocks me - especially when so much more capable products are available in the same price ranges.

The only top handle reel I have is an Larry Green 350' Primary with a metal line keeper ring on it - and it is absolutely amazing. Every other top handle reel I have ever used regardless of size has been a horrible nightmare deathtrap. Don't even get me started on Manta reels with their weird friction lock spring thing. Oh and those ratchet locking spools are bad as well - I avoid those like the plague.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Since this thread has become something of a 'knife fight ....

The highlight of the classroom training, for me, was when we learned about the equipment (or, as we scuba veterans say, the "gear"). Your basic diving outfit is a mask and flippers, plus the breathing apparatus, which you can rent. But there are all kinds of other neat gear objects you can get, the neatest one, as far as I'm concerned, being: a knife. All my life I've wanted an excuse to wear a knife, and here I have found a sport where it is actually encouraged. "Diving knives are practical tools, " states the PADI course manual, "providing you with a means to measure, pry, dig, cut and pound under water." But the REAL advantage, which the manual fails to note, is that you can wear your knife strapped to your leg.

There's something about striding around with a knife strapped to your leg that makes you feel exceedingly James Bondlike. If you can keep a little secret, I will confess to you that right at this very moment, as I write these words, I have my knife strapped on. Just in case somebody comes along and, for example, tries to cut my word processor cord. As Ray Lang put it, during one of his colorful diving anecdotes: "You never can tell when the inevitable is gonna happen."

- Dave Barry: Blub Story - a very deep experience

Bmoogle ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Storker]

 

[rhwestfall]

Bemoan them all you want, but the ratchet reels are fantastic for using with an inner-tube type float, especially in high flows. For most other uses, I'll agree they are a poor choice.

 

[george_austin]

Doesn't your Kabar rust? Mine certainly isn't stainless and I am afraid of the saltwater getting in between the leather handle pieces and rusting the tang away. What's your secret?

Keep the knife clean, dry and oiled between exposure to water. The interface where the tang goes into the leather handle, dab some clear silicone sealant up in there and work it in with a Q tip. I use beeswax or mink oil to waterproof the leather handle and sheath from Cabela's or Amazon or you can get the fiberglass or plastic sheath for it but I prefer the leather. I think now you can even option for a plastic handled KA-BAR. The KA-BAR knife, fortunately, does not have a stainless steel blade - it has a heat treated and oil quenched carbon steel blade which makes sharpening to shaving specs a breeze.

The knife really holds a razor edge and I have used mine as a hammer, digging tool and pry bar. If you need to cut 3/4 inch line . . . . you have your knife going thru it like butter

 

[george_austin]

@DevonDiver
Do they even allow knives while resort diving in the PI? Do you have to hide yours? Son, that ain't diving - that's tossing around with little tropical fishies and taking pictures of yourself. I'm talking about diving for salvage, hunting and entanglement work.
I'd rather have one and not need it than need one and not have it.

 

[DevonDiver]

@DevonDiver
Do they even allow knives while resort diving in the PI? Do you have to hide yours? Son, that ain't diving - that's tossing around with little tropical fishies and taking pictures of yourself. I'm talking about diving for salvage, hunting and entanglement work.
I'd rather have one and not need it than need one and not have it.

Of course....we don't do 'real men's diving here'... not like you do....obviously. 4 decks down, pushing through rusted bulkeads and levering hatches in WWII landing ships probably isn't on a par with your tough-stuff.. LOL

Tools for the job... I've carried crowbars. I've carried lump hammers.... but for cutting, I carry a cutter...a trilobite and/or heavy-duty shears.

The last time I strapped a large knife to myself... it was a tool for the job... a Fairburn-Sykes... but that wasn't diving.

To me... big knives are for Walter Mitty's.... gotta find an excuse to carry them.

 

[rhwestfall]

 

[scubadada]

Quien es mas macho, george_austin o DevonDiver?