Great Big Thread of Scuba Tips and Tricks

[MarcusCarr]

As a rookie scuba diver, I have not had the opportunity to catch the little tips and tricks of the sport of scuba diving that many veteran scuba divers many have heard.

What are some good tips?

for example:

to help a mask seal over a mustache, you can put a little vaseline or zipper silicon on your mustache.

or

continue to exhale if your regulator comes out of your mouth. dont hold your breath.

I eagerly await your responses.

Marcus

[JimC]

Put your gear together prior to puting on your exposure protection.

Put your gear into your dive bag in reverse order so you don't need to spread it out all over the place when you take it out.

Bring a tarp to setup on when your doing a shoredive.

[roakey]

Probably the most useful tip I can think of is to use the "SEARCH" function of the board and search on subject lines that contain "Tips"

No telling what you might find useful, and as a bonus the tips are already there and you don't have to wait for people to post to this thread!

Roak

[gfisher4792]

but one that is useful to me is make a spare car key and bungee it into a bc pocket or necklace it around your neck. Very useful when you have no one on shore to hold your stuff or guard your car.

[cornfed]

MarcusCarr once bubbled...
As a rookie scuba diver, I have not had the opportunity to catch the little tips and tricks of the sport of scuba diving that many veteran scuba divers many have heard.

What are some good tips?

for example:

to help a mask seal over a mustache, you can put a little vaseline or zipper silicon on your mustache.


Shaving helps too

[Walter]

"to help a mask seal over a mustache, you can put a little vaseline or zipper silicon on your mustache.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Shaving helps too"

Of course, you could learn to clear your mask.

[salty]

For every day you spend "scuba diving on the web" you lose a days experience diving for real

[terrydarc]

If you backroll off a boat, it often works better to inflate your BC a bit before you hit the water. Keeps you from sinking too far and leaves you in better control.

Also on a backroll, try not to roll over upside down completely. Very dramatic and fun, but I always get water in my ears doing that.
=Terry

[Charlie99]

Walter once bubbled...
"Shaving helps too"

Of course, you could learn to clear your mask. Most divers with a moustache have had more than enough practice clearing masks.

Rumor has it that vaseline will degrade the silicone mask skirt. I don't know whether that is true or not, but mine is a custom prescription mask, so I play safe and use silicone grease on my moustache. An old chapstick tube is a convenient container that I just leave in my BC even while underwater.

You don't need to apply much. Look in a mirror and find the spots where the mask crosses the moustache.

Others swear by chapstick, but it is a petroleum jelly, like vaseline.

Last tip is to not clear your mask TOO often, or you'll wash away the defog. I just clear when it gets up to my eyes, or most of the time, before I invert.

[scubasean]

gfisher4792 once bubbled...
but one that is useful to me is make a spare car key and bungee it into a bc pocket or necklace it around your neck. Very useful when you have no one on shore to hold your stuff or guard your car.

With the fact that the key to my car has a smart chip inside, and due to my lack of understanding (or trust) as to whether the key is waterproof with respect to the chip, I put my car key into a waterproof box I clip to a D-ring.

--Sean

[Charlie99]

scubasean once bubbled...
With the fact that the key to my car has a smart chip inside, and due to my lack of understanding (or trust) as to whether the key is waterproof with respect to the chip, I put my car key into a waterproof box I clip to a D-ring.--Sean Is the chip needed to get into the car, or just to get the ignition on? How about just locking the smart key in the car or trunk and using a dumb key to get back in?

On a related waterproofing note: credit cards and magstripe hotel cards are not bothered by saltwater at all, except maybe the signature on the back of the credit card.

Or maybe mine wore off from overuse.....

[Charlie99]

gfisher4792 once bubbled...
but one that is useful to me is make a spare car key and bungee it into a bc pocket or necklace it around your neck. I put a loop of bungee cord in each pocket, then clip all items off to it. If it's worth taking, it's worth keeping.

I have lanyards on both my folding knife and shears. The lanyard goes on my wrist before it unclips from the bungee. If you need the knife or shears, you probably don't want to take the chance of dropping it.

[Charlie99]

MarcusCarr once bubbled...
or

continue to exhale if your regulator comes out of your mouth. dont hold your breath.

Marcus No need to exhale. Just don't close your airway. If you exhale too much before you sweep your arm and find the reg, you may inhale water. Not nice.

Cough. Notice the how you closed your airway just before coughing. Don't do that underwater if you are ascending.

[saf_25]

scubasean once bubbled...


With the fact that the key to my car has a smart chip inside, and due to my lack of understanding (or trust) as to whether the key is waterproof with respect to the chip, I put my car key into a waterproof box I clip to a D-ring.

--Sean

I felt the same way, but my car (a Saturn) came with an "emergency" key that only opens the doors and won't let you start the ignition. I just made a copy of that key for the bc, and leave the "real" ignition keys in my glove box while diving. This way, the keys I need are safe, along with all of my other id, clothes, etc.. and I don't need to worry about ruining the key that will let me drive away later.

[dc4bs]

If you don't have any, dive insurance might be a good idea especialy if you dive any distance from home on vacations etc...

It can be gotten quite cheaply through DAN or a few other places like the insurance agency SDI/TDI uses.

----

Along with the spare car door key on the chain arond my neck, I had a set of dogtags made.

One has my name, blood type, "no allergies" and emergency contact info (sisters name & number). The other has the DAN hotline number and my DAN insurance account info.

It cost me less than $10 to get em made and I figure in a real emergency they just might be worth something.

[AquaGuy]

Here is another tip.. Always bring a jug of water with you if you are shore diving. Use it to wet down your cam straps before you tighten the straps around the tank.. It's amazing how many diver's tanks fall off when their cam straps get wet and stretch.

[MarcusCarr]

This is all great stuff. I appreciate everyone taking time to impart tips to the newbies.

Marcus

[Charlie99]

A couple of things that are really obvious, but only once you see it....

On a night dive, hold your light right up against the SPG. Most are phosphorescent and this will charge it up so you can easily read it. Same for compass.

To reach your tank valve, put your elbow alongside your head, not out to the side like might be seem more natural.

Don't just check pressure on your SPG before you jump in. Suck in a big breath or purge to see if the needle fluctuates (if it does, then open up the valve the rest of the way. Still does -- you better take a look at your reg's inlet filter.).

Your reg works both above and below the surface. A snorkel doesn't. Use your reg while getting back on the boat.

If a buddy or DM says "trust me", don't.