separate travel gear

Coming up in August I will be travelling to Maui/Kona for the family vacation. I currently dive a Zeagle Stiletto BC. The intent was for a BC light enough for travel yet still has enough lift for cold water diving with 7 mm wetsuit. My fins are Atomic splits (not starting blade v spit discussion) and are a little heavy. Still using rental reg mainly because my LDS uses Atomic Z's as their rental reg and have not had the inclination spend a big wad $$ just yet.

I've been noticing a number of posters responding that they have separate gear for both travel and local diving. At what point did you decide to go out and buy a brand new BC for example to travel on vacation? I'm sticking with my current gear and not changing my BC or fins. I will get an inexpensive 3 mm wetsuit since I plan on doing fair number dives with my daughter and it is cheaper and more hygienic go have my own. I might also decide to splurge on a reg before next vacation once the taxes are paid .

Just curious at what point does the decision come in "I need a new 'x' to go on vacation?

I have one rig and a host of "back-up" items. I haven't found the need to have two sets of gear. I use my Stilleto to dive North Texas, Hawaii, SoFlorida or anywhere really. I don't dive "dry" but the BCD did fine at the DUI demo. I think some divers "need" two sets of gear if they dive cold and warm waters. A "tropical" set that is light-weight for travel.

IMHO, Scuba gear is like pistols, guitars, etc. Which one do I use/carry/play today? The best one of course. If I had another BCD I doubt that I would use it...I prefer my Stilleto. Now, if I had a BP/W...that might be different angrymob: not a debate just waiting to spend the money).

For vacations, I try to make sure that all my gear is in good condition and maybe buy a few fun accessories like a new light, knife, SMB, Dive Alert, etc. and spend the money on diving and at the shrimp trucks.

Enjoy your vacation...I always love spending time in the Islands.

My Dive buddy bought a travel BC for the simple fact that he wanted to trim down on weight for the suitcase. I personally will bring all my gear except for the ovious like tank, weights but I'm also not briging my wetsuit. All the rest its coming with me, computer, dive signal tube, flash light. I do a an extra set of fin whihc are less wide and less heavier than the other one. So bottom line I don't see why having a second set but that's just me.

Do what works for you. Most divers own one set of gear. Dive gear alone can easily fill a 50lbs suitcase. If you go light well lets see..

Reg/Octo - 5-8lbs
BC - 7-12lbs
Fins - 2-7lbs
Mask - 1 lbs
Wetsuit 2-3lbs

So lets say the kit weights 17-31lbs. Add in 5 lbs for misc gear and that number grows. Add a camera, housing, strobes and you quickly hit the ceiling. If your lucky your kit is closer to 17lbs and you can bring non-essential gear like underwear or swimming trunks!

Don't forget the sun block.....

I dive the same kit everywhere and don't worry about weight.

My gear is not so much travel vs home but warm water vs cold water, rec vs tec and to some extent boat vs shore. These are seperated into rubbermaid boxes.

Randy

RonFrank:

Do what works for you. Most divers own one set of gear. Dive gear alone can easily fill a 50lbs suitcase. If you go light well lets see..

Reg/Octo - 5-8lbs
BC - 7-12lbs
Fins - 2-7lbs
Mask - 1 lbs
Wetsuit 2-3lbs

So lets say the kit weights 17-31lbs. Add in 5 lbs for misc gear and that number grows. Add a camera, housing, strobes and you quickly hit the ceiling. If your lucky your kit is closer to 17lbs and you can bring non-essential gear like underwear or swimming trunks!

Don't forget the sun block.....

Click to expand...

I generally break up my scuba gear so does not all go in one suitcase. I have a rolling duffel bag big enough to hold the BC and wetsuits in a separate compartment and still has room for my t shirts, shorts, etc with my wife's clothes.

The fins, masks, booties, and a scuba dive duffel get packed in a larger wheeled mesh dive pack pack along with pool/beach toys for the kids. I secure the zippers with zip ties to prevent baggage handlers from helping themselves to my things. If the TSA wants to look inside they can just cut the zip ties but they should easily be able to see what's inside with the mesh panels.

My dive computer goes with me in carry on luggage, and I will have my small back up LED dive light in carry on as well. You would be suprised how many times a flash light comes in handy. The larger primary goes in the rolling duffel with the BC.

Since the rest of the kids clothes don't take up that much space we have just one other suit case. With five ticketed passengers we try to keep the luggage including the scuba/pool toys to 4, no more than 5 bags. Since we are almost always using our airline miles and have the corresponding airline credit cards we always get one checked bag per ticketed passenger so we don't worry about having to pay the luggage fees. Also, we can partially pack one bag so have plenty room for souvenirs.

The sun screen goes next to my wife's clothes in case it leaks.

I dove the same regulator and BC and fins for travel that I did for home for several years. I DID use a wetsuit instead of hauling my dry suit around, though.

When I went to a BP/W setup, I dove the steel plate and 30 lb wing I had for a couple of years. I eventually bought a Kydex plate (I can't really remember why) and when the 17 lb wing came out, Tobin sent me one to try and I found it delightful.

I guess my bottom line would be that you probably don't ever have to buy different gear to travel, except for exposure protection (and these days, I dive my Fusion dry suit everywhere -- or when I don't, I wish I had!).

SInce I travel mainly to dive, I take the gear I need for the trip and don't worry about the weight. In the grand scheme of things, $30 for a second bag is trivial if it's needed.

My ScubaPro Jet fins are way to heavy to travel with so I bought a lighter set of fins for travel. I dive a Halcyon BP/W locally. Depending on whether I'll be diving steel or alu tanks, or taking jets or small planes, I may use the Seaquest Balance BC I saved, it's much lighter in weight when limited by small planes and my Halcyon plate is too heavy if I'm using steel tanks in a 3 mm suit. I also just got a ScubaPro MK25 yoke reg to use on my pony. Normally I use a DIN setup so I'll probably take the yoke 1st stage for travel since many places don't have DIN tanks, that will save me needing to use the DIN to yoke adaptor. And of course I use a 7 mm suit locally and a 3 mm in the tropics, so I guess I pretty much do have a travel setup, except I use the same mask and dive computer!