Absolute "Minimalist" Diving.

Just for fun, who here practices absolute minimalist diving?

Recently in another thread entitled 'Submersible Pressure Gauge" there was some discussion about the history of the SPG, which lead to the discussion of old school style diving back in the day when divers didn't have SPG's, which lead the conversation into diving before BC's, and a lot of the other extra stuff which has become commonplace these days.
Then the thread got pushed back on track to the discussion about SPG's only, so I decided to start a discussion about bare minimalist diving as it applies to todays gear choices and political diving environment.

So, does anybody here practice minimalist diving? Is anybody interested in minimalist diving?
Let's talk.
What I mean by minimalist is using only a tank with straps or backpack, a single reg with only one second stage, possibly no SPG if you have a J valve, or alternatively using an unbalanced first and second stage so you have plenty of warning when air is running low, or relying on a keen sense and lots of practice just knowing instinctively how much air you have left.
Planning your dives based on air volume in your tank which determines depth and time. So if you did your planning correctly you should be back at the beach or at your ending point right about the time you are out of air, there shouldn't be any surprises if you've been paying attention.
The proper weighting for diving with no BC and breathing practices.
Streamlining and cruising using optimimum finning techniques and body positioning (slipstream optimization) which allows for effortless travel through the water.

It is quite liberating to dive so simply that all your gear you can easily put it in the back seat of a car or in the trunk
It takes up very little room on a boat and can be carried in one trip. Cleaning gear at the end of the day is a snap, no BCD to clean out combined with all the rest of the gear.
I know people who have quit scuba diving and went to freediving just because the gear was such a pain to deal with at the end of the day they decided it wasn't worth it. What they didn't know was it doesn't have to be that way with minimalism.

I see it as a movement that could definitely take traction.
I know the Vintage community dives this way, but that's not what I'm talking about.
Vintage is great but to me has limitations. The gear is finite and only so much remains. It's not easily accessable to all people. I also see some contradictions.
With modern minimalism all the gear used can be brand new, and the movement is open to all that want to learn and practice. This allows it to be sustainable for as long as people want to practice it.
It also allows for new innovations.

Let's start a discussion about anything related to minimalist diving, the pros, cons, the applications, the limitations, etc.

Thanks

Eric Sedletzky:

So if you did your planning correctly you should be back at the beach or at your ending point right about the time you are out of air, there shouldn't be any surprises if you've been paying attention.

Click to expand...

You are probably a troll (minimalist diving is free diving why even have a tank), but on the chance your are not:

Life is full of surprises no matter what you do. Experience helps to deal with surprises. Experience teaches you there will be surprises.

It is a fact about all systems that the optimal solution is not robust since it cannot deal with perturbations. You can be dealing with minimal inventories at a factory or minimal air supply but let there be a traffic jam between your and your supplier or a gear issue or .... and your factory is shut down/you have a big problem.

A troll?
Freediving is freediving.
I'm talking about minimalist scuba diving like what they used to call regular diving but now it would be considered extremely minimal diving.
It worked then and it works now.

The rest of your post....huh?

Whenever I read "minimalist" and "diving", I think of Alex777:

http://angelfishphotography.com/TropicalMinimalistDiving.htm


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Lopez116:

Whenever I read "minimalist" and "diving", I think of Alex777:

Tropical Minimalist Diving


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Click to expand...

Excellent!
I'm glad to see there are others.

Damn, Steve you want to get me in trouble again. Eric is far from a troll.

I often dive the way you suggest Eric. How much or how little gear I use depends on the site and the dive objectives. If it's putting around the local quarry at 30 ft in 80-90 deg water then my gear is often a T-shirt, swin trunks, an old back pack - usually a KamEZ, Snugpack or similar (I have at least 6 to 10 different ones), one of a dozen or so double hose regulators with either a J valve or SPG. On rare occasion I will dive an old single hose instead of a DH, it with a single second stage, same back pack and either a J valve or SPG. I really like a Healthways Scuba Star first with a Voit MR-12 second stage, it makes a very compact little reg.
Diving in other similar conditions, Bonaire for example, I dive with a BP- no bladder, SPG and a DH with a octo...for some unknown buddy, my regular ones can buddy breath. I will also carry a computer just to log the dive and keep up with NDLs...I can and have gone into deco on a single 80 (with 1500 psi remaining).
If the diving gets more demanding like off shore NC then I revert a full compliment of gear. Bottom line, I gear up to meet the needs of the dive but I don't normally carry more gear than I need for the dive.

The SCUBA police are going to remove this thread just like the other two.

I regularly dive with nothing more than a regulator and a tank and a watch. And of course flippers and a mask and knife and that is it. No BC, no spg, no computer, no depth gauge, no nothing. I would only dive without an spg in shallow water, less than 30 feet and only without a depth gauge again shallow and known bottom depth. I am comfortable using only a J reserve at depths in the 60 foot range.

People need to take a read of SCUBA texts from the 50s and 60s and see how people dived and where taught to dive and figure consumption, run tables etc. You had to be a decent swimmer, we were watermen or at least water children.

Side bar, I guess I cut my arm in the garage getting out of the car on something, blood all over, I wondered why my sleeve felt wet. Wow, yuck. Okay, well, that is going to make a scar, ouch.

Okay,well, here is all you need to SCUBA dive. It is how I learned and was taught and dived and still do when it suits my needs:



As a minimalist SCUBA diver I tailor the gear to the dive. I do not use the same rig for every dive as is repeated here so often and then claimed to be minimalist. If I am solo, I do not have a "safe" second for air share for example. Who would I share with? Because when I say solo, I mean exactly that, alone.

One of my regulators is not even a regulator, it is an Air Buddy on a 24 inch hose hooked to a Mk V first. Now we are talking minimalist SCUBA:

Dive scuba Gear Shop

N

It's been a good three or four years since we've had a minimalist thread, so for the sake of the many new people to the board I figured maybe it was time to re introduce the concept.
Some may be completely unaware that such a practice even exists, either back then or now.
Just like certain churches and societies burned books to remove any trace of a historical past, I'm surprised someone from the "New School of Poodle Fluff" hasn't collected and burned all the left over copies of "The New Science of Skin and Scuba Diving"!
All kidding aside, what's old is new again. There are more and more people enjoying the thrills of minimalism and thanks to the internet the word is spreading.

Why would they remove this thread??

What was the gear configuration on the very first dives on the Andria Doria? Anybody?

For a shallow dip in the pond, wearing a mask, fins, one regulator, and a tank on a simple harness is wonderful. Carrying the tank under your arm is fun too. Nothing serious, just for fun.

herman:

Damn, Steve you want to get me in trouble again. Eric is far from a troll.

I often dive the way you suggest Eric. How much or how little gear I use depends on the site and the dive objectives. If it's putting around the local quarry at 30 ft in 80-90 deg water then my gear is often a T-shirt, swin trunks, an old back pack - usually a KamEZ, Snugpack or similar (I have at least 6 to 10 different ones), one of a dozen or so double hose regulators with either a J valve or SPG. On rare occasion I will dive an old single hose instead of a DH, it with a single second stage, same back pack and either a J valve or SPG. I really like a Healthways Scuba Star first with a Voit MR-12 second stage, it makes a very compact little reg.
Diving in other similar conditions, Bonaire for example, I dive with a BP- no bladder, SPG and a DH with a octo...for some unknown buddy, my regular ones can buddy breath. I will also carry a computer just to log the dive and keep up with NDLs...I can and have gone into deco on a single 80 (with 1500 psi remaining).
If the diving gets more demanding like off shore NC then I revert a full compliment of gear. Bottom line, I gear up to meet the needs of the dive but I don't normally carry more gear than I need for the dive.

Click to expand...

Hate to break the news to you but the OP as written does not include you.

What I mean by minimalist is using only a tank with straps or backpack, a single reg with only one second stage, possibly no SPG if you have a J valve, or alternatively using an unbalanced first and second stage so you have plenty of warning when air is running low, or relying on a keen sense and lots of practice just knowing instinctively how much air you have left.
Planning your dives based on air volume in your tank which determines depth and time. So if you did your planning correctly you should be back at the beach or at your ending point right about the time you are out of air, there shouldn't be any surprises if you've been paying attention.
The proper weighting for diving with no BC and breathing practices.
Streamlining and cruising using optimimum finning techniques and body positioning (slipstream optimization) which allows for effortless travel through the water.

It is quite liberating to dive so simply that all your gear you can easily put it in the back seat of a car or in the trunk
I know the Vintage community dives this way, but that's not what I'm talking about.
Vintage is great but to me has limitations.

Click to expand...

I see no mention of using gear appropriate to a dive. I see no mention of a computer to track NDLs on a deeper dive. I see no mention of tracking your remaining air on a deeper dive where, for example, there there may be currents or other task loading. I see no mention of restricting this practice to shallow dives. I see no mention of having any way other than an air share to help a buddy or other diver. All I see is jumping/walking into the ocean with a tank, mask, and fins and a dive plan to return you to the start with 0 psi left in the tank.