Rinse after fresh water dive??????????

[spectrum]

Some of the funkiest gear I have ever driven home with was from freshwater dives. While you don't need to combat salt you can come out with a wicked bioload and I'm not talking self generated here.

My diving is a mix of salt and fresh. I will cut some corners on the fresh water clean-up like not soaking things like tanks & regulators and other "hard items like knife and maybe even fins if they are clean. and not flushing the BC interior.

Pete

 

[diver 85]

Yes------rinse......The way I think of it is 'do I rinse myself after coming out of fresh water?'....

 

[Rick Inman]

I don't rinse after fresh water dives (I do disinfect the loop of my rebreather). After hundreds of dives over the years, I don't find any negative effects on my gear from the fresh water dives I do. Sometimes my milk crate, which holds my mask, fins, gages, hood, dry gloves, etc., doesn't leave my truck for months. My drysuit gets zipper wax, and I do give it a wash with Sink-the-Stink when it starts to smell.

After salt water, everything gets a good soaking - sometimes in the fresh water of my local lake.

 

[DandyDon]

I don't rinse after fresh water dives (I do disinfect the loop of my rebreather). After hundreds of dives over the years, I don't find any negative effects on my gear from the fresh water dives I do. Sometimes my milk crate, which holds my mask, fins, gages, hood, dry gloves, etc., doesn't leave my truck for months. My drysuit gets zipper wax, and I do give it a wash with Sink-the-Stink when it starts to smell.

After salt water, everything gets a good soaking - sometimes in the fresh water of my local lake.

Again with some FW is fresher than others. With you location, I bet your FW is cleaner and cooler than much of the FW sites in the south, midwest, and east.

The only FW site I dive is a spring fed vent, but it's just off of I-40 and stocked with goldfish, carp, and crawdads along with divers pissing and stirring up the bottom - enough that I hate to get my camera in it some trips.

South Texas has lakes that kill people every year just from swimming. :shocked2:

 

[james croft]

Salt water dives I go over my gear really well and soak and clean. Not so much for fresh water. I like diving in nasty water. I am slowly building up my immune system. What does not kill you only makes you stronger.

But I do draw the line at diving farm ponds. Even I don't dive in farm ponds without being fully incapsulated. I am friends with a state police diver who almost died from amoebas getting into his central nervous system after diving in a farm pond.

 

[Docc]

I wash all mine with soap and water, but for wet suits - we turn them inside out and spray them well with urine remover first. Really helps...

​

It's also good on stains on a hat.

Why would you pee on your hat?

 

[halocline]

It depends on the water. After a cenote or spring dive I see little reason to soak my reg, but after a lake or quarry dive I'd be more inclined. It's not going to hurt.

 

[DandyDon]

Why would you pee on your hat?

Before you abused my statement, it said sweat stains. I've heard that city folks sometimes spray WD-40 on new hats to give them a stained look, but real hat wearers often like to remove sweat stains. For some reason it helps break down the organic compounds involved; I didn't invent it - just use it.

But my stalker thot you were funny.

 

[captndale]

Yes, it depends on the water. On an offshore dive in Lake Michigan there is no reason to rinse my equipment. I use the guide, "If you can drink the water you're diving in, you don't need to rinse your gear."

 

[ONESPEED]

Sadly I can vouch for this ....hence the rinsing. The local quarries sort of scare me with the stuff that grows in them but they are too close to ignore sometimes.

What's a quarry?:mooner: