essential extra scuba items... (don't leave home without em)

[O2BBubbleFree]

Years ago I had an official Boy Scout signal mirror that was a little square piece of stanless steel with a hole in the middle. Sounds a lot like the camping mirror that you're talking about. To sight it you looked thru the hole at your target and, at the same time, looked at your reflection, then you tried to line up the sun spot on your face with the site hole. It worked, but not real well. I assume the same process could be used for two CDs glued back-to-back.

I have also played around with military-style glass signal mirrors. These have a 'sighting grid' in the middle, which is more than just a hole. While looking through the sighting grid you can see a holographic-like dot that you line up with the rescue craft. In my experience, the military-style mirrors give a far brighter reflection and are far more accurate to site.

We had a team on the top of a Lone Cone Mountain (12,613 ft/3,844 m) in Colorado that were able to see a signal mirror located at the 'Scout camp (around 5000', and a couple of miles away).

The one I currently have is about 2" by 3", so is very portable. It won't work as well as the larger ones, but I'm sure it will work better than CDs. It's made of safety glass, but I still carry it in a small padded pouch. I bought it at a military surplus store.

While CDs or other mirrors may work, I don't beleve that they will work nearly as well or be as easy to use accurately as a real sighting mirror.

Here's the kind I'm talking about:

http://www.uscav.com/productinfo.aspx?productid=7405&tabID=

Or, better yet:

http://www.uscav.com/productinfo.aspx?productid=7359&tabID=

if you can find a place to carry it.

EDIT: After posting the above, I found another informative link. According to these guys, the CD is only about 25% as effective as a 2x3 signal mirror, and 50% as effective as a 3x4 mirror.

http://www.equipped.com/signal.htm

I'm not telling anybody what to do, just recommend you make an informed decision...

 

[boates]

For underwater communication, take along a dog clicker. It's a training device, so not only will you get attention when desired, you will be training your buddy at the same time! Seriously these are inexpensive and work very well. Have fun!

 

[Kestrell]

what do you use duct tape for?

An in the field recompression chamber. If someone get DCS just wrap them up real tight from head to toe. Don't foget to poke air holes in the nose.

Seriously though, duct tape can be used to temporarily fix just about anything.

 

[android]

How do you flood a mirror - a piece of glass essentially, its not got any air pockets or anything like that??? The mirror i am talking about is essentially the same thing you describe, with a little sight hole and would be used backpacking - costs about $2 from the places around here and is nice and compact.

There are some camping mirrors with the cloth sighting mesh layered between two pieces of glass. They are often held together with double stick tape. The water gets between the glass and gets the cloth wet. When this happens, you will no longer see the visible "hot spot" used for aiming.

For scuba you should really have a waterproof mirror with the mesh sighting cloth.

The nice thing about a signal mirror is that it's one of the few devices that is not totally passive. You can actually flash the target to get an observers attention rather than counting on luck for them to be looking your way and spotting a SMB or sausage.

But to take advantage of that fact, you have to be able to reliably hit the target with the reflected sunlight.

 

[mweitz]

I convert my split fins to non-spit with duct tape..........

Do they then qualify as DIR?

For underwater communication, take along a dog clicker. It's a training device, so not only will you get attention when desired, you will be training your buddy at the same time! Seriously these are inexpensive and work very well. Have fun!

I would much prefer the battery collars. If only they were waterproof. You buddy wouldn’t ignore you then.


I may have missed these. I did see someone said "hoses", but:

High pressure and low pressure hoses. I have an Aeris BC with the AirLink. Good luck finding that hose anywhere. Even my LDS where I got it had to special order it and it took over a week to get.

SCUBA tool (not a knife, but one that allows you to change hoses on your reg)

Small tool like a dentist tool (I got a set of three cheapie ones at Home Depot for 8 bucks) for changing o-rings.

A power strip for rechargeable stuff if you have em and one good quality converter.


Extra weight holders for your weight integrated BC if you have one.

Fingernail clippers for cutting zip ties

Extra mouthpiece for your reg, and correctly sized zip ties for them.

I use a small tackle box for my save a dive kit. Of course when you are boat diving you can't bring a lot of junk with you. For those you may want to make a smaller kit of things like fin straps, and such.

Mark

 

[fmw625]

Don's idea of using 2 CD's glued back to back, works great for a signaling mirror. You even have a hole to view through. Try it it's great, it's cheap and it's durable.

 

[Northeastwrecks]

NEW's list is good, but some parts a little much for a newbie?

Depends on how prepared you want to be. If something fails on my rig, the chances are very good that I can tear it down and repair it while I'm still on the boat. Worst case, I can repair it when I get back to the hotel.

For example, last year, I had an LP hose o-ring (the one on the second stage end of the hose that is buried inside the hose) go just before a dive. I grabbed my took kit, took out a spare 7' hose, swapped everything over, and hit the water less than 10 minutes after the dive started. On the surface interval, I replaced the offending o-ring and put the repaired hose back into my spares.

IMHO, if I'm going to spend several thousand dollars travelling someplace to dive, I'm not going to miss a dive because of a simple gear failure. I'm also not going to trust that the local shops will have the parts I need when I need them.

Even if the diver can't make the repair themselves, having the parts available will make it possible to search for someone else who does have the knowledge, even if they don't have the parts.

 

[freeling]

I take my wife or girlfriend. They are good for caring gear. Just not on the some trip, that was all bad. Or if you have any kids they work too.

Just look at your gear and think to yourself if this item goes what can i do to fix it so i can still dive and take that.
Good luck and have a safe trip

I think you mean EX-wife.... and you better not still be diving with her......

 

[CaptSaaz]

2 CDs glued back to back for signaling in the sun

Now I know what to do with all those AOL disks I've gotten over the years. Free signaling mirrors for all my diving friends!

 

[sabine_john]

thanks for all the posts! we're definitely better for them!