Flying with Dive Gear - Best Practices

[Doc Harry]

Always rent tanks and weights, sometimes dive lights if you don't plan on doing a lot of night diving. If you're not partial to your fins or wetsuit, you can rent those, too.

Always carry on irreplaceable or important items such as masks with prescription lenses, regulators, cameras, dive computers, and laptops.

TSA knows what dive gear looks like, and won't hassle you at all. That is, unless you're carrying a knife or tools (such as screw drivers) or something that looks like a club. I often carry on a canister light, and have never been questioned by TSA. In fact, I often over-hear them saying, "There's a dive light." Sometimes I carry on my back plate and have never been hassled.

Don't use roller bags with dive gear logos, you're asking to have your stuff stolen. Use generic roller suitcases. Get a suitcase that is lightweight.

My mesh gear bag for the dive boat gets packed in the suitcase.

Don't let your wife pack without supervision. She doesn't need 42 outfits and 14 pairs of shoes for a week-long vacation.

 

[vladimir]

I carry on my camera, lenses, and some ports. They are somewhat delicate and they all fit into a standard carry on. I check all my dive gear, including regulators--it is not at all delicate. I check my strobes and my $1,000 glass fisheye dome port too--they are not as robust as dive gear, but survive the flights nicely. In years of flying to lots of destinations I've had no problems: nothing broken, nothing stolen, rarely did a bag get delayed. Neoprene makes good padding, as do clothes. Pelican cases are heavy, and they are overkill; use standard suitcases with 4 wheels on the bottom. Lugging a ton of carry-on baggage can make a long day or two of travel even worse.

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

I travel every other week or so and pack all my gear in a couple of big Pelican cases - regulators, backplate, camera, masks, dive computers, reels, etc. I carry nothing on board and have never had an issue with theft or missing items. Plus the Pelicans truly take a licking and keep on ticking, I have three big 1650's and they have close to a million miles on them with nothing but some scuffs to show for it.

End of the trip when everything is dripping wet it just gets tossed in the cases and allowed to marinate all the way home. And the healthy aroma keeps the TSA'ers from looking too long!

 

[Booyakasha]

I have a large rolling suitcase that I bought from scuba.com. In it I can get 2 full sets of dive gear.... everything but regs as I don't want those thrown around underneath the plane. 2 small dive lights and 2 extra sets of fins, masks and snorkels for my wife and son who don't dive but love to snorkel. I use the 2 full wetsuits as padding to make sure masks etc are well protected, masks are of course in their case.

That usually puts me right up to the weght limit that the airlines have.

Flying Cayman air in a few weeks and they allow 55lbs per suitcase so trying to figure out what I can do with the extra weight allowance. :cool2:

B.

 

[HJeffreyM]

My wife and I both have large rolling duffles from LL Bean (Rolling Adventure Duffle, Extra-Large: Duffle Bags at L.L.Bean). I have a luggage scale to keep them under the 50lb weight limit. All dive gear (BCs, fins, wetsuits, dive bags, etc.) gets checked in these duffles.

However, I think it is important to carry on the items you would not be able to do without so regs, computers, O2 analyzer and camera go with us in the overhead.

I have been required to open the reg bag at security, but interestingly enough, not in the US. I was asked to open the reg bag last time I flew home from Cancun after diving in Cozumel and Playa del Carmen.

 

[dwhthediver]

+1 on the Dive Caddy, that is my backpack, and my camera bag is my personal item, dive gear is with me, and clothes under the plane, usually with lights in with my clothes

 

[oreocookie]

For my first (and so far only, but that will change) dive trip, reg, computer, prescription mask and my small flashlight-style dive light went in a small duffel as carry-on (along with a magazine, bathing suit and (i think) a small amount of clothes), everything else went in a rolling duffel from costco, which i thought looked unique enough, since it's orange, until i saw an identical one slide onto the baggage claim conveyor.

Of three airport security checkpoints we went through, I was only asked about the reg once, by the guy in Nassau who then asked where I'd gone diving.

 

[ccgutier]

Hello!
New into traveling with gear and I have these questions?
When you pack the regulators for traveling , do you take them apart, the first and second stages, or is it better to pack with them already assembled?
Can I take the regulators in a carry on?
I have regulator, octo, depth gauge and wrist computer.
Thank you in advance for your comments.

 

[Damselfish]

Hello!
New into traveling with gear and I have these questions?
When you pack the regulators for traveling , do you take them apart, the first and second stages, or is it better to pack with them already assembled?
Can I take the regulators in a carry on?
I have regulator, octo, depth gauge and wrist computer.
Thank you in advance for your comments.

There's really no reason to take them apart, more reasons not to.

Lots of people take their regs in a carryon without problem. The only time I don't is if I'm on some carrier with a tight carry-on limit. They may get inspected if the agent hasn't seen scuba gear but no biggie. There are very occasional reports of a misguided inspector having problems with regs in carryon but these are extremely rare. I would certainly recommend putting a wrist computer in carryon - why not, it's small and you may as well have it if your luggage gets delayed.

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

Like many topics here, there are hundreds of opinions and ideas, and no right or wrong to any of them. But unless you have a lot of personal experience with lost or missing luggage, there's no reason to be afraid to just let your stuff fly under the plane. I personally travel on 20 or more trips a year, including international travel, and all my gear is entrusted to the baggage handlers with no unfortunate incidents to report in quite a few years of traveling. Certainly makes walking around the terminals a lot more stress free traveling with very little to haul around in my hands or on my back.