Least Favorite Piece of Equipment

[Dish]

@Trace Malinowski , are you asking what is our least favorite gear that we dive with anyway or least favorite gee-gaw, farkle, junk that is offered for sale to the general diving public?

I have a love-hate relationship diving with a camera... so that's my personal choice. I would also prefer to dive neoprene-free, but my coat of fur is lacking. What to do?

For stuff that people buy for some unknown reason, I would mirror the disdain for noise makers (clickers, clackers, in-line foghorns, etc), computers with inappropriate alarm settings, retractors, masks with built-in Go-Pro mounts, and most of all... those damn Go-Pro sticks.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Either, Dish. Whatever you want to share.

 

[nibl]

Weights!
To bad they are needed.

 

[Wookie]

Weights!
To bad they are needed.

<shrug> I haven't worn weights in years.

 

[CT-Rich]

For a lot of diving fins, mask, tank with regulator are pretty much all you would need. In fairness, early gear was not always comfortable, the tanks held much smaller volume (imagine diving with a pair of twin 38s) and the weight is just hanging from some army surplus webbing, hard rubber mouth piece chafing at your gums...

I am certainly no fan of the modern Christmas tree diver, but modern gear, judiciously applied really makes diving a lot more pleasant. The gear I find most annoying are the safety gear I will likely never need, the flag, the sausage, spools, etc. I only bring a camera if I think I am going to record.

 

[george_austin]

Thanks for the participation everyone. I got to thinking about something simple like my first writing tool. It was a slate with a pencil. After diving, I'd clean it with Comet. My dive buddy, Mark, and I would use it a lot when we were kids.

The slate turned into Wetnotes I'd buy from West Marine. Using those waterproof pages was expensive so my teammates and I would rarely communicate. Most of my pages were used for students.

The Wetnotes turned into the deluxe notebook style that look like an organizer. It carried a Swiss Tech Products Micromax, spare necklace, spare bolt snap with loop line, IANTD air + 50% Nx deco tables, signal mirror, survey compass, spare truck key, pencils, and I once had laminated swimsuit pics of my ex-girlfriend who was a fitness model to pass around during deco or diver's playing cards. The bulk made it more difficult to get past the back-up mask and safety spools when wearing dry gloves.

I returned to the Wetnotes without the deluxe organizer. Maybe I just need a slate?

"laminated pics of my ex girlfriend . . . " OUTSTANDING IDEA! - I am on the verge of getting a slate again. My dive buddies have got a knack for spotting incredibly interesting critters that are much too small for my tired old eyes - so I would just pass them the slate and they could tell me what it is that I'm looking at.

 

[Joneill]

The gear I find most annoying are the safety gear I will likely never need, the flag, the sausage, spools, etc.

...Until you actually do need it...

 

[tursiops]

I laugh at the audible alarms on computers. I have one that I have never heard... I dive without my hearing aids, so it's a tits on bull situation.

LOL. The only way I know my computer is beeping is when I see everyone else looking around for the source. Luckily there is no acoustic directionality......

 

[Marie13]

Exactly once someone asked me to carry a dive flag through an entire dive. Yes, that was definely a much bigger negative than anything else I've experienced.

There's one newish quarry here with a section for divers. You're required to have a dive flag if you dive this quarry. Seems like such a PITA that I don't intend on diving this quarry.

 

[REVAN]

The flag would definitely be my biggest equipment annoyance if I had to tow one. Since I basically refuse to tow one of those things around, it's not an issue anymore. Towing a flag is so unappealing that I'd probably just not dive at all until I found a way around it. It seems to me, a scuba diver towing a surface flag around might as well dive a hookah system instead. At least then the diver is towing something more useful than just a flag.