Safety equipment. .

[Karel26]

Hey there fellow diverd. .

I would just like to know wich safety equipment i can
get extra to make my, my dive buddy and fellow divers :thinking:
diving a safe and good one. . As my ultimate goal is to
be a safe diver and a role model for divers. . I already
have a knife,torch and smb. .
Thanks for the in put. . :thinking:
Happy and safe divings. .

 

[zaberman1]

How about underwater communication like divealert, quaker, or tank banger? Its cheap and effective.

If you don't have a computer, I would say get one immediately.

02 Kit down the road?

 

[Karel26]

I use the back of my knife to it on my cylinder to draw attention. . I just use a dive watch now but is looking into get a computer but not sure wich brand, because i still want to do my nitrox aswell. .

 

[walke121]

I would stick with the basics: a knife, smb/liftbag, reel, whistle or some other type of noise maker, and I personally like to dive with a pony (not a spare air a true pony). I have seen divers get in the water looking like they just left the worlds biggest flea market and I have wondered how they even dive much less keep stuff from getting in their way. The key is just take the important stuff and leave all that fancy crap behind.

 

[muddysquirrel]

This may not be the answer you're looking for.... but your most important piece of safety equipment is your brain. Use the money that you'd spend on more equipment and take classes and go diving (with the most experienced folks you can find). When you find that you need a certain piece of equipment to accomplish a certain task, go ahead and get that equipment. I guarantee you'll end up buying/carrying a whole lot less while being more effective if you concentrate on the experience and training.

The second part how you use the equipment you've already got. Spend some time dialing in your weighting as tightly as you can. Take your SMB and practice with it; with practice you can use it for far more than just marking your position on the surface. Practice using your knife underwater to cut fishing line or other things which may entangle you; you might decide that shears do the job better. In my view, you should be able to immediately access and deploy everything on your rig with your eyes closed. To actually do this requires a lot of practice.

Third, figure out what problems you're trying to solve. On some of my dives, a vulcanized rubber dry-suit, full face mask, and pony on a switch block are standard safety gear. It's appropriate and works well for bio-hazard protection as a PSD, but you won't see me wearing it on a vacation reef. Are you worried about entanglements, running out of air, loss of buoyancy, getting run over by a boat, getting bent, getting lost......? Identify the problem, then figure out the best solution.

Finally, use gear to solve gear problems and training to solve training problems. There are some really nifty SCUBA gadgets out there to solve all sorts of problems... most of which you can avoid with experience. The down-side is that getting that experience requires a lot of time and effort. You have to decide what you're willing to spend to become a "safe diver and a role model for divers".

 

[elan]

I found that the best piece of safety equipment I have ever bought was a good dive light.

All those underwater dive alerts, tank bangers etc. is just junk when you dive in low vis, cold water But's it's here, not sure about SF.

Do not rush into getting a computer, you can be perfectly fine with a depth gauge and the watch, depending on what kind of diving you do. Computer is good when you do 3-4 dives a day on vacation. IF you do 1-2 dives a day your watch will be perfectly fine. I would spend those money to get something more important like a dry-suit, redundant air system (pony or double tanks), good canister dive light or invest into a good training.

 

[ba_hiker]

What to take for safety gear kinda depends on the dive.

I dive shore dives along the ca coast and boats in monterey with some (small amount of) gear, boats in catalina with more, and on a trip to palalu (several years ago) a whole lot... Monterey dives are in an area with much activity, active coast guard, and dive within a mile or so (mostly) of shore. catalina (and to a greater extent the channel islands) are more exposed -- a little drift and you could have a long swim back. palalu had swift current and the wide open pacific.

minimum is 6 ft smb & spool, whistle, dive light, scissors, knife, line cutter, mirror. Often a 19cu ft pony.

catalina -- add second (louder) whistle, dive alert, strobe, dye marker, second smb & spool, 3 ft loop of 3/16 line

palalu -- add floppy hat, 2 pints water, chap stick, second strobe/flash light, day & nite flare, surface streamer - some other stuff i don't remember.

some of the gear in the palalu pack was mounted in a belt pocket thing mounted to one of the tank bands, and so was out of the way behind me. I would have needed to take off the bc to reach it. Some sort of electronic beacon device would be useful here - but a simple vhf would not be enough.

 

[Diver0001]

Hey there fellow diverd. .

I would just like to know wich safety equipment i can
get extra to make my, my dive buddy and fellow divers :thinking:
diving a safe and good one. . As my ultimate goal is to
be a safe diver and a role model for divers. . I already
have a knife,torch and smb. .
Thanks for the in put. . :thinking:
Happy and safe divings. .

A whistle and a signal mirror take up almost no space and can be very handy.

R..

 

[Doc Harry]

Hey there fellow diverd. .

I would just like to know wich safety equipment i can
get extra to make my, my dive buddy and fellow divers :thinking:
diving a safe and good one. . As my ultimate goal is to
be a safe diver and a role model for divers. . I already
have a knife,torch and smb. .
Thanks for the in put. . :thinking:
Happy and safe divings. .

A very common question. If you try a SEARCH you will find several hundred threads on this subject. It has been discussed in exhausting detail.

 

[oren413]

reel, whistle of some sort, compass, computer of some sort, knife, the biggest part of being a safe diver the is using your head. be prepared and take care of problems b4 they arise.