What is scuba diving's orange shovel?

[Darryl Bowerman]

How could anyone forget the SCUDA.......

Self Contained Underwater Drinking Appartus...Ah the memories....

 

[J.R.]

Fun thread...

For me the 'orange shovel' is anybody who needs to brag up *thier style*... as far as gear goes, wear what ya' need... if orange whistles make ya' feel a bit more comfortable against some possible catastrophy... cool... maybe your focus will be on diving rather than the possible catastrophy.

Big Dive Knives... I still have mine from back in the 70's... need to break it out. Heck... I could tout it as an "old timer's badge" ("Yea... it may be BIG... but its OLD... which means VINTAGE... which means I'M FRIGGN' COOLER THAN YOU!!!") Tee-hee

Tank Bangers... Why the heck do ya' think we wore those big muckin' knives??? Sheesh... it's a multi-function device. Ya' can hammer with it... it reduces the amount of lead ya' gotta' carry (another common peeve I saw on this thread), it makes a great pry bar... umm... ya' can open beer cans with it... ... AND IT LOOKS COOL... them little 'toothpicks' they're selling these days are just downright embarrasing...

... naw... the only thing that sez' "noobie" to me is if ya' bring yer' gear on the boat in the same box ya' just bought it in... after that... ya' ain't a noobie... yer' "gaining experience"...

... ok... the thing about the dive t-shirts from places ya' never been to ... that's a good one...

AND ONE MORE QUESTION... what's wrong with wearin' an OW patch... or AOW patch? Doesn't RULE #3 of diving say, "Look cool?" (Well... ok... if yer' hanging with the Calypso crowd maybe an OW patch ain't cool... but if yer' up here in the midwest where the largest body of water is often Billy-Bob's backyard pool... an OW patch is very cool...)

... gotta' get more coffee...

... rock on...

 

[fjsala]

I am a real Noob......
To summarise, I am the bright orange shovel noob which this thread is about.

HOWEVER, I am comfortable with what I have...I got all this because of comfort and a sense of security (which is what I thought diving was about)....yes, some stuff will end up in the closet and get no use eventually.....but for now, with the little experence that I have, I like the idea of all these shovels on me (as long as I am not dragging the crap on the reefs and destroying the envioronment- or risking getting tangled)


To me, an Orange Shovel was bought by those who thought there was some utility and convinience to carrying one, only later to realize that it was redundant and removed it from their gear. There will always be some people though who rather use the shovel as opposed to a stick. To each man his own. He may laugh at me one day as he uses his shovel to dig his hole and all I can find are twigs to use. This is why I wouldn't laugh at them and call them silly noobs or fad junkies.




AMEN, BUDDY, AMEN!

 

[Phenol]

Here's a true Orange Shovel: a large slate.

I should have done like my wiser buddy and initially gone for a small slate, but I thought: hey, you never know when you'll need to map a huge wreck, write an epic to your buddy, or sketch a fish at 1:1 scale for later ID, right? And of course, you'll need a big plastic spinnaker to do long division at 90' during your AOW Deep Dive, right?

But it was annoying to dive with, so it ended up staying in the gear bag 99% of the time.

 

[muddiver]

Here's a true Orange Shovel: a large slate.

I should have done like my wiser buddy and initially gone for a small slate, but I thought: hey, you never know when you'll need to map a huge wreck, write an epic to your buddy, or sketch a fish at 1:1 scale for later ID, right? And of course, you'll need a big plastic spinnaker to do long division at 90' during your AOW Deep Dive, right?

But it was annoying to dive with, so it ended up staying in the gear bag 99% of the time.

Tht's why old school divers, who feel they might need to write underwater, know that the best slate is the side you cut out of a bleach bottle and bungeed to your forearm. A #2 writes on it just fine.

 

[geraldp]

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As Money was no object really, I decided to get the best...

Go suck an egg...

 

[J.R.]

Tht's why old school divers, who feel they might need to write underwater, know that the best slate is the side you cut out of a bleach bottle and bungeed to your forearm. A #2 writes on it just fine.

Saw something like this at a dive museum down in the Keys... it was a comfortable length of PVC with two holes drilled in it... a piece of surgical tubing run through and knotted to provide the tension against the arm... one tail of the tubing was left longish and the pencil eraser end jambed in there... slate rotated on the arm. Very 'old school'... dang practicle. Think I'm gonna' put one in my kit...

 

[snepdiver]

From what I have noticed. The orange shovel I have seen is not a piece of equipment but a question. "What is this DIR stuff I keep hearing about?"

 

[LakeScubaDiver]

There are 'orange shovels' in nearly every hobby it seems.

Nope. Even when I rode 200 miles a week, I refused to shave my legs.

I've got the orange whistle (on d-ring on the back of my BC). AND, I like my mesh back pack for my gear.

My other hobby is flying radio controlled airplanes. Been doing that for nearly 20 years now - far more than half my life. The orange shovel in that hobby is the obvious newbie trainer-airplane, ultra clean tool tote with nothing more than a screw driver or two, and brand new fuel pump and scratchless glow plug battery.

Ride Hard, Dive Hard, Fly Harder.

Hmm...I have the same 3 hobbies...except it's heli's...and my fuel pump is an old $10 pump duct-taped to a 6V battery!

 

[Vtdiver2]

I love Scubaboard.....I've been called a MOF'er and now a "Multiple Orange Shovel" carrier. I may need to get a tattoo :10: :mooner:
C-Dawg