Traveling with your own Dive Gear
You obtained your Padi Open Water or Advanced dive certification — how do you stop skill atrophy? For some people living near some coastlines, you have more opportunities to keep your skills current. However, every coastline is different. For example, there may not be a dive shop nearby or you might not have the ability to rent diving gear. I live in Suffolk County, New York. Yes, that is on Long Island, and yes there are places to dive. However, I like tropical water. I like the plentiful and colorful sea life. I like tropical water (oh, I said that twice). New York is not a tropical destination. So what is a guy to do?
Travel with your own Dive Gear!
At tropical resorts with dive centers, you can often rent your BCD, fins, mask, and snorkel. However, I like the assurance of knowing when the last time the equipment was inspected — because I got it inspected. Also, there is the muscle memory of knowing how to eject integrated weights and where your octopus also hangs. In an emergency, the less active thinking you have to do the better.
So, how do you traverse the world with all your dive stuff? May I suggest a Pelican? I have used your typical department store 28inch spinner bag — not anymore! I use a Pelican now. I recently went all the way to Seychelles with gear in a Pelican and I can’t recommend it enough. Knowing that your gear will survive baggage carousels and baggage handlers means you have one less thing to worry about. I particularly use the Pelican 1615 Air. Why that one? Max checked baggage size and not as heavy — why they put “Air” in the title. I did get the model with foam inserts but I do not use the inserts — towels and clothes work just as well. I have used it for several international trips as a general check bag.
Another aspect that makes the Pelican Air line of products perfect for traveling? They do not look like luggage. At the baggage carousel, they are really obvious. Pelican cases stand-out in general but if you get a bright yellow, orange, or burgundy Pelican you can see it from several carousels away. This came in handy recently. Apparently, an A380 arriving into JFK unloads into two carousels. When I was standing in the sea of humanity around one carousel I glanced between the masses to see my Pelicans go by on another carousel. I do mean plural because I brought the wife a Pelican 1615 Air TRVL.
I am obviously sold on the Pelican case line of products for traveling. I always knew Pelican as the “specialty case” company for your super special and super expensive equipment that professional videographers/photographers and whoever needed to use. Well, the Air series of cases is good enough for everyone. Are they good “spinners”? No, they don’t spin. Is it easy to explain what your bag looks like to the gate agent when your connection is canceled — Yes.
Finally, there is one more piece of diving gear I wear all the time — my dive computer. It is a Garmin Descent MK1. If your adventure traveling is more than just scuba diving it is also a great adventure computer. Running, skydiving, hiking, rowing, kayaking, so on and so forth is all trackable with this device and includes the built-in heart rate (but you can pair it with a chest monitor) and GPS features you would expect. I am a fan of any opportunity for mixed physical-digital experiences — merging the data points into a single collection device is enjoyable for me. There are probably better dive computers out there. There are those that integrate with your existing gauges. Additionally, Garmin is not viewed as sexy as smartwatches from other general consumer electronic manufacturers. It does get the job done as a smartwatch but I would call it a scuba diving focused adventure wrist computer (I am obviously not in a marketing department!).
There you have it, this travel story was about boxes and a watch.
