Hi SD fans, and welcome back. Our video about cleaning and preparing a brand-new mask,
and then preventing it fogging when diving, was very popular, so this video is the first in a
series where we share some handy pro hints and scuba hacks that will make your diving
journey that much easier and simpler. For those here for the first time,
my name is Mark, I am the editor-in-chief of the Scuba Diver media brand,
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After so long in the diving arena, I have picked up some useful tips and advice, and
we thought we’d share some of these scuba hints and hacks, to make your diving easier and simpler.
Let’s start with wetsuits, or more specifically, getting into a wetsuit. Now getting into a
wetsuit can be a serious chore, especially if it is bone dry and you are somewhere very hot,
and you are a little sweaty. The neoprene will stick to your skin better than superglue. Some
suits are better than others, and the latest breed of wetsuits made from super-stretch neoprene, or
those made from neoprene alternatives like Yulex, are definitely a massive improvement from the days
gone by of sharkskin neoprene and other old-school materials. However, as soon as you start going up
in thickness, the struggle to get into a suit becomes greater, whatever it is made from.
You probably know the trick of wetting your wetsuit – either plunge it into the rinse tank
or slosh it over the side of the boat in the sea before donning.
This will make a huge difference in making the neoprene more supple and easier to pull one.
With 5mm and thicker suits, I have seen people slaver a bit of marine-friendly
baby shampoo on to their limbs, and this will help the suit slide on easily – the downside,
you will probably leave a trail of soapy bubbles behind you during the dive.
The most-effective tool for helping with getting into a wetsuit is the humble carrier bag.
Put your hand or foot into it, and you will find the appendage will glide through the suit
with ease. A sturdy carrier bag can quite easily last for a multitude of dive trips, so just keep
one in your dive bag. If you want to completely eliminate plastic from the equation, I have also
found that a spandex base layer sock – such as those you can pick up cheaply as special-buys in
your local supermarket when it is ski season – works almost as well as the bag trick.
Next up, let’s talk about kit, or more specifically, how to identify kit as your
own. These days, more and more manufacturers are offering ways to personalize your dive kit,
be that colour-coded additions to your BCD or mask, or even full-colour covers over the bladder,
but by and large, the majority of dive gear is black, or predominantly black. When a whole host
of BCDs and wetsuits are hung up on a rack, it can be hard to work out which ones are yours.
There are several companies which make marking fluid that can be applied to all pieces of
dive kit. It dries in a 3D finish, is waterproof and flexible, and comes in vivid bright colours.
Just put your initials in prime places – the cuff of a wetsuit, the pocket of a BCD,
for example – and then locating your gear in a sea of equipment is a lot easier.
If you don’t want to go quite so in-your-face, I have seen people simply add a small piece of
vibrantly coloured waterproof tape to their gear. A small piece on the zipper or zipper tag of the
wetsuit, a loop around one or two of the D rings on the BCD, and around the heel strap of the fins.
Even if you think, I don’t want to sully my dive kit with coloured tape or writing,
I don’t mind having to look for my gear, consider at least marking your integrated weight
pockets (if you have any). Example – diving on a liveaboard in Egypt, you return from an awesome
dive to the RIB tender, and during boarding, all of the divers’ integrated weight pockets
end up in a pile on the deck of the boat. Once you return to the liveaboard, you get back on board
and then the crew lift up all of the equipment. Now generally you take your mask with you,
and it is easy to point out your fins and BCD/regulator set, but when there is a pile
of integrated weight pockets on the dive deck, it can be a chore to locate your two pockets.
Especially if many onboard have the same brand. I generally have my Dive Rite wing, and the pockets
stand out from the norm, so are easy to pick out. However, when I use my Aqua Lung Rogue, it
can be a different matter. I have been on a boat where two-thirds were using Aqua Lung products,
and there was literally a pile of 24 SureLock II weight pockets on the dive deck after every dive.
I was lucky in that the white marker number system used by Roots Red Sea was still clearly visible
on my weight pocket handles and I could grab mine with ease, but it became comical watching
the rest swapping pockets back and forth as they tried to work out whose were whose.
Drying your kit at the end of a dive trip can be a royal pain sometimes.
If you are on a liveaboard, you can spread it out on the sun deck and it is generally baked dry
by the time you pack for home. At some centres, you are able to leave it hanging on their racks
until it is dry, and then collect it for final packing on your last day.
However, many times you have to take it back to your room and get it dry yourself. It is amazing
how quickly the railings, and the chairs and table, on your balcony disappear under dive gear,
and I often end up leaning stuff up against walls. Now I take a couple of useful tools with
me. First are some cheap-and-cheerful S-hooks, which you can often find in camping stores.
These can hold BCDs, fins, etc, and can be slotted over the top of doors, railings, and so on.
Secondly are a couple of camping drying lines. These stretchy cords can be suspended across the
bathtub in your room to hold swimsuits and towels, but are also strong enough to hold wetsuits too.
And a last one for today – helping to prevent your dive knife from rusting. Now, if you have
a titanium knife, a quick rinse with fresh water at the end of your dive trip and you’ll be golden,
as titanium does not react to salt water. A stainless steel dive knife is a different
matter. Stainless is more rust-resistant, especially if you get marine grade 316,
but after prolonged exposure to salt water, even that will start getting spots of rust appearing,
generally where the blade goes into the hilt, and then in patches along the blade. Rinsing well with
fresh water at the end of your dive trip and then drying it thorough will certainly help, but to
keep your knife, or other cutting tool, in tip-top condition, there are a couple of things you can
do. I liberally cost the blades of my knives with a spray of GT85 and then let it dry. This really
helps keep the water off the metal. Similarly, you can coat your blade in a thin layer of grease,
but that can get a little messy. Another alternative is a smearing of candle wax.
What are some of your useful hints and advice? Leave your comments below, and if you have a
question, fire away – if we can’t answer, maybe someone in our community will be able
to. Remember, if you enjoyed this video, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel,
as over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be sharing more of these hints.
Don’t forget you can grab a free digital magazine subscription in the description below.
As always, stay safe – and if you are one of the
lucky people who lives somewhere you are able to get out and dive, enjoy!