Hi SD fans, and welcome back. In this video, we are continuing our holiday focus,
this time looking at packing your hand luggage for your diving holiday.
Many divers have cameras and housings these days, as well as one or two dive computers, plus all
the peripheral accessories, and we’ll be giving you hints and advice on the best ways to pack
honed from over 25 years of travelling around the world to diving destinations, as well as a sneaky
tip that will help avoid any overweight issues. For those here for the first time, my name is
Mark, I am the editor-in-chief of the Scuba Diver media brand, and welcome to the Scuba Diver
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subscription deal for our YouTube followers. Now, let’s dive into the video!
As I said in our video about travelling with your dive equipment, packing all of your precious kit,
ensuring it is as safe and secure as possible, while trying to avoid being crucified by the
increasingly restrictive luggage allowances and over-weight bag fees, is one of the most-stressful
aspects of a dive trip. However, packing your hand luggage is, if anything, even more of a nightmare.
When I first headed off on diving holidays, packing my hand luggage was a doddle. I just
grabbed a rucksack and chucked in a book, my Sony Walkman and headphones (you can tell how long we
are going back here…), my passport, tickets, dive certs and my dive computer. There was probably a
fleece in there too. And that was it. If it tipped the scales at 4kg, I’d be surprised.
How things change. Now it is like a military operation packing my hand luggage. I have
to get my MacBook Pro, charging cable, camera, housing, port, strobes, battery chargers, arms,
dive computers, etc, as well as passport, dive certs and tickets, into a small bag,
which is then often limited to 7kg, or sometimes even less. It is a constant headache, but through
a lot of trial and error over the years, I now have two bags which allow me to generally avoid
any weight issues and still pack everything I need to get my assignment completed – if for
any reason my main hold baggage, which has all of my dive kit in it, goes missing, or is delayed,
I can always use rental equipment and still get in the water taking pictures.
My go-to bag is this little roller bag. With everything I need in here for a standard
assignment, it weighs in around 9.5kg. However, thanks to its dinky dimensions,
I think I have only once in about 400 flights been asked to put it on the scales.
It just doesn’t look like it would hold more than 6-7kg. When asked if I have hand luggage,
I hold this up, and then they just hand over a cabin tag to put on the grab handle. Sorted.
I prefer to use a roller bag over a rucksack, as if you are wandering around the terminal,
or have lengthy stopovers enroute to and from your destination, it is far more comfortable
and easier towing one of these around. Now, let’s go through the packing.
Many of these bags have loads of pockets, etc, but I find this only increases the bulk – and with it,
the chances of having the bag weighed. This one is very basic. It has a small zippered
pocket on the top, which is where I put my dive certs and my passport
and tickets, and then a large zippered pocket below, which holds my headphones, wallet,
phone, etc. It then just has one main zippered compartment, and into this goes everything else.
I put the fibreoptic strobe cables and charging cables coiled into
this top pocket. The zipper long since died, but the pocket still does what I need it to.
I then put my housing in first,
followed by the two strobes.
Around these I then put the dome port and camera itself,
which I wrap in bubblewrap for a bit of added protection.
In the spaces, I put my primary dive computer in its case, the battery charger, my phone charger,
my MacBook Pro charger. I also put my sunglasses in their case in here as well. This will fill the
space quite nicely, so there is no real movement of any individual pieces, and they are protected
by the stiff bottom and sides of the bag. Finally, I put my MacBook Pro,
in a padded case, in on top of everything. Once
I close the top flap and zip it shut, the laptop holds everything
in place when I stand the bag upright. With everything in the bag in this order, when
I am going through security, it is a quick and easy task to upzip the top of the bag,
slide my laptop out, and leave the padded case in-situ holding everything in place.
Generally, I get pulled at security because of all of the electronics,
etc, in the bag – most underwater photographers will be familiar with this. But having it packed
like this means that when they request the bag opened, I can just flip over the
main compartment, and when they remove the laptop case, everything inside is clear to see.
If I know I am going to be travelling on an airline which is extremely tight
on hand luggage weight, I will defer to a lightweight rucksack, which will save me
a few kilos over the roller bag. In this instance, a Scubapro one. My rule of thumb about not having
bags with logos on, etc, doesn’t really apply to hand luggage, as I will always have it with me.
I like this Scubapro bag because it has a main compartment that will take my housing, strobes,
camera, dive computer, etc, and then the chargers, cables, will go in the secondary compartment. The
laptop neatly goes into its own section on the back. One, this is very secure when you are
wearing it, as it sits against your back, and two, when you need to get your laptop out at security,
it is right there. My passport goes into this little front pocket.
It is not as easy to pack all of my paraphernalia in this bag, I have to be honest. A wide open
compartment as on the roller bag is far easier to safely and securely pack your precious gear,
but if I employ a few of my T-shirts from out of my main bag as extra padding,
wrapping the strobes, port and camera in one each, I have never had any issues.
If I was using a rucksack more often, I would probably try and find a lightweight
version of those photo pro ones, where the entire front opens up – very similar to my
roller bag – and then you have compartments padded with foam for each piece of equipment.
However, as I mainly use the roller bag, I can make do with this Scubapro one for the time being.
One thing I do like about it is this strap, which slides over the retractable handle on my Stahlsac
roller bag and makes it nice and easy to roll about in the airport as one piece of luggage.
I can usually pack the rucksack and keep it under 7kg, but if you are on one of those flights where
hand luggage is prohibitively tight – we are talking 5kg – then you need to bring in a trick
I picked up from travelling with some seasoned underwater photographers.
You need a photographer’s gilet, which is festooned with cavernous pockets.
If you are in a situation where you know your hand luggage is going to be weighed,
and that it is going to tip the scales at several kilos over the limit, then stash strobes,
chargers, camera bodies, etc, in these pockets when you check in. Your hand luggage will then
come in under the required limit, and once you are away from the check-in desk, you can safely pack
all of your gear back into your hand luggage ready to go through security. Sneaky, but it
works. I even saw one jacket that they had sewn a pocket into the back that could take a laptop!
What are some of your hints and advice for packing your hand luggage? Any neat tricks to pass on to
your fellow divers? 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, and 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!