Hi SD fans, and welcome back to the channel. First and foremost, let me say a massive thank
you to all of our loyal followers – you have just seen up pass the 10,000 subscriber
mark! Amazing to have your support – and thank you again for getting us to this first
milestone. Onwards to 20,000 now! To celebrate hitting 10,000 subs, we are going to donate
10 cents to charity for every new subscriber we get from now on, but which charity should
we donate to? Leave your suggestions in the comments below.
Right, on with this month’s video. Travelling with diving equipment is always a fraught
business, and the ever-decreasing airline baggage allowances aren’t helping matters.
As the world starts to open up again to foreign travel as COVID restrictions are relaxed,
I thought it was timely to discuss one question I get asked all the time – put your regulators
in your hold baggage, or take them on to the plane with you. Stay with me and I’ll explain
what I do with my regulators, and the reasons why.
Regulators are one of the most-vital parts of your scuba diving arsenal. As we’ve said
before, without one, you aren’t going diving! We need our regs to provide us with life-giving
gas while we are exploring the underwater realm. It is important they are regularly
serviced, and appropriately cared for pre- and post-dive, but what about when you are
travelling abroad? One question I hear all the time is whether regulators should go into
hold baggage, or be taken on to the plane with you. Well, as with anything, it is entirely
up to you what you do with your equipment, but I have travelled with my regulators the
same way for over 25 years and never, ever had an issue, so I thought it was worth sharing
how, and why. I have seen and heard many people advising
divers to always take their regulators as carry-on into the plane, but my regs have
always gone into my hold baggage. Why? Became my regular carry-on is chock-full of my camera,
housing, port, strobes, laptop and dive computer – I simply do not have room for my regulator.
As you will have seen from my ‘how to pack your carry-on’ video, I only have a small
roller case, which meets every airline size limit, however small it might be, and it just
about fits all of my camera and editing essentials. It might be pushing the limits of certain
airline weight allowances, but thanks to its small size, I have very rarely been pulled
aside and hit with an excess charge, or asked to remove items.
This means that my regulator, and the rest of my dive kit, has to travel in my hold baggage
with my clothes and so on. I have no problem with this. As you will have seen in my ‘how
to pack your hold baggage’ video, I sandwich my regulator in the middle of my wetsuit,
which itself is between my fins and my wing, which means it is well protected from knocks
and bangs that my bag might be subjected to as it goes through the rigours of international
travel. Does it work? Well, in over 25 years of dive travel, I have never, ever had an
issue with my regulators being damaged, not working correctly, going missing, whatever.
I think it is important to remember that while these are an essential part of our diving
equipment, they are robustly constructed and do not need cossetting like a newborn baby.
Cameras, lenses, ports and laptops on the other hand, and housings and strobes too,
to be honest, now that is a different matter. I do not like letting these out of my sight.
However well packed your bag is, these things are prone to damage from knocks and bangs,
so I like to have them close to me at all times. I even get antsy when someone comes
on board after I have stowed my bag in the overhead bin and taken my seat and starts
trying to ram some massive roller into the bin next to mine!
So purely from a space point of view, it is just not possible to cram a regulator into
a carry-on bag along with a camera, housing, laptop and so on, unless you are travelling
with an airline that allows a whopping big carry-on bag, or lets you take two bags on
with you, in which case you could have your carry-on and a regulator bag. If you are relying
on either of these scenarios, you are seriously restricting where you are going to be travelling
to, and who with. I would say that 99 percent of the time, flights I take let you have just
a single carry-on, and it is strictly limited to 10kg, or more often than not, just 7kg.
It is hard enough getting all my usual camera and editing paraphernalia into the carry-on
and meet that limit, never mind throwing a regulator into the mix.
I have had hold bags be delayed for a day or two on the odd occasion. In these instances,
I was able to borrow a full set of dive kit from my location’s rental stock and still
get in the water to explore the local dive sites. I had my dive computer, camera/housing/strobes
and laptop in my carry-on, so was able to start capturing the images I needed for the
articles. It is much harder running around trying to borrow an underwater camera than
it is a set of dive kit. Now you might not have an underwater camera,
and if that is the case, then you probably can get your reg into your carry-on along
with your dive computer, but more and more people now have either digital still cameras
or action cameras, which means they will run into the space issue I described before.
There is also the cost factor to consider too. Most regulator sets will be anywhere
from £250 to £750, with the odd exception of pricey titanium units than can be a lot
more. Underwater cameras set-ups, on the other hand, can start from as little as £500 for
a housing, camera and strobe and sky-rocket from there. My underwater rig is a fairly
modest mirrorless system, comprising a Sony camera, Aquatica housing and Inon strobes,
but it was still close to £3,500 when I bought it all new. Then add the cost of my Apple
MacBook Pro into the mix. So from this point, I want my most-valuable possessions with me
at all times so I can keep them safe – there is no way any of this would ever go into hold
baggage. Not a chance. So the next time you are packing for your
foreign diving adventure, rest easy in the knowledge that regulators are more than happy
to travel in your hold baggage – just make sure it is well cushioned with your other
dive kit and your clothing. An underwater camera and housing and a laptop? Well, I reckon
that would be a lottery on it all making it to the other end in one piece if it vanished
into the hold. What do you do with your regulator? Does it
travel on the plane with you, or in the hold? If you have any questions, fire away and leave
it in the comments – if we can’t answer, someone in our growing community might be
able to. If you liked this video, hit that subscribe button, and remember to check out
our playlist of more informative and educational videos.
As always, if you are going diving, stay safe.