It’s down to that time of year once again, the holiday decorations have been put back into the attic, and the new year has been rung in. Now all we have to look forward to is tax season and a few more months of bone chilling weather. Of course there’s nothing that can be done about taxes, but cold weather? Well, there’s always the time honored tradition of jumping a plane to somewhere with warm clear water and those little drinks with umbrellas in them. The only question is, how do you do it right? Do you want to try to stuff your heavy dive gear into that stinky old suitcase? Pack light and rent an ill fitting set of gear with a questionable service history? Well, the team at DRIS is hoping that with this little guide you won’t have to suffer those common travel nightmares! How can this magic happen you ask? Well, let’s take a quick gander at options!
First, we know that most BCD’s don’t travel the best as they’re bulky and if you’re like most divers, better suited for that cooler water diving you do most often. However, with a small(and I mean not much more than a week’s gear rental) investment you can have a top of the line BCD that’s small enough to travel with and provide you with the dependability of that trusty one you use for “at home diving”. For this theDive Rite Travel Pac fits the bill nicely. With a weight of just over 5lbs and 25lbs of lift it fit the bill for both warm water diving and those pesky airline baggage weight restrictions! If a weight integrated BCD is more your bag, give the Hollis LTS BCD a shot. With 30lbs of lift you can opt for steel cylinders at your destination and even pop a few pounds of weight in the integrated pockets!
Next, we all know that most luggage isn’t made for divers so to help in that department we feature the Caicos Cargo Pack by Stahlsac. This wheeled bag features just under 8100 cubic inches of storage in a package that weighs a mere 8.4lbs! For the carry on types out there we have the <7 lbs bag by Akona, a wheeled duffel that meets most airline carry on size requirements! Of course no trip is complete without some Lavacore exposure protection that offers the equivalent of a 2-3mm suit with neutral buoyancy(think, no smelly rental wetsuits!), and a new snazzy GoPro hero 4+ camera for those cool reef shots. Diving Nitrox on your trip? Be sure to add that element of safety with anAnalox O2 analyzer. After all, do you really know what’s in that rented cylinder?
We hope that you now are informed and ready for your warm trip! As for us here at DRIS, we’ll keep the snow machines and gear advice rolling on high gear for you…unless of course you want us to tag along!