scuba_equipment_considerations

DO YOU LOOK AS GOOD UNDERWATER AS YOU LOOK ON PAPER OR PLASTIC?

NO HANDS & NO DANGLIES!

SCUBA EQUIPMENT CONSIDERATIONS
( GADGETS, TOYS & MISCELLANEOUS STUFF! )

"GREAT BUOYANCY CONTROL .... IS NOT ABOUT YOUR EQUIPMENT!"

( What kind of diver you are "is about equipment" only when you have stuff hanging everywhere! )

IF you elect to participate in our workshop we will share our opinions about equipment in more detail.

( What you should and should not bring and other specifics will be part of your pre-trip mentoring. )

WE DON'T SELL DIVE GEAR..........OUR ADVICE IS NOT RELATED TO OUR INVENTORY!

" Most new divers choose their first set of gear under the tutelage of a sales person at a local dive center."

MOST DIVERS WEAR TOO MUCH WEIGHT, TOO MUCH BCD & TOO MUCH COLLATERAL EQUIPMENT

BuoyancyQuest believes that people who own rather than rent equipment will become divers.

THE RECREATIONAL DIVE BUSINESS believes that same person to be a CUSTOMER!

We believe that the BP&W equipment configuration is best for both technical and recreational diving.
BUT you may use the BCD of your choice, in our workshop, provided that you can police all danglies!

For the purpose of this workshop the type of BCD is not important.
What is important is the silhouette of the diver who is wearing it.

"We mean "NO DANGLIES!"

We will share with you our preferences and coach you if you have an interest in adopting the hogarthian BP&W method of diving but, if not, you should be able to use your BCD as long as you find a way to address any and all appendages. By that we mean hanging consoles, octopus second stages and excessive loops of hose.

(We call them HALOS )

A neat & trim diver is a Happy Diver!

We do not need to show you examples of what we don't like.

There is no shortage of bad examples.

Open any dive magazine!

"Look at "ALMOST" any photo!"

You wouldn't bring a knife to a gunfight!
DON'T BRING SPLIT FINS TO OUR WORKSHOP!

NO SPLIT FINS, NO HINGED FINS, NO FORCE FINS OR OTHER TYPES OF FAD FOOTWEAR
( give yourself a fighting chance to learn to FROG KICK )

You can call them blades or you can call them boards but traditional or conventional fins are the best choice for learning and practicing frog kick and for precise maneuvering in close quarters. There are many to pick from in both full foot and open heel. Full foot should fit like loafers. Open heel strap fins need a pocket that can accommodate the boot with no more than two inches of heel protruding from the back. You cannot wear your fins on your toes and expect suitable results. There are short rubber jet fins, that are the favorite of many tech divers, or the long full foot fins that you see in our videos and many choices in between.
We are not selling tech diving here but let's be sensible. Tech divers do not use these Dive Industry Marketing Fins or Fad Fins because they do not measure up to the skill demands of penetration diving and our goal is to develop fundamental skills that most tech divers would pay handsomely to have.
We think we are flexible about most of the equipment choices that people make. We can work around most but not.... incorrect fins. If you are not sure you can ask us for clarification.

We are rigid on this point and will not waste effort quarreling!

We dive BP&W ( back plate & wings) that have been scaled down to size for use with single tanks. This is a very neat streamlined and efficient equipment configuration that is also popular with the DIR followers.

We began adapting Hogarthian Concepts into our own open water diving back in 1995. We have always been willing to share what we are doing but we try to stop short of imposing our will on others. IF you have an interest in converting your style at the same time that you are improving your skills, we will try to help with that as well.

We favor the use of a 5 foot (cavern hose) with single tank diving in open water. You can use a 7 foot cave hose but management is a bit more complicated. A 5 foot hose will afford the needed control to the donor in an OOA situation. We also prefer a tuned down or adjustable 2nd stage on a necklace. Once upon a time we combined the long hose with an alternate inflator type back up but actual events taught us that these "nifty tools" breath a bit wet in some positions.