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Each year divers plan overseas dive trips with much excitement and enjoyment, only to come across anxieties and concerns regarding travelling with dive gear on airlines.
With this in mind I have decided to draw up a list of suggestions and ideas to help you with your planning and packing.
With airline baggage allowances getting tighter and tighter, the need for proper planning has become paramount.
My suggestions are based on my own experiences, there are of course many ways to skin a rabbit, I thought I’d just let you know how I go about my selection of gear, and how I travel with it.
The first place to start is to draw up a list of what gear I could take, then I go through the list and decide if it is really necessary and if there is an alternative.
The equipment I start with is mask, fins and snorkel.
As a drysuit diver here in New Zealand, I use huge fins that are open heel, meaning in the tropics I would need a boot to use them.
For overseas trips I chose a good quality pair of slip on fins, the type used by underwater hockey players. These are reasonably stiff yet considerably lighter than open heel fins and neoprene boots. I once tried cheap snorkeling fins but found them to be too unresponsive underwater and a real pain when swimming with a mild current.
Next is your mask and snorkel, this is easy, just take your favorite mask and snorkel. No reason to compromise fit and comfort here. One thing to consider is many divers do not use a snorkel at home, but may find many opportunities to use one on holiday.
Exposure suits will generally be thinner than domestic diving in NZ but one thing I feel strongly about is avoiding missing any dives due to being cold. I therefore suggest that you pack a high performance garment like a Fourth Element Thermocline or Sharkskin.
This will make a 3mm suit equivalent to 5mm and a 5mm suit more like a 7mm. The Polarfleece lining dries very quickly and the wind proof properties ensure added comfort when out of the water.
They are light, they pack easily and they keep the sun off your back when snorkeling
Regulators are often heavy, especially high performance models.
This is an area where you can save a lot of weight through the following tips. The first involves using one of the new breed of lightweight regulators such as the Aqualung Micron or Apeks Flight. These regs can save a couple of KG against your old reg, especially when you consider the following; take off your large twin gauge and replace with a compact SPG and wrist computer, then consider upgrading your hoses to the new lightweight Miflex style. Not only are they lighter, they are more durable, with a life expectancy of closer to 10 years than 5 with standard rubber hoses.
Your BCD gets a look at next.
Here again there are travel specific versions, or alternatively, what I have settled on is a lightweight wing system from OMS consisting of an aluminium plate, webbing harness and small single tank bladder. This gives me strength and durability all year round in NZ, with a small profile and light weight come holiday time.
Torches are often a standard piece of kit at home but I would usually consider just taking a small LED back up torch to the tropics.
If you plan to do a few night dives then you might consider taking a second light, but again I have found the large lights used domestically to be a luxury I can do without.
The other good thing about the LED’s is they are cool so can be used out of the water such as finding your way home after sampling the local nightlife or in case of powercuts.
Surface marker buoys and reels are another item that has to be considered.
They can be a life saver, yet often are bulky and heavy. I choose to take a small finger spool and a small marker buoy such as the 1m SMB by Halcyon. These take up no room and are very light. Anna and I relied on this combination in Papua New Guinea when we were caught in a massive current and aborted our dive. We were over a kilometer away from the live-aboard by the time we reached the surface, yet the tender had seen our marker buoy and followed us with the current. I would not like to imagine the consequences of us not having that marker and reel, my guess is we would still be out there!!
For the actual flight, I like to carry my regulators and computer, this started because of the high number of instances of lost or delayed luggage.
To use a loan bcd was in my opinion better than using a loan regulator or computer. The other benefit is these items are reasonably heavy so you can save some of your check in weight allowance. I use a specific regulator bag, which is light, yet padded to give added protection. It is worth mentioning here that you need to take care where you store your dive knife. I use a bcd knife, preferring the small size and weight, plus they are handy in there position either on your inflator hose or waist band.
Now care need to be taken so you remember not to carry your dive knife as hand luggage. Next time you are in the store, ask Anna about how she discovered she had done just this, through 3 different Airports!!
Some divers like to use a large wheeled bag.
My suggestion is to use either a lightweight dive bag, or a standard hold-all, with a light weight mesh bag inside. The mesh bags are not favoured through an airport as everyone can see your gear, however, once at the resort, they are great for transporting your equipment from room to boat. Then after the dives, your whole gear bag can be hosed down and then dried in situ.
Your mask can be protected in transit by either being stowed in the foot pocket of your fins, or a specific mask box/bag.
Photographers are probably the worst offenders for pushing the weight limits.
A couple of hints and tips here include carry as much of your camera gear as you can. Often Airport check in desks will allow you to carry 7kg hand luggage plus your camera.
If your strobes use Alkaline batteries, consider purchasing them in country or use rechargeable cells. It is worth noting that airline security now requires you to disassemble batteries from their strobes. I usually compromise my weight saving here a little by using a dry case for my camera, housing and lenses. It is a balance between protection and weight. In this case I go for protection first. The equipment is secure in a waterproof, shockproof case with foam padding.
This case is then also very usefull on the boat for storing any dry items you want to keep dry, such as your ipods, phones or even your favourite holiday novel. Another choice for your dry gear is a compact drybag. On one overseas trip we had an event where divers had to transfer from one boat to another, many of the passengers damaged cameras and ruined their paperbacks on the transfer.
Ever since, I now take a dry case or compact drybag on tropical dive holidays.
Dive Boats at Volivoli Resort / Photograph by Andrew Simpson
