Beaver bag, simple mesh to drain and dry all your diving crud.

I own a Suunto Equilite 1000 BCD, it’s my latest new diving toy.

It fitted excellently, had shed loads of lift, more than enough d-rings to clip your crap to, and the auto-inflator was tuned well for buoyancy control (for me at least).

What pissed me off was that on this jacket’s second dive, at the end of my descent, (well on the way down) the whole deflator button and all the associated plumbing ejected itself from the power inflator when I attempted to put a little air in.

On a good note the dive shop where I purchased the BCD have been very helpful in happily arranging for me to come and get a replacement and handle the return to Suunto. well done Above and Below :-)

Well time has passed and the jacket (complete with totally new inflator unit) has worked flawlessly since, so I have to chalk up the initial failure to bad luck and possibly damage in transit.

I have a non descript, un-branded 3mm neoprene booties with side zip and waffle type rubberised soles and heels. Oddly I had to buy these two shoe sizes smaller than normal (for shoes) to get a pair that felt correct. I wonder if thats a product of the brand or booties in general. I Guess I’ll find out when these ones break and I replace them.

Uwatec Aladin Pro, Audio alarms, full deco information and a download option. Uwatec would have you buy their memo-mouse at great expense but you can build you own interface very simply (if you can solder) for a couple of quid. Have a look in my on-line dive log for examples of the dive profiles downloaded from my Aladin

A Three gauge console from Apeks, SPG, Depth and Compass. With contents, depth gauges and an oil filled lateral view compass with luminous face and directional bezel. Housed in strong rubber casing. Swivel HP hose.

Scubapro 3mm neoprene full body back zipped. Picture the left hand suit with someone short and much wider in it and that’s my wetsuit.

Apparently this is SCUBAPRO’s premiere wetsuit line which incorporates technical water entry restriction features that combine to provide superior warmth and flexibility under almost any conditions. It also has a layer of Titanium Metalite insulation to reflect body heat back to the diver. A double skin seal flap behind the back zipper minimizes water intrusion.

My 3mm full body S-TEK has a quoted TPF of 26, so using the (horribly imperial) formula of coldest temperature = 98 - "total TPF" This suit is supposedly hunky dory at temperatures down to 70F. In sensible units that’s 21C. Now I’ve used this suit in 22.7C (Sharm, Red Sea December) and that’s a little optimistic on it’s own. Add a hood and gloves and you will be just fine.

Volo fins, these are either the absolute "Mutts nuts" or total pants depending on your approach to these things. I (shock horror) fall into the mutts nuts camp. These fins (so say Mares) provide 30% more thrust than blades of the same size without the strange hinge bits. They are a huge improvement over my old full foot (and much shorter) Seemann Sub fins. But then they did cost about 5 times more!

I have a set of Oceanic 3mm neoprene and Kevlar gloves (a free gift for subscribing to Diver magazine).

I have a Beaver 3mm hood which is just fine for the Red Sea during the winter.

Beaver discovery, SS, plain, serrated edges, line cutter and a screwdriver tip. I have managed to loose one of these during a dive, despite it being impossible to remove when on the surface without prodding the release button on the holder. No matter how much silicone grease I put on it, it always gets rust spots after dives, but its small, sharp and cheap.

An Underwater Kinetics C4 light. Pistol grip, not too big, but not too small, just right to put some colour back into your fish!

Procean PRO Series 1 in fluorescent green. Very old hat now, the web site www.procean.nl only contains mask references for the PRO X series!. Still it fits, and will do me well until it perishes

I own a very lovely Mares MR22 with Abyss 2nd stage (The year 2000 model, 300 bar titanium DIN). This regulator scored remarkably well in DIVER magazine’s comparative regulator tests. It’s a balanced diaphragm first stage with DFC, and all metal second stage with VAD and a super flow 1/2" hose.

My octopus is a Mares Nikos, a techno-polymer second stage with clever venturi self-tuning thingy (apparently!)

AQA - or that’s what the logo looks like!. A cheap valve free fluorescent green thing with a nice soft silicone mouthpiece. It works and has no clever bits to break, what more could you want from a snorkel?

Well I now have a tank, 15L of 200 bar steel, that’s a few months out of hydro, with an old J type valve, frankly I am unsure if I should bother getting it up to scratch. A new tank with DIN that at 12L and 232 or 300 bar can be purchased for about £100, and I think a new valve and hydro is going to cost about £60.

Having used both aluminium and steel tanks I personally prefer the steel tanks, you need less weight on your belt, and they don’t go positively buoyant when you’re low on air.

6Kg of lead with a steel 12L, 8Kg with an 11Kg Aluminium 10L. I have a bunch of lead at home, but since I have yet to brave UK water that’s where its staying for now...