Category: Gear & Service
Choosing, renting, buying and looking after scuba equipment for cold New England water, plus when regulators, cylinders and buoyancy devices actually need servicing.
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Entanglement, and What to Carry
Monofilament, pot line and kelp are the local hazard nobody trains for. What to do in the first ten seconds, and what to have on you.
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Your First Set of Gear
What to buy first, what to rent for a season, and what can wait a year. A purchase order rather than a shopping list.
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Buying Used Scuba Gear
Some of it is a bargain and some of it is life support. Which items are safe to buy second hand, what to check, and the cost people forget.
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Wetsuit Thickness and Fit
Thickness is the number everyone asks about. Fit is what decides whether you are cold. Choosing a suit for New England water.
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How to Choose a BCD
Jacket or back-inflate, how much lift, and why fit beats both. Choosing a buoyancy device for cold water and a thick suit.
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A Save-a-Dive Kit
Four small items account for most cancelled dives. What belongs in the box, ranked by how often it is the thing that fails.
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Aluminum or Steel Cylinders?
An aluminum 80 becomes positively buoyant before the end of the dive. A steel one never does. That single difference decides most of it.
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Being Seen: Dive Flags and Surface Markers
A flag, an SMB and a DSMB are three different things doing three different jobs. What each is for, and when you need one.
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Why You Need a Dive Light in Daylight
On this coast a light is daytime equipment. What lumens and beam angle actually change, and why you carry two.
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Underwater Photography for Beginners
Get closer, and fix your buoyancy first. Why most underwater photographs fail before the camera is involved, and what actually helps.