Hi to all!
Being a "gadget nut," I must constantly restrain myself from stuffing things in my BC pockets and hanging stuff on the outside. When my buddy and I go to the BWCA, we take 50 pounds of things that "weigh next to nothing."
Diving from boats at Cozumel and Little Cayman, I have limited my stuff to: A plastic whistle and an inflatable orange tube signaling device and a small light. What are some of the "extras" that you other divers like to take along underwater?
EM
I have 1 pocket on my bc that rolls out to be a mesh bag. I leve it empty unless I find somthing to pickup durring the dive.
I can understand the tempation to carry all the goodies along on your dives. You paid for the stuff so you might as well get some use out of it, right? I discourage the practice. You should only take the specific items you need to accomplish your dive plan. You really don't need much for recreational dives.
What do I pack in my BC? Well, nothing. I use a backplate and wing which means that I don't have pockets. I do have pockets on my drysuit.
I don't use any pockets on tropical ocean dives.
For local dives I might pack the following in my drysuit pockets: extra dive light, slate, shears, maybe a spare mask. For tropic ocean dives I clip a surface marker on my backplate harness and sometimes carry a goodie bag. That's it.
Like Jason I use a backplate/wing so no pockets there but I have two thigh pockets on my drysuit. I have bungee loops going through the grommets on the sides of the pockets. I clip off anything I put in the pockets to the bungee loops with double ender bolt snaps. Usually I just carry a spool, a little rolled up mesh bag and an underwater notebook.
I put a marker tube w/ a spool. And sometimes I carry a goodie bag.
I keep a little piece of sponge in my BC pocket to clean the pencil scribble on my dive slate. While diving a couple of years ago off the Big Island in HI, I was trying to wipe the writing off my slate with my wet suit without much luck. The divemaster I was with simply pinched off the top of a sponge (it regenerates) and with a quick few swipes, my slate was clean. When wet, the piece of sponge is about the size of the top 1/2 of my thumb. It weighs literally nothing and wedges nicely into the corner of my BC pocket for the next time I need it.
When not instructing I always carry a small light, a slate and of course,,,,,the goodie bag!
DIR does not allow for "pockets", they just cause drag. Kidding of course, I do dive Halcyon and Dive Rite backplates. If I find something that I want to keep, which are normally masks and yes, fins that other divers have lost or dropped, I usually just slip over my wrist and keep moving.
Want to find some dive gear? Take a deep dive in Diamond Cove in the quarries north of Crosby/Ironton. I have found more "stuff" that has been dropped and never found. But these items are deep.
David, how deep? I have yet to dive these quarries you are talking about.