Brain Coral

All my bags are packed… or are they?

Did you remember everything?
Did you remember everything?

One of the most exciting times is packing your gear for your next dive trip! It can also be one of the busiest. This can be especially true if you’ll be traveling overseas.

With some pre-trip planning you can avoid that sinking feeling when you’re on the dock and you realize you’ve forgotten…

When you’re diving locally it’s not too hard to use the ‘Take two of everything’ approach to packing your gear.  Traveling overseas changes the equation as carrying the extra weight is cumbersome and paying the airlines for the extra baggage can be expensive.

Here’s what I do to make sure I have everything I need:

The first step is to define the scope of the diving I expect to do. Am I doing recreational diving in the Caribbean or diving in a local reservoir with 58F temperatures below the thermocline?

Gearing up on the floor

When I first started diving I used to literally lay out every piece of gear on the floor in the shape of a diver as a memory aid. To prevent altering the decor in the living room I now use a simple technique that performs the same function.

Gearing up in my head

Now I go through the process of gearing up in my head. This is an inside out bottom to top process. As silly as it may sound I literally close my eyes and put every piece of gear on in my head. As I work through the list I make sure that the specific piece of gear is in my bag or ready to be packed.

  • Swimsuit
  • Wetsuit/Drysuit
  • Booties
  • Gloves
  • Headsweat/SCUBADooRag/Hood
  • …and so on!

ACTION!

Of course, you’ll need to customize the process for your particular diving conditions and equipment.

How do you make sure you remember all your equipment? Share what works for you in the comments!

The surface interval’s over… get out there and dive!

© 2014 Stephen Krausse. All rights reserved.

 

 

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