Readers’ Diving Tips

Thanks to all the subscribers who answered our call in last month’s issue to share their tips for better diving. Here are a select few:

George Boscoe (Orinda, CA) offers an inexpensive fix for Oceanic BCDs – your local shoe repair store. “The weight pockets prolapsed out of mine while diving and if it weren’t for the velcro and latch, I would have made an uncontrolled ascent from 60 feet.” When he called Oceanic, customer service said the battens probably broke but since it was out of warranty, the repair would be $99. “Phooey,” says Boscoe. “The plastic is no good for battens so I bought a piece of stainless steel plate the same size and took it down to a shoe repair shop where they fixed it.”

Another repair tip from Gino Dubay (Pigeon Forge, TN): “Everyone should bring a simple ‘save-a-dive’ kit to spare the consequences of seeing a part fail and aborting a dive. It can be as simple as keeping the replaced parts from a yearly maintenance service. Parts failure has happened more than once on dive boats I’ve been on but luckily I’ve been able to help out with nothing more than a spare ‘O’ ring.”

We plan to publish a few reader tips every month, so keep them coming to EditorBen@undercurrent.org. If we publish yours, we’ll extend your subscription.