When a new mask comes along, you just know. You know it’s the one. But only after it’s passed a scuba-style Rosie Project of specifications of course! A girl has standards 
Check out my new video on choosing the perfect mask. From finding the perfect fit to determining quality, I hope it helps you out this Summer! Click here!
To truly make your dive buddy smile this Christmas, take inspiration from these top ten ideas. I believe that the perfect gift should either inspire or be useful but can also be a reflection of you and your buddy’s journeys!
1. Mini Dive Helmet - This old-fashioned deep sea diving helmet has a pencil sharpener incorporated into the base. Buy Now!
2. Scratcher Map – Available in either Australia or Global. This map is like a giant scratchie, and using a coin you rub out every area you have ever visited, revealing the colour beneath. Perfect for well travelled divers and adventurers alike. Buy Now!
3. Pendant – Everyone has a favourite sea creature, and while this may not be for totemistic reasons, some divers may simply feel a connection with a particular playful animal, actively seek it out for their ‘to see’ list, or just feel that sense of joy when they see one in the wild. I have a seal totem, and my friend bought it for me at a second hand shop. It gets me through the cool winter months. Other animals include the manta ray Buy Now! and the sand dollar Buy Now!
4. Wind Gauge/Anemometer – The first thing I do every morning is put the kettle on and check the weather conditions. I do this by standing on the verandah barefoot in my oversized t-shirt, feeling the breeze/or lack of breeze on my skin and looking up at a crude ribbon tied to a stick on my next door neighbours garage roof. This particular one however, is a lot more upmarket. Buy Now!
5. Manatee (dugong) Tea Infuser – He just looks so happy bobbing around in your cuppa! Buy now!
6. Personalised Shadow Box – This gift is easy to make and will have special meaning to any dive buddy. Click here for a step by step guide.
7. Dive Essentials Kit – Even though dive essentials kits are available commercially, it can still be more appropriate to make one. This way you can include personalised objects like your buddies favourite lollies, and humourous objects like an anti-wetsuit peeing device (a cork). Click here to get ideas for yours.
8. Journal – Imagine this journal, salt-sprayed and peeling, riddled with dive logs, GPS marks and wreck discoveries, sitting on a desk in a cabin on a vessel on the ocean. Now imagine the look on your buddy’s face this Christmas. Buy Now!
9. Subscription to a Magazine – The gift that keeps on giving! I buy dive magazines, or any magazine usually if I happen to be in the newsagents with a spare ten bucks. And I always enjoy that new ink smell, the stories, photography and inspiration, despite not buying it religiously. So if I were to receive one monthly, with no obvious effort on my part, well you can imagine!
10. Shark USB - I don’t know why but this appeals. Buy Now!
There is a kit that I cannot live without. In addition to a first aid kit, or an emergency kit, is a Dive Essentials Kit that I believe can make a diver’s life that little bit easier. Rattling around in an old mask container, are an array of objects which accompanies me on boat dive trips or can easily be chucked in the car. Some of the items are useful in other situations too, but I love the fact that as a good scout, I can always ‘be prepared’.
1. Fave socks – Post dive numb feet is one of my personal hatreds, and is why I have added socks to my kit. I might be a little obsessed with socks for every occasion, (movie socks, driving socks, bed socks, cold air conditioning restaurant socks etc…) or, I might just have bad circulation!
2. Mask Strap – It has been said that the humble mask is the most important piece of diving equipment. As without it, all other gear is obsolete. A backup strap could prevent a dive holiday ending situation!
3. Mouthpiece – My buddy once hired gear at a remote dive centre, and the regulator mouthpiece had a sharp edge that caused uncomfortable stress to the dive, not to mention an ulcer. Taking a personal mouthpiece to any place you will be hiring can then be simply transferred over and save a lot of annoyance.
4. Cable Ties – Used to attach you spare mouthpiece to you reg, or attach bits and pieces to your BCD as replacement straps.
5. Emergency Numbers – My dive insurance company provides a waterproof tag each year of renewal, so a spare one in the kit could come in handy, though hopefully will never get used.
6. Seasickness Tablets – Be aware of increased effects on deep dives, but I still rely on them for long boat trips out. (Worst. DM. Ever.)
7. Bandaids- There are many other useful items which belong in a first aid kit, but keeping bandaids in the dive essentials is handy for small ailments.
8. Pen – Even if you aren’t a writer, a pen is the best tool. Filling out safety forms, jotting down dive deets, or maybe getting a number (wink wink).
9. Silicon Grease – Smooth out those wetsuit zippers. Popping a zipper at cold depth is sooo bad. Camera o-rings will also benefit.
10. Compass – I just like to know where I am. Because getting abandoned on a deserted tropical island can happen more easily than you think… (And one day, when I am very drunk, I will tell you that story.)
11. Wetsuit Wash – As with most products in this kit, bring a miniature! Perfect for one wash when you travel and don’t want to take the whole bottle.
12. Sunscreen – Yes, tan is nice. But BCD straps rubbing on red raw shoulders is not.
13. Toothpaste – For your mask! A new mask will often fog. This is because of a build up of production film on the lens. Rubbing a gentle exfoliating paste on the inside of the mask and leaving overnight will clear the fog! And be minty fresh. I take on trips regardless of the age of my mask, just in case. Especially in the tropics.
14. Chapstick – Guys and girls. Chapstick is a unisex item that makes everybody’s life easier. Deal with it.
15. Snorkel Strap – Snorkels can be an underrated tool, and will probably only prove itself useful if you don’t have one handy, or if the strap breaks.
16. 0-Rings - Never, ever, assume that an o-ring will magically appear if your current one splits. Especially miles from shore where o-ring trees are scarce.
17. Carabineer - Not just for rock climbing! Just make sure you buy aluminium ones (or solid gold, your choice) to stop rust.
18. Absorbent Pouches – Just in case your camera housing springs a leak or develops moisture in the tropics due to condensation. These are a quick fix to stuff inside the cavity. (Tip: Keep the sachets from shoeboxes to put in your kit).
19. Lens Cloth – Gentle cloth for cleaning your camera lens or parts. Or even to dust off your mask and avoid sand scratches.
20. SNAKES! Trust me, you will be the hero of the boat if you reveal a bag of these for the ride home. All those cotton-mouthed (oh! It’s a snake pun!) buddies will be stoked on life. Everyone loves a post dive treat!
Have I forgotten anything? We’d love to hear what other essentials are in your kits. Drop us a comment!
I learnt to dive in Australian Cool/Temperate waters.
These reached a glorious low of 14 degrees during Winter. I believe that experiencing diving in cold water, with so many other elements to consider and obstruct your learning process, makes for a diver who can enjoy both types of diving. I think I would have struggled with the cold more, if I had learnt say – in Fiji, and then been dipped into freezing, currenty, poor viz water and expected to know how to deal with that change.
So the ’6 Reasons Why Learning To Dive In Cold Water Will Make You A Better Diver’ Are –
1. Difficulty Levels. Tasks are more difficult to achieve in cold water and bad viz. Thick gloves, hoods and wetsuits hinder movement and make you a better diver in the long run. You learn to realise your body’s limits to temperature, and a different skill set in dealing with serious things like hypothermia; and annoying things like trying to do up a buckle underwater with numb fingers.
2. Quality Time. Meaning more time and attention from intstructors. People would generally take the ‘warm tropical dive followed by post-dive cocktails under a palm tree’ option. This means smaller classes/less students in cooler water climates.
3. Qualification. Dive charters in the tropics often only give patrons a ‘Try Dive.’ This (though fun) gives you no proper qualification, and is usually a one-off fast money spinner for the charter itself. You get your ‘Open Water Certificate’ if you endure a proper course.
4. Gear. Cool water diving involves a whole new set of gear to get used to. heat packs. Hoods and gloves. And dry-suits and semi-drys, which alter buoyancy and get you used to weight belt changes during preparation etc.
5. Warming Up! Huddling over a mug of hot chocolate post-freezing-dive, is like sensory overload! A hot choccy in the tropics just doesn’t have the same meaning. My other favourite reason is getting to wear humungous hoodies after!
6. Appreciation. Diving in the tropics for the first time, having trained for two years in cold water, was soooo eeeeesy!! I was able to appreciate where I was. And having learnt the skills in difficult conditions meant using them without being complacent to their value was awesome.
(Pic – buddies hooded up at Tasman Hauler site, Eden, Aus)
