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Scuba Forum / General / January 2004Rental equipment failures?
Hi, We are about to leave for undeserved holidays in the Dominican Republic and we expect to dive there, but not that much. We have some scuba gear but are reluctant to carry it, as we travel with a baby and he is cumbersome enough on his own. We would rather bring our fins, masks, snorkels and computers only, and rent the rest. Have you ever experienced serious trouble with rented equipment? Or is scuba gear just rugged enough that this should not be a cause for concern? The possibility of having a 2d stage failure or some leaks is OK with me, but I would be concerned with a first-stage failure for instance. Thanks in advance, Froggy > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > Froggy I'd take my regulator. Rentals tend to be abused and very poorly adjusted. And you can wrap it around the baby to save space. .. >> We have some scuba gear but are reluctant to carry it, as we travel >> with a baby and he is cumbersome enough on his own. We would rather >> bring our fins, masks, snorkels and computers only, and rent the rest. .. >I'd take my regulator. Rentals tend to be abused and very poorly >adjusted. ... I agree. The issue of being marginally maintained and poorly adusted means that they may not be comfortable to use, thus making your dive experience much less enjoyable. There just doesn't seem much point to spending the money to purchase and maintain your own regulators, and then letting them sit at home while you dive with rental regs. Of course I feel that way about my backplate and wing too. I would probably just not dive if I had to use a rental, vest-style BC. Sometimes I wonder if both baby and parents would not be better served by leaving baby home with family. Opinions differ, but it seems clear to me that some parents who travel with babies are doing so without reagrd for the child, but only to convince themselves that they are such wonderful parents.  SignatureCharlie Hammond -- Hewlett-Packard Company -- Ft Lauderdale FL USA (hammond@not@peek.ssr.hp.com -- remove "@not" when replying) All opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily my employer's. > In article <dSxRb.121088$6y6.2397176@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>, (snip)> Sometimes I wonder if both baby and parents would not be better served > by leaving baby home with family. Opinions differ, but it seems clear > to me that some parents who travel with babies are doing so without > reagrd for the child, but only to convince themselves that they are > such wonderful parents. Maybe, but it seems like if they were going on a dive dedicated holiday they would have picked a destination that has quite a bit more good diving than Dominican Republic is known for. Understand that normally, I would never recommend travelling without your own gear if you have it, but the amount of stuff that you have to carry when travelling with a baby is incredible. So in this case, I think they should just take their snorkel gear. Then take a look at the standard of gear provided and available when they get there, if they just have to dive. > Sometimes I wonder if both baby and parents would not be better served > by leaving baby home with family. Opinions differ, but it seems clear > to me that some parents who travel with babies are doing so without > reagrd for the child, but only to convince themselves that they are > such wonderful parents. I lock my baby in a Pelican case and check it in. As long as there aren't any dive stickers on it, it usually doesn't get stolen. And the foam inserts double as padding and sound prevention so no one hears the crying. Just make sure to let the airline know if your luggage gets delayed so they can slip it a bottle. > .. > >> [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > reagrd for the child, but only to convince themselves that they are > such wonderful parents. No, we do that because the failure rate of rental babies is way too high. And there just doesn't seem much point to spending the money to purchase and maintain your own babies and then letting them sit at home while you dive. Actually we had exactly that argument with my wife, I was the one in favour of leaving the baby home with the cat and enough food and water, but she won. On the other hand both my wife and I work reasonably long hours, meaning that we do not see our son nearly as much as we would like to. And he seems to agree. Plus it is now 0°C and snowing/raining here, the baby is catching all the usual winter bugs and, from our experience with nephews and nieces (very convenient for trial/errors in childcare), babies actually enjoy a break in warmer/sunnier climate, just like we do. And we too have had to sit for hours in a cramped plane near families with babies and young children. It is our turn now. We have a RIGHT to piss off fellow passengers. We earned it, the hard way ;-) So we will do it this time, and see what comes out of it. > I would probably just not dive if I had to use a rental, vest-style BC. You are a spoiled child. In my current state of mind, and provided the water is warm, I would dive if I had to use well... just about anything that can deliver some pressured air. Cheers, Froggy "froggy" <hub666@hotmail.com> wrote > > In my current state of mind, and provided the water is warm, I would > dive if I had to use well... just about anything that can deliver some [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Froggy A chain of baywatch babes doing kiss of life underwater? rhys > > .. > > >> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > No, we do that because the failure rate of rental babies is way too > high. *... beautiful...* > And there just doesn't seem much point to spending the money to > purchase and maintain your own babies and then letting them sit at > home while you dive. I took my daughter camping with me in Croatia for six weeks. We had a great time and despite the effort to carry everything around, plus her on my back half the time (she was 19-20 months at the time - and thankfully we went in a group so had help when needed) I wouldn't have done it any other way. Besides, we both came back super buffed :-) Laurel > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > Froggy I always take my harness with me. I don't trust rental regs or computers. It doesn't take much space or effort to hand carry your harness. Buck "In Critical and baffling situations, it is always best to return to first principle and simple action" - Sir Winston S. Churchill >Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > >Have you ever experienced serious trouble with rented equipment? Yes. Regs that freeflowed if you looked at them funny, auto inflators that stuck on and dump valves that were stuck closed. hub666@hotmail.com (froggy) pounded away at his keyboard resulting in: :Have you ever experienced serious trouble with rented equipment? Or is :scuba gear just rugged enough that this should not be a cause for :concern? Like divers with their own gear, divers with rental gear have well over a 50% survival rate. Dan Bracuk If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure. The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/ > hub666@hotmail.com (froggy) pounded away at his keyboard resulting in: > :Have you ever experienced serious trouble with rented equipment? Or is [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Like divers with their own gear, divers with rental gear have well > over a 50% survival rate. I have always thought that what is most likely to get me into troubles is a mistake of my own, anyway. I was just wondering whether I had previously underestimated the odds of a serious equipment failure. Which changes nothing to my first point as I may also have previously underestimated my own stupidity ;-) Cheers, Froggy I've never been to the Dominican Republic. However, I prefer to just bring my basic gear on vacation and rent the rest. Most of the time I have not had any problems. Of course, one failure might just be the last. My worst experience was in the Greek Isles. Besides the annoying leak in my first stage, my depth gauge was broken and I did not find this out until I was in the water. As it turned out, we really pushed the tables on that dive (it's quite deep there). In hindsight, I should have either aborted or at least tracked someone elses gauge during that dive. Nothing happened. In the future I will probably continue to rent gear. However, I will be much more careful in checking out the overall condition of equipment from the dive operator before signing up. In the case of the Greek Isles, there were plenty of signs that this was not a quality dive operator and I had other options, even if they were not as conveniently located. In summary, spend some time at the dive shop before committing. Ask questions, look at the gear and exercise a little caution. Maybe even ask the dive shop about their own competition, and check out the alternatives. -B. > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > Froggy > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > The possibility of having a 2d stage failure or some leaks is OK with > me, but I would be concerned with a first-stage failure for instance. Off the top of my head: I've had a rental SPG read 500 high, I've seen a rental 2nd stage fall apart (S'pro D400), I've seen the corrugated hose on a BC come off a few times, I've seen a 2nd stage hose fall off the 1st stage because it came away at the crimp. Brian Edmonton, Alberta www.mossmanscubaventures.com Never. You'd be the first I'd heard. froggy left this mess on 27 Jan 2004 09:48:46 -0800 for The Way to clean up: >Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > >Froggy Tao te Carl "It takes a village to have an idiot." - Carl (c) 2003 (Kudos to Cap'n Jim Wyatt for this link) BEFORE you ask a dumb-a.s question here...http://www.speakeasy.org/~neilco/bart.gif > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > Froggy Hey Froggy, Where are you going exactly and how old is your child? What will you do with the baby when you are diving? My wife and I have discussed a trip, but we can't figure out what to do with our 1.5 year old while we are diving. Blessings and safe diving, Tom http://www.scuba-accessories.com .. >... My wife and I have discussed a trip, but we can't figure out >what to do with our 1.5 year old while we are diving. Not hard to figure -- you leave the child with a baby sitter. Paid or a family member. At the vacation site or back at home. Some resosrt can provide sitters. Ask when -- or before! -- you make reservations. Or ask your travel agent. Consider asking for references. If you have a teenage niece, nephew, cousing, neighbor, maybe they would be willing to baby sit if you pay for them to travel with you. SignatureCharlie Hammond -- Hewlett-Packard Company -- Ft Lauderdale FL USA (hammond@not@peek.ssr.hp.com -- remove "@not" when replying) All opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily my employer's. > .. > >... My wife and I have discussed a trip, but we can't figure out [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > If you have a teenage niece, nephew, cousing, neighbor, maybe they would > be willing to baby sit if you pay for them to travel with you. Back when I was living with a lady that had a 5 year old child, we wanted to visit Disney World. Of course, the child was going with us, but we knew we wanted to stay in the park late one evening and have at least one night out by ourselves. The family next door was a bit less affluent, and I wasn't all that well off either. They had a teen age daughter who was both a delight to know and quite reliable. We worked out a deal. She got to go to Disney with us in return for watching over the child in the evenings. Since we drove up and she stayed in the room with the rest of us, our only added cost was her admission to the parks and her food. For the cost of a couple of admissions and some food, we got a full time baby sitter (while not part of the deal, she was with us the entire time) and, best of all, it was somebody we knew we could trust. It didn't hurt that we also got to do something nice for somebody we liked. Lee > .. > >... My wife and I have discussed a trip, but we can't figure out > >what to do with our 1.5 year old while we are diving. We had the same problem. We thought that a spare air should provide sufficient autonomy. But we learned that scuba is not recommended for infants so we planned to tie the baby to a couple of these large marker buoys and leave him on the surface. Some people managed to talk us out of it and we therefore did as suggested by M. Hammond: > Not hard to figure -- you leave the child with a baby sitter. > Paid or a family member. At the vacation site or back at home. In our case we are travelling together with my sister and her husband, who have two young kids. So most of the time we will stay together but from time to time one couple can babysit for the other, freeing some time for adult activities. BTW, above 2 years kids pay nearly full fare so your travel budget suddenly inflates, which reduces your choice of destination if $$ is a constraint. So hurry up! And given the choice I would not necessarily select the Dominican Republic as a destination when travelling with a baby (I understand hygiene is so-so, meaning a lot of extra care, having to bring baby food etc.) Especially if diving is the goal as it is also so-so. Thanks to all for your responses and suggestions, Froggy |
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