This is the first of our new series of 'member's stories' - from our very own John Childs. Think of it as a sort of 'honest review'. As divers, we've all ended up wasting money on bits of kit that didn't work or we didn't need. Here, John shares his experience and hopefully we can avoid similar mistakes!
"I qualified in 2017, the next thing was to buy my diving equipment. With lock down, I have gone through all the dive items I have bought. Here is a list of the Diving stuff I should never have bought; Cheap DSMB with was oral inflation – impossible to inflate in or out of the water Boots prescription mask – plastics inserts that either fell out or created me three steamed up masks to look through at once Weight harness – just didn’t work with a BCD Two scuba pro BCD’s, should have bought wings – miss sold by dive shop I770 dive computer – useless for decompression diving – the clock stops displaying the time and goes into a warning over depth and deco time Second hand dry suit that made me look like fat Spider-Man Arctic under-suit that did not fit so made shutdowns impossible XXL fins to fit the fat Spider-Man drysuit (but didn't fit anything else) 6kg of extra-weight for fat Spider-Man dry suit Cheap thin shorty from Amazon for a trip to Grenada that made me look fatter and did not fit Second hand wing from Facebook, that was basically dangerous. The idea that a cycle puncture repair kit works as a repair kit for a bladder to use in the sea is not a great concept. Cheap dive torch that never worked and taught me all about salt corrosion Waterproof Velcro dive pocket, now at bottom of Red Sea with reel and DSMB Apex super pocket, that is too large to fit on webbing "Bargain bag" of regs and hoses from dive shop closing down sale Two SeaLife cameras that both suffered with corrosion on the electros and let me down in the Red Sea and Scapa SeaLife light that makes no difference to the photo that is always green Amazon £25 Go pro style camera, mask mounted – does not work and you spend the dive wondering if its recording Go pro + handle, it just never works like it does for the cool kids and the floaty handle makes it whack me over the head constantly Beaver reel- so many reasons Beaver super knife – looks good, but is too large and to date I have had no reason to need a small sword when I am diving. So I take the line cutter and a small knife."
With thanks to John Childs. Leave your comments below!