The other day I wrote about decorating scuba equipment in an environmentally sound way.

Reader Marwah, who asked the original question, sent me an update. Apparently permanent markers washed off her fins, but paint markers worked great. There are two things I took from this:

• The importance of testing out your paint before you do a lot of fancy artwork. It may wash right off. Permanent markers worked well for my rubbery fins, but didn’t stick on Marwah’s more smooth, plastic fins (as I guess they are).
• Paint markers are a fantastic option that I didn’t think of. Sharpie, Art Primo, and many other brands make these oil-based pens, so they should be easy to find at a craft store in any part of the world.

Reader Marwah asks,

“I wanted to know if you know of paints or markers or other mediums I can use on my gear that wouldn’t be harmful to the coral or marine life. I want to put elaborate, colourful stuff on my fins to begin with but I don’t want to do it at the expense of underwater life. If you know of anything I could use please let me know.”

Great question! Fortunately, these days paints and markers are fairly safe for the environment and getting better every year. The main things you want to avoid are:

Lead-based paints. These are getting harder to find, but just like its toxic to humans, lead paint in the water can be harmful to sea critters.

Anti-fouling paints. Again, you aren’t likely to find these at a local crafts store, but anti-fouling paints are used for painting the hulls of ships. They are designed to kill barnacles, algae, and other marine organisms that would slowly eat away at boat bottoms, so they are of course not good for anything living in the water. I doubt you would run across these, but I don’t want readers to see them, see that they are intended for boats and think they are a good choice for equipment decoration.

When looking for paints, one of the key things you need is for it not to be water-soluble, otherwise it will dissolve into the water. Your best bets for decorating are the old standbys:

Acrylic paint is actually a good option, with one caveat: it must stay on the material you paint! I personally found out that acrylic paint (at least the “beading” squirt bottle kind) does not hold well to fins, and will easily get knocked off. Because acrylic paint is just a form of plastic, this can’t be great for whatever it lands on. However, it will stick well to BCD’s and possibly wetsuits as long as you spread it flat, and it’s not any worse for the environment that any other plastic on your BCD, regulator, mask. etc.

If you are unsure, test it out by painting the equipment, let it dry, and knock it around a bit to simulate a dive. If some of it chips off, then you probably should peel off the rest and use something else.

Tip: many scuba shops sell pricey paint specifically for dive gear. This is just acrylic paint, sometimes called “fabric paint”, that you can find at any hobby / craft store for one-fourth the price.

Permanent markers are awesome for drawing patterns and coloring. They are not water-soluble and will not leak toxins into the reef. Better yet, permanent markers can write on just about anything, even fins, which acrylic can’t hold on to. I personally use them to write my name / initials on my gear.

Update: another email from Marwah alerted me to this option.
Paint markers are oil-based and will soak into a lot of materials that acrylic and permanent markers may not penetrate. In fact, if I were to decorate equipment from scratch, I would buy a small set of paint markers and supplement with a few permanent markers that I have on hand.

Have fun!

Happy Wednesday, folks! The weather here has turned from snow to slushy ice rain. Pretty soon I might be able to go diving here after all! Need your link fix? I got your medicine right here…

Ever wonder how aquarium curators / researchers get into it? The New York Times has a profile of a shark researcher at the New York Aquarium. He used to be in an 80’s hair metal band!

Bonaire won the prize for best overall diving from Scuba Diving magazine. I’ll wait while you recover from the shock. (This is the 9th consecutive year Bonaire has claimed that prize)

Thailand is closing dive sites to allow the coral a chance to recover from bleaching. This obviously hurts dive business, but many question what good prohibiting diving will even do? It seems like yet another case where policy doesn’t line up with the science of the situation.

Read about one of the guys who recovered the bell from the Andrea Doria. As part of the crew that retrieved it, he gets to keep it for about 6 months, then it goes to the next guy. If you want to read more about the Andrea Doria, read my review of Deep Descent and see if it interests you.

Have you sent your submission in yet for the contest? If not, go to this page and read all about the chance to win some prizes! Entry is easy, just tell me about some cool stuff you’ve seen while diving!

No, I’m not going to try to sell you dive knives in this post. In fact, if I was a dive knife salesmen, this is the last post I would write.

I read something interesting in a dive book, it might have been Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria. They mentioned something that is a bit of a mainstay in technical diving:

Never buy an expensive dive knife.

The reasoning is that if you drop an expensive knife, you are likely to go after it. In tec diving, this could mean your life. And working with a knife underwater, especially with gloves on, has a high likelihood of droppage.

I suggest that this “rule” should be extended to recreational diving. For the same reasons, and for one more:

There is very little you will need to do with a knife that requires an expensive one.

If you’re trapped by a fishing line, a cheap steel bladed knife will cut it just as effectively as an expensive high-grade alloy.

I imagine most advantages of an expensive knife are in the longevity. This is a good consideration when buying anything, but I still say go with the cheaper options. A little care can go a long ways to increase the knife’s lifespan, and no piece of equipment is worth your life.

The other day I harped on the pains of dry suit diving. One of my complaints was that after all that effort, you’re still not all that warm.

Diving Unlimited International (DUI) read my thoughts, but only a long time before I had them. They’re introducing a new line of electrically heated insulation for drysuit diving.

Initially I was a little frightened at the thought of electrical equipment—wires, batteries, etc.—strapped to my chest underwater; who knows how batteries respond to pressure. But I suppose this is what they’ve worked out in the lab and field testing.

If you’re interested to try it out before they unveil the new line later this year, go to the next DUI DOG Rally in Portland, CT, October 2-3. Notify them ahead of time and you might be able to try out one of them.

I’m not much of a wreck diver, and my experience is quite limited. Nevertheless, a recent article in the PADI publication The Undersea Journal caught my attention.

The article is about wreck diving, and an insert gives what author Ty Sawyer calls “15 hot wreck diving destinations.” I thought I’d share them here with you, in case you are looking for travel inspiration:

• Truk Lagoon, Chuuk
• Scapa Flow, Scotland, United Kingdom
• Great Lakes, USA / Canada
• Iron Bottom Sound, Solomon Islands
• Espirito Santo, Vanuatu
• Kwajalein Atoll
• South Florida and Florida Keys, USA
• Palawan / Coron / Cebu region, Philippines
• Bermuda
• Bikini Atoll
• Grenada, Lesser Antilles
• Vancouver Island, Canada
• Labuan, Malaysia
• United States Virgin Islands
• North Carolina, USA

I like this list for its variety—it has something for everyone, no matter where you live.

The article highlights a few noteworthy wrecks. These are the SS Yongala in Queensland, Australia, the Fujikawa Maru in Truk Lagoon, Chuuk, the SS President Coolidge in Vanuatu, the Antilla in Aruba, The Zenobia in Cyprus, and the USS Saratoga in Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands.

Check out the article for a longer list of “other wrecks not to miss.”

Photo by Misserion

Snorkels are considered a core piece of scuba gear. Mask, fins, and snorkel: the three items every beginner starts with. We take this for granted, and dive away with those plastic tubes strapped to our head. After a while, though, we start to question the utility of a snorkel. When diving the smooth Caribbean waters, for example, is a snorkel really necessary?

At this juncture, there are a few paths the blossoming diver can take:

• Keep the snorkel. Your first option is to heed your training and continue to dive while wearing a snorkel at all times. Sure, it can be uncomfortable in a current, but you rest easy knowing it’s always there.
• Exchange the snorkel for a pocket snorkel. Your next option is to remove the snorkel from your mask. Aaah, how liberating! There are times when you may need a snorkel, so for those situations you carry a foldable pocket snorkel in your BCD pocket. In an emergency, it’s only a zipper away.
• Ditch the snorkel. Look out, divers, this future tech diver means business! The last option is to ditch the snorkel completely. I don’t imagine anyone throws their snorkel away, but rather keeps it in their gear bag and wears it on a case-by-case basis. Choppy waters with low viz? Bring the snorkel. Bonaire shore dive? No thanks.

If you find a snorkel uncomfortable, I think carrying a pocket snorkel is your best option. I don’t own one (yet), so I wear a snorkel based on the dive conditions. However, be aware that some dive operators may not let you in the water if you don’t have a snorkel. For this reason, you should always carry a snorkel with your gear.

What do you think? Are snorkels for sissies, or would only a fool go in the water without one?

Photo by chrisada

We have a quick tip today about cleaning O-rings.

It can be very easy for dirt and lint to hide on O-rings. The grease practically acts as a magnet, letting dirt easily stick. If you’re not careful, a few well-placed pieces could even compromise the seal on your equipment—a costly oversight.

To minimize these chances, try cleaning your O-rings on a white (or light-colored) surface. The white will contrast with (most) dirt, making it easier to identify and remove.

Click to enlarge
This picture shows the same O-ring, with lint, on a white surface and a wooden tabletop. While difficult to see on either, the dirty is slightly more visible with the white background. This tabletop is fairly light, so the problem gets even worse with darker surfaces.