What not to take underwater

Many times when you take your first steps in diving, you will be confronted with a huge amount of different equipment. As you gain higher qualifications and improve your skills, you will undoubtedly need it.

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There is no denying that diving equipment, interferes with our swimming and performing many activities. In order to dive safely and derive maximum pleasure from it, we must be able to swim in our equipment configuration, so that we feel comfortable in it and can smoothly handle every element taken under the water.

It is very important not to excessively clutter yourself with unnecessary things. Despite good intentions, nothing good will ever come of it. Equipment that we don’t know how to use only puts us at risk and may increase the likelihood of an accident underwater.

Having a basic OWD diving degree, we should not add anything to our diving configuration, apart from what we used during the course. Along with our development, we will need other things, such as a diving knife or a decompression buoy. However, we should stick to the rule, that we can add additional elements of equipment only when we are completely familiar with what we dived in so far and we are able to use all of our equipment without any problems.

The correct positioning of a diver’s equipment is a key element of safe diving. Why do we need a knife strapped to our calf when we are unable to reach for it?

In technical diving there is a standardised approach to equipment configuration called DIR (Do It Right), according to which each piece of equipment has its specific place and use. Using ready-made patterns will save us many dives on setting up the configuration, while increasing our safety.

Adam Sieczkowski
PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer
SSI Advanced Open Water Instructor
DAN Adv. Oxygen Provider Instructor
TDI Normoxic Trimix Diver