Hey guys, I'm a newly certified diver and had a few questions. How does one go about traveling around with gear? If on a trip can I go through KNOWN CREW with two suitcases and stash my gear in the commuter room? If traveling as a PAX can I do the same thing or do I have to pay extra to have it checked? Is it easier to rent at a dive shop even though I have all brand new gear?

Also, where are your favorite dive spots? I'm on the 737 and have long overnights in some exotic places so I'm definitely going to take advantage.

Thanks!

 

Aren't you supposed to wait like 24 hours after diving to avoid decompression sickness? I'm not a diver, but I think SCUBA + flying is a recipie for decompression sickness. That's a crazy risk to take. I knew one guy who got it way back in the day and it was damn painful for him.

 

Yes "the bends" can be deadly.


When diving, the nitrogen in your air supply is forced into your body at high pressure and gets suspended in your blood. If you lower your pressure (by ascending to the surface) too quickly then the nitrogen comes out of suspension and begins to form bubbles. Those bubble can pop blood vessels, nerves, and even your spinal cord. The trick is to measure your time at depth and calculate how much nitrogen is in your system. You can then use a computer (in your pre-dive planning) to figure out how quickly/slowly you can come to the surface sop that the nitrogen doesn't come out of suspension but gets metabolized at a normal rate. It's pretty safe but you have to know what you are doing and why you are doing it... thus the certification required to dive.


Where people get into trouble is if they do multiple days of diving and build up a lot of nitrogen in their system which will of course get respirated out over a day or two... but if they go flying soon after diving, then the pressure on their body is lower as they climb in attitude, so some of the nitrogen may come out of suspension. Again, usually not a problem if you plan your timing so this doesn't happen, but if you have a lot of nitrogen in your system and you get into an airplane and you lose cabin pressure at high altitude for whatever reason, it could be instant death.

This is why the guidelines are not to fly within 12, 24, or even 48 hours after diving, depending on how much diving you have done, what depths you were at, how long you were at depth, how quickly you ascended, etc. Again, there are easy computers that run these formulas and tell you what is and isn't safe to do.

Hope that helps explain some of it.

 

Some of the best freshwater /spring diving in the world is actually in Florida... the cavern systems are amazing, especially in the panhandle.


As far as salt water diving, anywhere in the Florida Keys are ok. But some of the best in the world is near St Thomas and St John in the USVI. And of course Cozumel and Cancun are good spots too.

 

Nothing beats the Surin Islands, in Thailand. Or Palau, or Truk for wreck diving...

 

Just bring a mask and regulator ......rent the rest.

 

I would add to that a good dive computer. It will let you know exactly when you can fly and track your nitrogen load for all your dives.

 

OP mentions going through KCM...
Just remember that you're not allowed to go through KCM if traveling internationally when not working.

 

I toss everything (except fins, too bulky) into a duffel and bring it with me.I would NEVER leave ANTHING of value (especially my $1000 dive kit) in a crew room.

KCM's no sweat.

Second the computer. Suunto ZOOP. $200. Works great, lasts long time. Bonus points if you wear it the whole trip. "I got your big watch right here!"

Enjoy!

 

Anybody thinking about diving on a layover less than at least 36 hours is, in my opinion, nuts. 24 hours really is a minimum offgas time for dives to any significant depth. With less you may be fine flying with a normal cabin altitude, but if you experience a decompression you're much more likely to get bent, and maybe to the point that you are instantly incapacitated.

In my younger and dumber days, I did very shallow dives(less than 30ft) and then flew 12-16 hours later...and I was lucky I never had a problem. When I joined DAN all those years ago and started reading the medical information I realized how stupid I had been and stopped doing it.

Many years later, I was bent after a very conservative dive plan(on my off time, not a layover). It was a decompression dive, but we exceeded our mandatory decompression by over 50%(about 35 minutes of decompression required on our nitrox mix, we did 60, 15 of it on pure O2). About 2 hours after the dive I started to have joint pain in my knees. Off to the local hyperbaric chamber I went for a Table 6 recompression event. They said I was mildly dehydrated, but couldn't find any reason my dive profile should have caused this. They said it fell under the sh*t happens category.

Don't risk that sh*t happens category by flying too soon after diving.