Over the past decades, SCUBA diving has become a very popular activity amongst people. You are a lot to enjoy it whether on holidays or during the weekend, as a hobby or as a job. This growing enthusiasm is partly linked to the fact that it has also become a much safer activity thanks to both a better understanding of the divers’ physiology and safer dive gear resulting from decades of technological advance. To make sure it remains safe, dive equipment care is of prime importance.
This activity that once suffered from a bad reputation is not feared anymore and has even become a family activity. When done properly and respecting a few basic rules, SCUBA diving is now very safe.
Thanks to a number of studies we understand better the effects of this activity over the human body and we dive safer profiles. The equipment has also gone a long way and thanks to a non stopping technological evolution, we now dive with safer equipment.
This combination of a better understanding of physiological and physical effects and more advanced gear resulted in divers being more in control, and therefore, safer.
Proper equipment care for a safe dive
Here in Siquijor, we cannot run studies on divers neither create new piece of dive gear. However, we can always act at our level to make your dive safer and make sure you will enjoy your time with us 100% worry-free.
Obviously, we look after you during the dive and always make sure you feel comfortable, we like to share experiences and help you improve your skills, but safety for a dive starts way before getting under the surface.
We make sure to use only top notch and reliable dive gear. Most important, we service it and maintain it according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The service of all the gear you will use with us is done by our professional dive technician trained and certified by ASSET.
The choice of the equipment we use at Vibrations dive center was based on manufacturer reliability, gear durability, ease to service and years of own experience.
Here is our choice. This is the dive equipment you will use when diving in Siquijor with us:
Our professional dive equipment
Dive mask
A mix of Scubapro, Cressi and Saeko dive masks, different shapes and sizes to make everybody happy.
All of them with a comfortable black skirt, it looks better 😉
Dive regulator
Aqualung Calypso regulators.
No need to talk about the reputation of Aqualung when it comes to regulators. This basic model is efficient, very robust and easy to service.
Apeks AT20 regulators.
One of the best brand around. It is the entry model of the brand, but yet fully balanced and offers great comfort at every depth.
Dive BCD – Buoyancy Compensator
Aqualung Pro BCD.
Beautiful, comfortable and strong BCD. Also has a few advanced features compared to the entry model Wave, and we like the blue look of it 🙂
Dive wetsuit
Aqualung wetsuit, 3mm, long, full black.
Basic and efficient wetsuit. We like to use long wetsuit all year round to make sure you never get cold and also because it gives you better overall protection hence more safety.
SCUBA diving fins
Scubapro GO fins. Open heel but bare-feet fins. Very light and with a short blade, inspired from technical diving fins for a better control underwater. After years trying to teach frog and reverse kick to students with long blade fins, we chose to go with the GO. We love them!
Dive computer
Suunto Zoop Novo dive computers.
Simply because they are the best for a dive school. Easy to use, easy to read, easy to understand and robust.
Snorkel
A bunch of no-brand snorkels, because a snorkel is a snorkel and it doesn’t need to be fancy.
Diving tank
Catalina tanks. Catalina or Luxfer are the only options (if we leave aside the Chinese stuff coming now). Both are very good, in our opinion Catalina is better, thicker neck and more durable threads.
Valve
Sherwood valves. Both DIN and A-clamp friendly, so we can welcome all your regulators on our tanks.
Dive equipment care – first inspection
Before we even put some new dive equipment in the water, we need to do a few checks. That is where a safe dive begins. Your safety is in our hands.
Don’t be afraid, we are professionals and we like when things are done properly. Safety first here!
Small material
A quick check on the small material: no holes on the snorkels, no holes on the wetsuits, two legs and two arms on each, nice bungees on the fins. No much fun here, but easy and necessary.
Then come the masks. Take them one by one, burn them, clean them, burn them again, clean them, try them, burn again the ones that are still foggy (still??), clean them, etc.
All that in order to make sure you will see us asking you if you are OK underwater. And of course, make sure you don’t miss the beauty of the dive sites in Siquijor. That’s why you are here after all, not to look at us, right?
Now comes the big stuff…
Real safety involved here.
SCUBA diving is a lovely activity that offers the possibility to immerse oneself in the beauty of nature, but we should keep in mind that it is an activity in which we entirely depend on our equipment. Diving involves expensive life support equipment and one need to take good care of it. It needs to be serviced and looked after carefully and by professionals. After all, your life depends on it.
Most of the failures won’t result in a catastrophic issue, but at least your comfort and the way you will enjoy the experience rely on good and well maintained diving equipment.
Nevertheless, some equipment failure at depth can result in a very hazardous situation and it is better to know who’s hands you put your safety on.
Regulators
When you purchase new dive gear, it is a good habit to check it before you go on a dive. Regarding the regulators, in most cases, the first stage will come with the primary second stage already mounted. First thing is to make sure it is assembled on the correct port and with the right torque or it could result on a bad surprise after a few dives, like an unexpected (quite important) leak. You will find that quite often, they don’t have enough torque.
Next step is to mount the other parts to the first stage and check all the hoses. Finally, we need to make sure the regulator is correctly adjusted. For that, we check the intermediate pressure of the first stage and the « cracking pressure » of the second stage. We make sure mouthpieces are secured, gauges are accurate… We perform a dry test and if everything is OK, we go for a dive and perform a wet test.
A good and well deserved occasion to go for a dive on the beautiful reef here in Siquijor ;).
BCDs – Buoyancy Compensator Devices
Checking the BCDs is fairly easy. Just make sure they inflate all the way, dumping air by the dump valves when fully inflated and that there is no leak. Low pressure hose comes with the BCD and some can have a very slow inflation rate if defective.
Tanks and valves
Finally come the tanks and valves. When manufactured, scuba diving tanks are hydro tested and visually inspected. However, it is always good idea to carry a visual inspection by yourself when first assembling them, and before you fill them for the very first time. We have a look inside to make sure they are new, check the neck for manufacturing defect and check the threads using a thread gauge.
Together with the tank, we check the valve we are going to put on it. Here too, we use a specific thread gauge to ensure they are good.
A tank valve is holding 1 ton of pressure when the tank is full. Bad threads could result in a catastrophic issue. Big problems already occurred from that, including a sunken live-aboard (and we are talking about a big boat) resulting from a valve that detached from the tank.
At Vibrations, the walls and roof are made of wood. Imagine what would happen if a valve would decide to leave its beloved tank because of a threads situation.
If any defect is found on the thread, being from the tank itself or the valve, the piece of gear has to be discarded. It would be very unsafe to try and save some money using a defective piece of scuba diving equipment.
Tanks fill up
The last step is to fill up the tanks with the best air quality, and this depends on a well maintained and serviced compressor with periodically changed filter components and running oil. Always check the air you are breathing before you go on a dive!
A well maintained scuba diving equipment is of first importance when you chose a dive center. Make sure the gear you are going to be diving with is handled by a professional dive technician.
The temptation of saving money on scuba gear maintenance is very easy as most of the time the customer will not notice it until something goes wrong.
We are passionate and we don’t want to take shortcuts. We like to go the proper way and we want to encourage and promote the good way of diving.
Safety for you, safety for us, safety for the environment. Respect yourself and respect your environment. This process starts way before putting your head underwater and goes way after you are back on land.
