Chronicle of an older diver

My 50th birthday had come and gone in 2005 without much fanfare. My wife made me an apple pie and other delectables, but we have a tradition that birthday evenly divisible by 5 allows a special purchase to be made. As we hadn’t agreed on what that would be, it was held for future consideration. So as we were preparing to go to the Turks & Caicos Islands I decided that I would use this special fund for Scuba Gear.

Up to that point, I had bought, all in the early eighties:

1. A Mares mask – people laugh at it these days because of the narrow field of vision but I still carry it as a spare.
2. Scubapro Jet Fins – A great buy. The first time I used them I didn’t know to snap the strap holders shut and lost one of the straps, so I have a mismatched pair, but they don’t look much different from the day I bought them, except for the white duct tape residue from the deco tables I wrote on them last year.
3. Isoteq booties – the company is now out of business but the boots are still in great condition. Unfortunately they have no zipper so drying the insides is challenging, but they fit great and are plenty warm enough for the diving I do (in the really cold water I use my dry suit which has built in boots).
4. A Scubapro Snorkel – This snorkel was made from two pieces glued together. I found this out when diving the Nakaya in Howe Sound, British Columbia, when the two parts separated and the bottom part disappeared into the depths, never to be seen again – at least not by me.
5. A Scubapro LS-1 Compass – the compass finally failed on me during a dive this year, and then slipped of its wrist strap and disappeared into Lake Simcoe, as described in an earlier post.
6. A Wet Suit – made by Rowand in Canada. I only used it twice in the last twenty years – neither time was it an enjoyable experience. It consisted of a farmer john, with a long sleeved jacket and a beaver tail. It had a custom knife pocket on the right leg. It was made from 1/4″ nylon 2.
7. A HUGE, nasty looking Wenoka Knife. I still have the knife and keep it in case I’m called up by the Navy Seals to lead a commando raid.

Out of all this gear I’m still using items 1 to 3.

Rowand Wetsuit with Beaver Tail

Move over Mike Nelson

Classic Scubapro Jetfins

Isoteq Booties - Warm but no zipper

This slate and SAC calculator came with my NASDS Open Water Course Kit