Dear Scuba Times,

In the April 1998 issue, you featured an article entitled "Keeping a Low Profile." This article makes some important points about streamlining your gear - especially one of the closing comments about not taking gear you won't need on your dive. Not all the active divers who read your magazine dive only in warm, calm waters with 100 feet of visibility.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and the picture on page 13 is, in my opinion, very misleading. On the left is pictured a dry suit diver in gear that might be appropriate for diving in cold water (like the Northeast US, where I dive). This diver has four hoses coming from her regulator - one each for the primary second stage, octopus, bc and dry suit inflator. In the conditions we experience here in the Northeast, we need to have two dependable second stages. Although I enjoy the streamlined shape of my Sherwood Shadow in Caribbean reef diving, I would not want to imagine breathing from it at the bottom of the Stolt Dagali in April, in 41 degree water with 7 foot swells at the surface!

Here in the Northeast, the typical diver uses the following equipment: double tanks or a single tank with a pony (or "bailout bottle"). Each of the tanks has a full-size, top-of-the-line regulator. One of these will also have two hoses - one for the bc inflator and one for the dry suit inflator. Many divers wear weight-integrated, back-inflated BC's because we feel that this is more comfortable when wearing a dry suit. In addition, many divers favor the use of a bright, long-burning primary light, such as the ones offered by Dive Rite, OMS, Extreme Exposure and American Underwater. A small backup light (3, 4 or 6 c-cells) should also be carried, in case the primary light fails in a dark place. This can easily be clipped to a D-Ring. Most divers also carry a lift bag (clipped to a d-ring, tucked between the doubles or in a pocket) and reel (clipped to a d-ring or carried between the doubles) to enable them to decompress or do a safety stop if they are far away from the dive boat's anchor line. A surface signaling device such as a whistle (once again, clipped to a d-ring) or safety sausage is practically mandatory. Many Northeast divers enjoy hunting lobster or fish, or collecting mussels and scallops. Others like to collect artifacts. These can be stowed in a catch bag, which is, once again, clipped to a d-ring. A number of reputable dive boats in the area will not allow you to dive if you do not have this equipment.

Cave divers are especially concerned with streamlining, yet they carry a lot of equipment compared to the "streamlined" diver on the right.

I hope not to need some of the equipment I always carry - the redundant second stage, whistle, and safety sausage, but I would not consider diving here without it.

Perhaps Mr. Carson should not consult a book by noted expert wreck divers such as Gary Gentile or Dan Berg for suggestions on equipment configuration, the NACD or NSS-CDS cave diving manuals before espousing ditching important equipment.

Sincerely,

Maggie Owens

P.S.: I found it interesting to note that in the same issue you featured a picture of divers on the SS Mohawk (here in the Northeast) using the configuration I described above.