What is SCUBA diving?

Scuba diving equipment is the equipment we use to be able to breathe underwater. It stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. So SCUBA Diving is going underwater whilst breathing on this SCUBA gear.

What SCUBA gear do I need for recreational diving?

The breathing equipment we use to dive consists of,

Dive Tank

A diving tank or a scuba cylinder is the first thing you think of when you think about scuba diving equipment. It is made from Aluminium or Steel. For recreational diving, we often use 80 cft / 12 l tanks. 80 cft / 12 l refers to the external volume of the tank. The tank contains compressed AIR, just normal air that we breathe on the surface. It is NOT (every single journalist in the world please take note here) Oxygen. That would be extremely dangerous. The AIR is compressed to 200 atmospheres of pressure. That’s 200 times the pressure about you now which is about 3000 psi.

A SCUBA Regulator or a diving octopus.

It’s called a regulator because it is a pressure regulator. It regulates the high pressure in the tank down to nice safe ambient pressure, which is the pressure on the surface or the pressure at any depth you can safely dive. 40m max for recreational diving.
It’s called a scuba octopus because it looks like an octopus. It has a 1st stage made of metal and lots of tentacle-like arms coming out. At the end of two of them are mouthpieces to breathe from. A primary and a backup. One has a pressure gauge to read the tank pressure and the other connects to the BCD.

The SCUBA BCD, Buoyancy Control Device, Buoyancy Device or Diving Harness.

A BCD securely attaches to the tank and then the diver and has a bladder that can be inflated to help a diver stay on the surface, deflated to allow the diver to sink and adjusted underwater to enable the diver to stay still. You can get smaller travel bc’s, bigger jacket styles and harnesses, which have a backplate and wing style inflation system. Most divers learn with a jacket style BCD, however, the backplate and wing style is better because it holds the body in a horizontal position whilst underwater.

So that’s the Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.


What other SCUBA Diving Equipment do I need to dive?

To remember what equipment I need to go diving I always imagine I am standing by the edge of the water and I am about to jump in. I look at myself from the bottom up and go through all my scuba gear.

SCUBA Fins or SCUBA Flippers.

They are the flappy, paddle, finny things that go on your feet. When you kick your feet you go faster in the water. You can get closed heel scuba fins or open heel scuba fins. The closed heel fins are good for warm water but in cold water, you need scuba boots to keep you warm so you should get open heel if you think you might do cold water diving.

Scuba Boots.

Boots that go on your feet made of neoprene to keep your feet warm.

Wetsuit.

A wetsuit that is thick enough to keep you warm in the environment you are diving. Too cold can be dangerous and too hot can be dangerous too so it is important to get the right suit for the job.


Warm water. 3-5mm Neoprene full-body wetsuit or shorty wetsuit. Some bigger guys will go with nothing. Yes, you know who you are.
Coldwater. 5-9mm Neoprene wetsuit or Dry Suit.
Whether it’s cold or warm isn’t just about water temperature, (General about 60-77 Fahrenheit, 15-25 Celcius) can vary based on an individuals body type, metabolism, time spent in the water, temperature out of the water, the temperature at depth, number of dives. In my experience, it’s better to be a bit warmer.

SCUBA Weights

Are attached on a weight belt or are integrated into the BCD if it has an integrated weight system. You may not need weights you certainly don’t need too much.

On my arm, I have a Diving Computer.

There is more about diving computers here.

Dive Mask

On my head, I have a Diving Mask or a Scuba Mask. Its rubber has a strap that goes around my head and a glass window so I can see where I am going.

So that’s the absolute bare minnimum equipment you need to go scuba diving with. But there are other bits of scuba gear that you should seriously think about getting.

Snorkel

Snorkels are great if you spend a lot of time on the surface in big waves where you might have to swim or wait for a boat. I spend most of my time diving in a cave so we leave the snorkels on the surface, but they are great when we are exploring new Cenotes and dont want to carry a big tank.

Compass

Usually wrist mounted but can be mounted on a console or just clipped on. It’s useful to tell which direction you are going in and how to get back.

DSMB a safety sausage.

It’s a Delayed Surface Marker Buoy. Usually, red, orange or yellow it looks like a long sausage, so they are sometimes called safety sausages, about 6 ft / 2 m long. We usually attach them to a reel of line, inflate them and send them shooting to the surface. They alert nearby boats that divers are coming to the surface. If you are lucky your boat captain recognizes your DSMB and is waiting for you close by on the surface when you come up. You have to be careful with these that you don’t get pulled up with them.
A whistle can be a useful device in an emergency.

Dive Light.

Great for seeing in the dark or low visibility. They can also be used for communication if you know how.

What Scuba Diving Equipment do I need to go Technical Diving?

Technical Diving Equipment must offer what we call “redundancy.” What that means in diving is that we must have two separate systems for breathing on, so that if we have a failure with the first we can switch to a backup system. Either;

Back-mount Diving Equipment

Back-mount Technical diving is done with two tanks attached, with tank bands and a manifold system which has an isolator valve on it. Each tank has a separate regulator system on it. That is then strapped to the back of the diver with a harness. The isolator valve is usually kept open during the dive and if there is a gas leak the diver can close the valve and save half his gas.
Back-mount is better for Deep Sea diving in big spaces.

Side-mount Diving Equipment

Side-mount Diving is where the dives has two tanks mounted on each side of the body. The tanks aren’t connected so they offer the diver a completely redundant system but the trade off is that the diver has to switch gas during the dive, such that if there was a gas leak they would save at least half the gas.
Side-mount is better for Caves and small spaces.

Technical divers will often carry additional tanks of gas with them and they will usually have a variety of funky gas mixes to breath from.
Some technical divers use a CCR or closed circuit rebreather system. That’s a whole different level of diving that requires a whole new set of scuba diving equipment.

When do I need to buy my Scuba diving equipment?

You don’t need to buy scuba diving equipment. Most dive shops have dive gear to rent, so you can do your course and go diving all around the world without having to buy any gear. However having your gear is nicer. It will probably be better quality and more reliable. All gear is slightly different so you would need to used to the different gear at different places. Somethings like a dive mask, it’s best to get your own.

Where can I buy my SCUBA Gear?

You can buy scuba dive gear from your local dive shop, online or second hand. Amazon has some great deals here.

Why should I buy my SCUBA diving gear?

It is better to have your own gear. You will learn how it works better over time as it’s more familiar and when you buy gear you generally buy a better standard than the local dive shops scuba diving equipment for rent.

What is the Best Scuba Diving Gear?

Best Scuba Diving Regulators – Apeks MTX-R
Best Scuba BCD – Scuba Pro X Black
Best Scuba Fins – Mares Avanti Quatro
Best Boots – Bare 7mm Ultrawarmth Boots
Best Scuba Wetsuit – Aqua Lung SolAfx
Best Scuba Diving Mask – Aqua Lung Micro Mask
Best Dive Light – Big Blue AL1200
Best Diving Computer – Suunto Zoop

Scuba Diving Equipment Check List

Scuba Tank

Scuba Regulator

Dving BCD

Scuba Fins

Dive Boots

Wet suit

Scuba Weights

Diving Computer

Dive Mask

Snorkel

Dive Compass

Scuba DSMB

Dive Light

Dive Knife