As always, I’m excited to share this installment of Safety Stop in my President’s Message. It is my goal to raise awareness about the risks associated with diving, and also underwater photography. I welcome your individual stories and submissions to the Safety Stop column so please don’t hesitate to email me at President@sfups.org. If you wish to share your article anonymously just let me know. In this month’s Safety Stop article, I’d like to stress the importance of having an equipment checklist. Have you ever arrived at the dive site only to have forgotten something that would seem obvious? Let me share with you that I’ve personally forgotten to bring my wetsuit (recently). On another occasion, I brought my camera rig but forgot to place the camera in the housing. In both of those instances, I had rushed to gather my gear last minute, so always take your time and try your best to be organized. I’ve heard others that have brought their cameras, but forgot to put in their memory card. I’m sure the list (that no one wants to admit to) goes on and on.
You might ask, “Why include an equipment checklist in the Safety Stop column?” Had I decided to dive without a wetsuit for three hours over at the bridge, I would have risked lowering my core temperature too much, and also had less protection from jellyfish stings and sea urchins. Scuba fins don’t fit well on your feet if you forget your boots resulting in lack of propulsion underwater. An obvious one would be forgetting your safety sausage or SMB (surface marker buoy.)
Not only is it a great idea to have a checklist for your diving equipment, it’s also a great idea to have a similar checklist for your camera equipment. Underwater photography pretty much doubles the amount of equipment you must bring. I recommend placing the equipment checklist on one side, and the camera equipment checklist on the other side. You could then laminate and check each item off with a dry erase marker. There are many commercially available checklists available online. However, I recommend that everyone tailor their checklist to their unique situation. (For those of us that dive with a spouse who relies on you to bring everything, it’s good to have a checklist for their equipment as well.)