Once you start your Ocean Diver training, it’s a good idea to purchase your own basic kit; a mask first, followed by a snorkel and then maybe some fins suitable for use in open water. When you progress to open water diving (for the latter part of your Ocean Diver or Discovery Diver training) you will require a wetsuit or drysuit. These can be borrowed/hired, but you may want to purchase your own to ensure a good fit and familiarity. Club members can give guidance on purchasing suits. When qualified, divers usually buy their own full set of kit, although some prefer to hire it, especially when travelling overseas.
Ocean Diver trainees can opt to use club kit for their initial training in the pool and open water. Kit hire includes:
Trainees are allocated a numbered set of kit. The kit remains in the club kit store when not in use, and is available for use by other members if required. If you have confirmed that you will attend a training session you need to book your kit with the Equipment Officer.
The cost in 2024 is £150 upfront, with a £50 refund when kit is returned to the Equipment Officer in good condition at the end of the period.
There is a maximum duration for this arrangement of six months, or until your training is completed if this is sooner than six months. After that, the kit should be returned to the Equipment Officer.
Dacorum Scuba members can use club kit for £5/item/diving day, if it is not required for use by a trainee.
Dacorum Scuba maintains an Oxygen First Aid kit. The club encourages dive trip organisers to ensure at least one trip participant knows how to use it and takes it along. There is no charge to the trip. Ask the Equipment Officer if you need it for a club trip.
For bookings, contact the Equipment Officer with date/s and item/s required, email equipment@dacorumsac.org.uk
Once a booking is confirmed, to pay, contact the Treasurer, email treasurer@dacorumsac.org.uk
Air is provided to members at no cost via the club compressor. All members need to be trained to use the compressor’s panel to fill cylinders by decanting, and signed off as competent, before they can fill cylinders. Appropriately qualified and trained members can also use the club’s blending set-up for nitrox and trimix. Oxygen and helium are charged for by the litre.
The filling panel at the club compressor is not exactly fragile, but it does need to be treated with care. There have been times when valves have become stuck because they’ve been overloaded.
The valves only need to be finger tight; if you treat them like a stuck pickle-jar lid, they will break. (And it really is a pain to fix them.)
So remember (looking at the valve handwheels on the panel): lefty loosey (to open), righty tighty (to close), and only use your fingers and thumb to do this, not a whole hand.
It is good practice when you have finished using the panel, to close all the valves (gently).
If you are trying to open a valve and it appears stuck or tight, rather than using brute force to try and open an already open valve, try closing the valve (by turning gently the other way).
When fully opening a any panel valve, try to get into the habit of doing a half turn back at the end. There will be relatively little/no difference in flow and this practice will ensure the valve isn’t hard open, so if by chance you forget to close the valve the next person will realise it’s open rather than forcing it further closed.
