The WORST Dive Gear 

I just use a spare double-ender as a "noise maker". Thumbing the gate for "calling you" and banging against my cylinder for "shouting at you".

Great videos but have to take issue with Zeagle weight system. Weird is not worst. I have a Stiletto that is built like a tank. It is light and easy to travel with. If I need to rethread the ripcord, it takes 5 minutes and there are RU-vid videos on the rethreading . In addition, if I need ditch my weights I am not going to worry that it is "weird". Finally, I agree with you. When you are a student, integrated weights are easy. However, they are bulky and expensive to replace. I have performed 16 Open water dives and have never seen someone ditch their weights. However, I have seen inexperience divers have difficulty performing the "remove and replace" integrated weights in the pool. Finally, in one of my dives, the dive hand on the boat did not install the integrated weight properly. The weight came out during a wreck dive and she floated to the top of the inside of the wreck. A divemaster had to spend time going back to retrieve a $50 weight pocket. In the unlikely event that I need ditch my weights, the Zeagle is easy. I will be able to live to put up with the weird weight system another time, G-d bless

Tank bangers and split fins are the obvious but I really hate octos built into the Low pressure inflator. Too short to safely share air with a buddy and if you use it and primary donate, how do you properly vent air on an emergency accent if it’s in your mouth?

Oh boy, you know it’s gonna be a good day when DiveVibe uploads

I LOVE your rants! (Mainly because I agree with all your rants.) As an attorney, I can ASSURE you that those bicycle pump scuba systems ARE negligently made. Speaking of law, I wish there was one that allowed you to confiscate those damned noisemakers. About those BFKs, there have been deaths here in California due to divers getting their leg-mounted giant knives stuck on kelp. Especially tragic was a freediver who got his BFK caught on kelp and his mouth was a few inches from the surface. Oh, and another thing about those damned splitfins. Whenever I'm hovering above the bottom, setting up a photo attempt and there's a cloud of silt being raised by another diver, it's almost always by a diver with split fins. They must cause extra wide-angle turbulence.

I had one of the first ATPACS in Canada. The hollow back piece used buckshot with an easy access pin to dump weight. Loved it simply because having a horseshoe collar BC and weight belt and tank strap was hard to use especially in cold water with thick 3 finger gloves. That was in 1972. I use a HydrosPro now w/Air2. Great for travel.

Realise it's an old video (thanks for it by the way) but I have just taken delivery of one of those reels that you hate - yes it's cheaply made but it seems to work (on dry land) and yes it's bigger than I would like but it was only twelve and a half dollars so it is replaceable. I can see how the plastic could break, but I can't see how for rec diving it's any worse than one of those little reels that you put your inger into to provide the spindle - when I used one of those recently, on my OWD course, the instructor had kittens :) as she though it was not running freely and was worried it would pull me upwards.

Not sure the Zeagle weight system comment is fair. Yes it is unnecessarily complicated but in all likelihood you will never ever ever use it so the complexity becomes irrelevant to an extent. It's not like you need to spend 30 mins threading it back through before every dive. I don't know anyone who has ever ditched any weights in my 25 yrs of diving. Rest of video was great!

Just about to watch, but right now all my brain is saying is 'split fins, split fins, split fins.'

Hi, could you please advise, what is your opinion on Subea BCD and regulators ? Is it reliable gear ? Many thanks

When it comes to diving, I try and buy reputable name brand stuff. I do open water now (getting ready for my AOW this fall) and hope to get into Tec Diving in a few years. In or out of a cave, you’re betting your life on this gear. It’s not a new TV or a prime day sale. Take the time to assemble reputable equipment that is spoken highly of by the industry and other divers.

As an old diving instructor I apauld your take on things about gear. These things need to be said about the products on the market! I was also a dive center owner and if the owner/instructor does his job correctly they are going to tell their students the truth! So keep up the good work!

Definitely make another one of these! 😂

I prefer a large knife. Cagro nets, Mooring ropes. large things that are tangle risks are TOO BIG to cut with shears or a small knife. I have a medium sized old school dive knife and its just right.

I understand your point about knives for the most part and agree with you to a certain point. Get it for defense is a bunch of nonsense, but as a diver in the Caribbean that likes to hunt lionfish I would argue that there is a use case for them. It’s pretty nice and comforting to have a long knife to stab them in the head if you didn’t shoot them correctly and want to end their suffering without risking getting accidentally stung by them

I have a question on topic, is XSCUBA a good brand? I have been buying some accessories lately and/or replacing some gear and it has shown up a lot in my research, usually inexpensive with decent reviews, but not sure if it’s the algorithm. Also my dive store carries some of their equipment..

I actually have one huge dive knife inherited from my father who was a free diver. Don't use it, but it would be fun to bring it to dive site and watch reactions - especially here in Europe where everybody tend to use have no knifes at all😁.

What a reasonable young man :)))).I got SLS weight system. Bulky. Good only when I dive in cold, cold, cold waters. Big handle works good with winter dive gloves. Other dives - I use simple extra, belt mounted pockets with zip. Split finns :))) Good for girls - they can't run away from me :)))) and looking fancy. No other reason to use them.

100% agree 👍...... Question. Do you have that t-shirt to sell???? Looks cool!!!!!

When it comes to a dive knife, I would add titanium dive knives to this list. Of course, these types of knives are not junk, they are very high quality and that is the problem. You don't need to spend $80 - $250 for a dive knife. It is stupid because it is something you could easily lose. I once dropped a dive knife in about 80 feet of water that I used cut through some fishing line that had tangled around my leg. I was ascending and only about ten feet from the surface, so I wasn't going to go back down for it. It was just a small backup knife and I had bought that knife at a dive gear swap meet for about $5, no big deal. About fifteen years ago I was diving at Whaler's Cove in the Point Lobos Reserve south of Carmel, California and at the end of the dive my buddy announced that he had lost a titanium dive knife that he had purchased for over $100 the day before the dive trip. Just forty or fifty feet short of the boat ramp; which is dive exit point, I briefly got tangled in some kelp and as I broke the kelp to free myself my buddy passed next to me and I could see his knife handle and it appeared to be firmly in place. He lost that knife in the last 30 to 40 seconds of that dive. After we exited the water he asked me help him search for his knife. I didn't want to because we had been in the water for close to an hour, but I agreed to help him try; however, it turned out to be a hopeless task. We had to use our dive lights in the hope that the light would reflect off the knife because the sky was getting overcast. There wasn't bright natural sunlight that might do the job for us. The funny thing is, I saw something glowing when my light lit it up and so I dove about eight to ten feet down for it. My buddy thought I found his knife, but what I actually found was a two inch long, glow in the dark, plastic great white shark, a child's toy. It only glows when you shine a bright light on it. Today, it's one of my favorite dive souvenirs and sits in a place of honor among various items I've recovered from the depths. It's a great reminder not to overspend on dive gear.

I wasn't even aware of half of the stuff you were talking about and now I know to avoid like the plague

I love my split fins. Or, rather, I loved my split fins. Then I did a tech course and they don't work for me any more. And now... I miss my split fins. So comfy and stylish - dissing split fin divers because they lack thrust is like saying hovering is an inefficient method of propulsion. Prove. Me. Wrong.

@DiveVibe you Sir. Just made me laugh so hard... I hate all that equipment for the exact same reasons... but hey if you like split fins rock them with pride 🤣

In terms of split fins, there were many that were just floppy crap, but have you tried a properly designed set? Like Atomics or Scubapro Twin Jets?

Reels are more popular in Cold water diving for dSMB deployment, as divers may not have the dexerity to use a finger spool with ease. I understand in Haw'aii a reel may not make more sense over a finger spool for this task, but ask a novice to use a finger spool with 5mm or 7mm neoprene gloves on them winter diving in Ireland (5-8 degrees Celsius water). You can expect a lot of faff. Now compare this with a reel.

The duck noise brings back memories

So much truth in this one. 👌🏻

*glances at the atomic splitfins in the corner* yeah i fell for the marketing

One more problem with the mini scuba thingy... There is no way to equalize because it has a full face mask... -5001/10

CMAS III since 1990 Most of what you recount is relevant. I am particularly relevant about complex weighting systems. ,A diver should have a weight belt anhd maby a Kilo oçr two in the pockets to sort out salinity and their latest dive suit.. After that I disagree with your Shaker RANT. I am an underwater photographer, I will be focusing on something completely. If my buddy rattles, it is for me and it means something important. The second reason was taught to me by a dive instructor when I was diving in Jordan. You know where that is? There are significant areas of sand, Over sand a dive leader may put down a finger in the sand to help stabilize while they are watching. Now there are naughty beasts in the sand that bite you with poison so bad that you will be in hospital. After experience, she puts the end of her shaker in the sand not the finger

I don't like split fins.. but 90% of fishes having tail fin splits. there is a proof video that the performance is the same for split kick.

9:46 “it doesn’t make you look very cool” everyone knows rule one of diving is look cool

Great Vid Zach! 🤙

Unless i missed it, need to add the noname generic full face snorkel mask to the list. Dangerous and crappy, too.

Very useful (and funny 😂)

You can add force fins to that list

Thanks for the video, Braveheart!

I'm old school. My noise make is banging my small knife on my tank.

funny how easily detachable weights have come a long way since then :D

👍😎!

Can we add one please the snorkel I hate the snorkel you can always tell the diver from a newb or someone that hardly ever dives when you are on the dock and they have their snorkel just dangling🤦‍♂️ like yo listen I’m not surface swimming bub you better go find another group 😂😂

I find myself agreeing with most of what you say.

Split fins just defy any common sense. Split fin people are for my amusement hahaha

I love my spilt fins... i used them when they first came out... i haven't done a comparitive study of the performance of them ... but i would not trade them for any other fin. Granted i'm getting to be an old fart and just like them (for no reason then they are the fins i use)