Dear Fellow Divers,

Summer is here and it’s time to pull your Total Diving System out of the closet and dust if off for your next exciting dive trip! You have been waiting all winter, marking your calendar and maps in anticipation for your next adventure, and now you’re finally about to dive in. On shore or on your dive boat, you turn on your tank when suddenly, your second stage begins to free-flow and your BCD is not holding air. After the universal first troubleshooting step – banging on the offending piece of gear – you realize that the dive is wasted. There is nothing more frustrating than watching all your dive buddies out having the dive of a lifetime while you’re stuck on shore or as an “honorary third mate” on your dive boat. That dive is always the one dive buddies come out saying, “Wow! I have never had so much visibility!” or the best line, “Oh man, did you see all the life down there!?”.

No doubt, you see by now how important your Total Diving System is to keep you safe and how crucial it is to keep your equipment in top condition. The SSI Equipment Service Program is a complete maintenance program designed to keep the components of your Total Diving System performing to the best of its potential. One thing I cannot stress enough is having your equipment serviced annually. All main SCUBA manufacturers have a regular service interval. During your first year of ownership, you will need to bring in your system for it to be performance tested. Performance testing is completed on equipment that is in excellent condition and is still within the manufacturer’s required servicing deadline.  Performance testing includes a pre-testing evaluation, basic cleaning, needed adjustments to meet manufacturer specifications, and submersion-testing to detect air leaks. The next year, you will bring in your equipment for an Annual Service. Annual Services consist of a service evaluation, a complete disassembly, cleaning, and rebuild according to manufacturer specifications using appropriate service part kits. All equipment is adjusted to within the required manufacturer specifications and submersion-tested to detect air leaks.

Even with all the prevention you can complete in place – things happen. I, for one, know that a long crawl out of Monastery Beach wreaks havoc on my gear. Let’s be honest – we all don’t take care of our gear as much as we would like to one hundred percent of the time. It’s those long days of diving (and the events, or the exhaustion later!) that makes gear sit in the car longer than it should, which will cause issues in the long run. Now, if only you knew what was causing your gear issues and how to  fix them appropriately! There is an easy way to counteract this ever-present problem: The SSI Equipment Techniques Program provides divers with the basic knowledge and skills needed to select equipment that meet their diving goals and needs, and how to clean, maintain, and store their equipment. The tools and techniques from this program will help divers improve their dive performance and will aid in increasing the longevity of your gear. Because investing in SCUBA equipment is not cheap, knowing that your gear is functioning will make you more comfortable underwater. You will also be able to fix low-level issues underwater instead of going back to the surface or cancelling the dive.

Quick Tip: When you have your equipment serviced or repaired, take along your SSI Total Dive Log so that your service technician can record the last dive(s) completed. This information will be valuable should you decide to upgrade your equipment later down the road.