Winter is coming and its getting colder here in sydney. Along side that, I plan to travel a bit this year so I wanted to make sure that no matter the conditions I would have sufficient gear to go diving. Made a few purchases, some that I am happy about and some that I might have to change, its fine though as the item I want to replace (the snorkel) isn’t to expensive.

I bought an Adrenaline wetsuit, not the top of the range by any means but its 3MM, fits very nicely and keeps me warm. Im already pretty tolerant to the cold because of my morning swims but this just gives me that added comfort and protects me from silly things like jelly fish and other such nasties in the water. I have used it many times since I bought it and very pleased with the fit, the comfort and the price. I know sometime in future I might get an upgrade but it wont be for a long time.

I bought a Cressi dry snorkel. The snorkel is great and I purposely sought out a dry snorkel because of the experience I had when I used to do basic snorkelling before. As opposed to my old snorkel now I can take nice mouthfuls of air at breathe up and when there are waves I don’t get water coming into the top, I have always enjoyed the dry snorkel.

Initially, I used to wonder why free divers used the basic flexible snorkels but only after taking this snorkel for a spin in the freediving scenario, I now understand. The previous snorkel I had was crappy but it was very small and thin length wise, so when I was moving around in the water I couldn’t feel it, this new snorkel however is longer and bigger. When I finish my breathe up, take the snorkel out of my mouth and start diving, I can feel the drag of the snorkel on the side of my head. Its not really that bad but it is annoying and different to how I used to feel before when there was almost no drag. I can imagine that with any other flexible basic snorkel it would be much more streamlined so I might make another purchase sometime in future.

The final upgrade I bought was a pair of fins. I was contemplating different kinds of fins and I had a few in mind that I had tried and wanted to buy. I was waiting for a discount either on amazon or some other site and by chance found the Cressi Gara Modular fins at a massive discount here in Australia. It meant, quick delivery, easy return if any problems and these were one of the fins that I had in mind, though I thought I wouldn’t end up purchasing them because of the price.  However with the massive discount they fell right into my price range and I bought them right away. When you are used to using basic crappy fins or going bare foot, it takes some getting used to because of the fin’s length and hard blade material, but once you have the flow going these fins really propel you through the water nicely. Very happy with the purchase and now instead of burning energy and oxygen on moving my hands and my feet I have a chance to look around and spend more time in the water by kicking nice and smoothly whilst taking snaps and videos underwater. The fins are slightly big for my feet but using my vibrams they fit just right 🙂

Now that I have all the equipment that I need (bar my camera which I need to upgrade) im ready to go diving anytime anywhere ! The plan is to go to bali this year and dive the ship wreck at Tumbulen and if time permits past by Egypt and do the different sites there.