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Many of us are hard core "travel light" warm water divers, and use the Eagle Z1 flight pack as much as possible, but, there are times where there is just not enough space for 14 days worth of gear. The facts are that without wheels on your gear bag, you are going to be too tired to even go diving after transporting your gear 3 times a day past the other 450 hotel rooms, or across the big cruise ship several times every day. After testing many of the assorted medium size and expensive gear bags on wheels, we were pretty disappointed with the results. We found most were far to heavy in the 14 to 19 pound range just for the empty bag! This factor limits the amount of gear you can carry. Many were poorly designed with little practical organization, and the better bags were far too expensive, over $240.00. Some were made from ballistic nylon which snags easy, or made with cotton thread that causes the seams fall apart within a couple of months. Our designers understand that soft luggage is a compromise at best, and any that make it through more than a dozen international dive trips, then you should be happy, and you have got your monies worth.
So we set out to find an affordable solution under 10 pounds total weight that could carry all the gear a traveling sport diver could possibly needed for a 10-14 day vacation. We have found that most people carry far more clothing than they actually need. We started out with an extensive check list of all the equipment and extra stuff you should travel with, including clothing and calculated how many cubic inches would be required. Then we contacted several experienced world travelers to see what suggestions they had about being able to travel well. They all agreed on the following.
#1. Having a fancy logo, or expensive brand names like ATOMIC, ScubaPro, NIKON, SONY, CANON, on any your luggage can get you mugged or killed at some destinations faster than wearing a giant silk screen American flag on your back.
#2. Equipment bags really need reinforcement straps to secure the bag zippers from international baggage handling damage. A blown out zipper makes any bag useless. Narrow bags on wheels travel best through a narrow door. Go figure that.
#3. Always hand carry your digital camera, cell phone, and dive computer. These solid state devices can be damaged beyond repair with bomb detector machines.
#4. Always bring less clothing and more money than you think you will need.
#5. Upgrade your older bulky equipment to a compact soft back BCD with a built in octopus regulator and, a hose-less air integrated dive computer. Hoses are heavy.
We have studied the problems, and obtained the solutions that really work.
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