007: Gear Acquisition Syndrome - Dive Gear Winners and Losers

Todd and Dalton discuss some of the fun diving related gadgets & gear they have acquired over the years and highlight the winners and losers.

Check out more detailed show notes on our blog.

What We've Been Watching:
Brian Skerry Interview
Alex Mustard Interview

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Dalton Hamm
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Dive Instruction: piratedivecrew.com
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Todd Reimer
Portfolio: toddreimerphoto.com
Facebook: todd.s.reimer
Instagram: tsreimer
Twitter: tsreimer

Transcript

Todd:   0:07
Welcome Aquatic Life, a podcast about underwater photography, diving and adventure travel. I'm Todd Rheiman, and with me, as always, is dealt in. Ham.

Dalton:   0:16
Hey, what's going on, guys?

Todd:   0:19
Well, come toe another week of fun as we're stuck here in quarantine instead of asking what we've done with their cells, which we know is nothing are weak. Uh, way missed one of the fun topics to talk about what happened last week. Which was there a couple of really interesting dive related podcast or underwater photography? Really A podcasts? Don't you wanna tell everyone who was on and what they talked about?

Dalton:   0:45
I'll start with Brian Skerry. Nikon did an interview with him last week. Online interview went over some of its work in this story, and it was It's pretty cool to see some of stuff that he's done in his 29 assignments for National Geographic. That's that's kind of like a sweet deal right there.

Todd:   1:06
Seriously, it's really interesting to hear that his back story goes through, basically, how he got started and how he got his first gig, and it's always a combination of thumb lock being in the right place at the right time. and meeting the right people, meeting the logical along with having the desire to do what you do, Of course, right. But listen to the podcast. It's fascinating because he tells the story for anyone that would love to be national Geographics photographer. He basically shot a bunch of stuff for the local dive minute magazines are and other publications before he finally got his one chance and then he was on his way. I don't want to basically recap the entire his entire interview. It's definitely worth listening, Teoh. But it was really fascinating. And then he goes through talking about several of his iconic shots and how he got them, which were equally as fascinating.

Dalton:   2:01
Yeah, for sure. I think he went through, like a dozen or so shots like Like said he told his story and how you got how he got his one shot and didn't waste that and turned it into, uh, turn into 29 different articles. Photo shoots for National Geographic. So and who else did we watched Todd

Todd:   2:23
So the other interview, which was coincidently, I think one or two days right after that was an interview with one of my favorite under our photographers Alex Mustard, and it was put on by Ocean Geographic, which I'm not familiar with. But it sounds like there would be the oceanic arm of National Geographic, but I don't think they're actually affiliated. It was also really good interview, but what? He went through some of his shots, I wouldn't call them some of his best shots. He actually concentrated on shots that had won awards or had won him photo contests. And what I thought was really interesting about the interview, which a Z. I mentioned it. They weren't necessarily some of his most famous shots of work that would sell, but they were good enough and specific to be unique enough to win photo contest, which is a different criteria than to being, ah, good selling image. And that was really interesting toc it from that perspective,

Dalton:   3:24
right for sure. And I think I'm pretty sure the they're contest. He was a judge on their contest a few times, and I think I remember him saying that, Yeah, that's one of the reasons he showed some of the contest shots was that yeah, he was showing things that he had used toe win versus things that he had actually sold.

Todd:   3:49
And the common theme for him was a lot of his contest winners at the time. Over the years ended up being a lot. He was able to take the photos and their unique enough because he actually used technology that was new at the time. They didn't necessarily show like I was obviously new technology, but he was able, you know, heat. The guy's a scientist by trade. Or was before he was an under making money is on the water Photographer. So was always looking on the technical side of how to make photos better. Uh, but that's how he was able to separate himself on separate several occasions. But in the end, they were still usually capturing the right moment in time while being a well composed image.

Dalton:   4:29
Right? And I think that's one of the big takeaways that I think should apply. Teoh. Any photographer who's who's trying to make their mark is you find a way to do it differently, and he definitely found a way to do something that there is already a niche, and he found a way to do that niche in a different manner and end up getting some some amazing shots, and some of them were amazing. Rather, you loved him or hated it, hated them. They were still what he managed to accomplish with the photo was amazing.

Todd:   5:13
So he also was able to reliably predict coral spawn ings. In this case, it was for Grand Cayman, based on the timing of that and then also using backlighting, basically getting strobe off the Cameron putting it behind also made it unique and was very, very nicely done. Shot. He's done that on several of the other ones that were that were great, but he's not. He's got a lot better photos than the ones that he showed in this contest that I've seen in several ways publication. But it was just nice to think Teoh, have you need to have a different mindset of If you're thinking of entering a photo, you know, for a contest, you need to have a different mindset of of what's gonna potentially do well there versus what makes just an overall pleasing image

Dalton:   5:55
and one mawr. One more thing with this cove ID. I've noticed that there's been a lot of talk about dive shops that are struggling because they're just not getting business between cruise ships not treading. You're not coming to port and travel bans and all of that. And I read an article last night where Don Fosters in Grand came in. A staple of grand came and they've been there for 30 or 40 plus years. And they filed for bankruptcy. They had, and it's a big operation. They had, like five boats, 20 or 30 employees and because of co vid they filed for bankruptcy. So whoever's out there listening, you know, good. Visit your local dive shop or place a couple of online orders for something. You try to support your local dive shops somehow and help help us all get through this. And so we can all get back out in the water and still be around todo diving with when this is all getting back to normal.

Todd:   7:05
Yeah, I know, at least for most of us. I went by our local dive shut. My closest I've shop is diving surf here in Redondo Beach and they're obviously closed. The shop is closed, but they have an online store. So while several other places that have online stores there definitely was checking out. And hopefully here in the next month or two, maybe will get lucky and be ableto open some the shops and more.

Dalton:   7:29
One more little tip on that front. Since we're not able to do a lot of diving right now, be a good time to send your stuff in to get serviced. So if you have a regulator BC dive watch anything that needs servicing that would be a good time. Teoh do it. Tanks getting hydro, Contact your local dive shop and I'm sure they could make arrangements to get that taken care of for you. So, you know, like I said anything just to keep us all going right now.

Todd:   8:00
Good idea. So last couple weeks we did lots of educational discussions, and I figured it would be fun to talk about something fun instead of ah instead of something educational. So today's topic is gear acquisition syndrome winners and losers.

Dalton:   8:19
I guess you could say one of us are both. I was have gas.

Todd:   8:23
Yeah, yes. Bad case of guess. So why Don't explain what your gear acquisition systems instruments don't want to give it a go.

Dalton:   8:33
Basically, the short version is Any time you start a new hobby, you end up just acquiring and going through a lot of gear. Doesn't have to be something expensive on it. Doesn't have to be some cheap. It could be all over the board as far as price goes. But you're trying for diving. You're trying defends. You're trying different mask. You're trying different BC's regulators dive computers. Yeah. You're just trying to figure out what it is that you like And did you hear about? Oh, well, there's this little widget that is supposed to be amazing, and it will save you. You half a tank of air if you just try it. Yeah, all these all these little things and sew it will make you take a better photograph. Yeah. So you're like, Oh, yeah. 20 bucks. Sure, no problem. And you end up sometimes getting something great and sometimes not so much.

Todd:   9:36
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head. For the most part, the only thing I would add is you bind up buying a lot of stuff that you can use, and then you buy a lot of stuff that you don't need or you think you could use and just never, ever sees the light of day once it's once it's back to your house or in your dive bag. So we thought a refund who talk about some of our winners and losers as a result of gear acquisition syndrome look, gear acquisition syndrome. It's part of the fund buying, buying by and stuff buying toys for your new passion. That's that's part of the fun of getting it that diving screen on its own, but having stuff to make the dive even more enjoyable on just having Gidget and gadgets. You know, people we love our gear,

Dalton:   10:19
especially when you're, ah, gadget person.

Todd:   10:22
Exactly. So we figured we'd kind of share off the top for heads. What some of our winners and losers are. Losers don't necessarily have to be stuff that doesn't work, just stuff we bought and don't use anymore. Why I figure what we can do is kind of go each one of us. Talk about We'll pick one each from our winners list and then move to one each from the losers list in work way back and forth from there and see how it goes.

Dalton:   10:48
Sounds like a plan Why don't you start a soft hub?

Todd:   10:52
All right, so the first thing I have on my winners list is a Each to yo is the brand, but it's on underwater shaker, basically a noise device. And we have a long history with the Shakers. I know Don will regale your stories with homemade shakers that he made with PVC tubing and stuff, which was very admirable, but given the cost and the and and how it performed probably not is not as good as Thea professional ones, but But there they were still awesome On and again, another passion is do it yourself stuff. We can talk about that. But anyways, I I love this thing. They're shakers in general, they're small. You put him up to your BC with a little care being a little ring, and we use them all the time and diving because when you're down, you need to get your buddies attention. Usually it's to say, Hey, look, look, This critter I found bang bang Your tank doesn't usually work underwater unless you're really attuned toward. We already know. You don, you know, as an instructor have time. You're banging your tank on the stuff. Most guests aren't even looking at that, but looking at you even though you're banging your tank furiously. But a shaker tends to make a unique enough noise that, um, it usually gets most people's attention, especially those that know that you have it and maybe shaking to say, Hey, come look at this and we use it all the time

Dalton:   12:21
Absolutely. I think that is the top one on my list is well, except it's not a H two yo, which it started out. Actually, it started out as a D i y piece of PVC tubing. No special with some nuts inside it. But then we were at scuba show. We saw Htoo and we picked those up and it was great for a long time. But then I had my gear stolen and h e o went with that. After that, I bought Ah, this excess scuba rattle stick, which is just like about the same size, is Htoo same concept piece of metal with something inside that rattles, but it's got a magnet on the bottom of the cap. So did it's not gonna rattle unless you pull that off for unless you start shaking it vigorously. Um, and if you take the cap off, you have a higher pitch sound. So you get two tones out of the out of the one shaker, which is which is pretty cool. It's great when teaching a class. I can tell me if you hear this, make sure you look around and find me or whatever. I'm trying to get your attention. But the one that I would say on the opposite side of that that goes on the loser list is the quack, the underwater air quackery. Know what I'm talking about?

Todd:   13:53
Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Their hilarious, but I believe they're super expensive. I haven't heard him in the last few years. They used up some of your air there. Like in line with your with your second. I forget. I think

Dalton:   14:07
it's in your, um

Todd:   14:12
you can see us what, going like this to each other with their little fingers. Inflator hose. Look, I think they're awesome, but I remember looking at the ones I forget how much they were. They're expensive, and they makes stupid sounds underwater. They sound like there's a duck going on underwater, but, uh, yeah, I definitely, definitely too little overkill for for the same purpose you can get with the with the Shaker.

Dalton:   14:40
Don't want to say they're like 100 bucks and they waste your air. Actually, I just looked him up on leisure Pro, and it's called the Dive Alert plus and they go for 80 bucks. 79 95.

Todd:   14:53
Okay, better than what I remember them used to going

Dalton:   14:56
for. So that's that's today's price to verse. Sixes price, right? But yeah, it's just something that I just couldn't wrap my head around at the time anyway. Something that I'm going Teoh, I have a finite resource. My air that I require toe have to live to breathe underwater, and I'm going to use it making some silly noise. It just It just didn't add up for me. Personally.

Todd:   15:26
I'll pick one from my loser list. I want to go first with the white balance card that, um I thought was such a great idea to do when I was starting with underwater photography, I basically punched a hole in a plastic water proof on white balance card thinking that you know what? I'm gonna have to re white balance a lot of stuff. Um, one was the idea that that it was not as useful as I thought one being because a lot of times, if I needed a white bounce because I wasn't using strobes, I can use the sea floor most the time. Or in this case, uh, my wife has white fins. I can just use her friends if I had to. The second thing is the damn sucker would break up all the time because it was a big was a big standard card, like, you know, run by, you know, you know, half inch by two inches or something and would always constantly be getting ripped off and current and in drag and was just another thing to add to the B C. So is not that you shouldn't white balance or even had have a white balance card, But I just I had it kept breaking off. I would just never I would almost never use it. And it was one last piece of gear that I really needed on my BC.

Dalton:   16:38
And honestly, if you're using strobes underwater, your white balance should be around 5500 anyway.

Todd:   16:46
Yep, And again, songs You're shooting raw, if any tweaks you need to make your not going too far off. If, uh, so it just It just did not really come in handy. And, um, there will be certain circumstances where you know you can't use strobes and you are gonna white balance a lot of times I'm first and comes to mind shooting shipwrecks where you may want to have it in the distance, and but a lot of times, and then you can just use the sea floor. Anyway, it's if you're gonna take the time and sit there and do custom white balance setting the camera, go back and say users custom white balance. It's very much a labor intensive t do that to set it on a regular basis. Anyway, you're better off. Just you know what user strobes used to use the auto white balance and then tweak it and post and be done, especially considering that it was always another consideration. Every time on diving is Oh, my God. Did I lose the stupid white balance card again? So I stopped carrying that with me after the first six months or a year.

Dalton:   17:47
How many did you body in the

Todd:   17:49
six months. You know what? It's funny and it tore off several times, but I only had one, so it survived the entire time. I think it's still probably in in my diabetic, one of my diet beg somewhere. But I never officially lost it, even though I even though his paranoid about losing it all the time and it did indeed break off several times. Okay, how about you don't What's next on your winner list?

Dalton:   18:15
My winner list. You know, probably I would go with the They have these great dense foam floats that you put on your strobe arms for your camera helps you get neutrally buoyant. There's one thing I've been seen a bit lately, with some other YouTube reviews Will call him where people don't really know that they're what they're reviewing. You know, they're reviewing an underwater housing, and they're like, Yeah, this plate on the bottom is for lead weight. Well, if you're Xun A. If you're DSLR in a housing, odds are it's not gonna be floating away. It's gonna be sinking, especially once you add batteries and lenses. And, you know, maybe if you have a dome port, it might be a little bit more buoyant, but I haven't found it to be so. So you have these flows to your arms to help get your rig closer in natural. Andi, I found those to be a lifesaver ous faras energy and even breathing consumption. Because do not have into adjust your weight. You're not having to carry around this heavy piece of equipment. It's pretty much neutral. And it it's a really good thing for both of us. I think.

Todd:   19:50
Yeah, I started off are still used. I think there were sticks. Arms S t i X. They basically, um you know, uh, unscrew the ball heads and you can slide in whatever floats you need to the like modular. They make some big floats, middle size floats and little ones so you can find tune based on your set up. Ah, you're rigged to make it as close to neutral as you as you like. And you really need they They do these look like big, dense pieces of styrofoam. Although you can't just you start from there meant toe handle more pressure that you would get what scuba diving depths. You can make your camera look silly. with all these big pieces. Start from on the arms, but it is a lifesaver once you're diving, if you're close toe neutrally buoyant, it's so nice versus having to basically do a weight lifting workout. If you don't have them while you're diving, it's It's a pain in the butt and your arms get super tired. But then, once you have gear that's basically weightless underwater, it's so nice. And it's also fun to show off on a safety stop that you can just put your camera on and just sits there and floats. Always fun,

Dalton:   20:57
even even a depth. I mean, you're getting ready to take a shot. And you know, you don't mind letting go of your camera to reach and grab something. You know you have a connect, you have it connected to you via coil and our retractor, and then it's pretty much neutral. You don't mind letting get go of it to reach for something and then or a just try to adjust your, you know, grabbing both strobes to try toe adjust or something or whatever you're trying to do. Or if you're just trying to show off like you said, Um, it's been a great thing.

Todd:   21:32
Yeah, And so if you're just getting started in underwater photography, you don't have a big SLR with the dome port and strobes and all this other stuff. You probably don't need to bother with this. Uh, it's just something that people with larger rigs have to deal with just cause they're strobes. Air so heavy. A swell. Is there Cameron everything else? So you need something to help offset the weight. It just gets worse and worse as you get lower on the water. Having said that, there's nowadays I just happen to look at Amazon. There are float arms that they used to be super expensive. I think only ultra light used to make them. But now there's some off brands that you can get on Amazon. They're pretty inexpensive, too, but I haven't tried amount, but I am curious toe again. My gear acquisition syndrome radar is tingling, and I would love to try to see if how good those are and if they can be a potential suitable replacement for my big old stick arms and Styrofoam replacements.

Dalton:   22:26
For sure, I think there's company called beneath the Surface or something like that, that makes some.

Todd:   22:32
Yeah, they have them, and then they're just some off brands from somewhere nature that have him, too. But we'll see if we can find some links in the show notes. Like I said, I haven't used them. I'm only and only swear by the stick arms. Six sticks arms But but they're great if you have a big rig. It's great to have a neutrally buoyant camera and makes life so much more easy during the dive. The only thing, though elaborate on that a little bit if I have to choose whether to make my rig a little bit positively buoyant or negatively point. I always tended before just a little bit negative agreed. You want, if anything, be able to still set the camera down, especially if you're on the sea floor or somewhere else and not have to worry about it just floating away, moving away. So if you have to choose one that you want to trim it so close to neutral but slightly negative, and that's what most people tend to like. But some people like it the other way as well.

Dalton:   23:21
Yeah, I think you're you're spot on with it being slightly negative that way, it's you set it down somewhere, and it's not gonna float away on you

Todd:   23:33
sticking in the dive photography. The other thing on my winners list is amok stick or some people we notice a pointer. It's basically a liminal. A little looming, Um, or a steel sometimes little pointer that you'll see a lot of dive guides will use to bang on their tanks. But this is fantastic for a couple reasons. Any Unnie in my mind, every underwater photographer should have this if you have a big rig, for sure. But even if even if you're have a small camera system that you're taking, it's just great, because one, it helps you minimize how much you're actually touching the reef. If you have a mock stick, the point of contact that you're making with live rock the sand, anything else is so much smaller. Your ableto basically maneuver yourself all. Just have it by having minimal contact with the reef, and it's great for everything else. Photographer late. It's great for measuring distance. When you have a macro set up, you need to know what your focal length is gonna be. X amount of length. You know it's OK about this this far along my stick. I need to set up my lens. You can measure it out before you get set up for your shot. There's countless different things, but muck sticks, air like a few bucks or 10 bucks, and they have countless fantastic uses.

Dalton:   24:49
And about how long are those like six Tub

Todd:   24:52
about 12 12 to 14 inches somewhere?

Dalton:   24:56
Yeah, yeah, I would say they're definitely not longer than 14 inches, but you probably find him somewhere in between the 12 and 14 entrench.

Todd:   25:06
They may come in a couple different materials. Aluminum's lighter steels more beefy, but they both worked just fine. They're great. They're great for so many different things. They muck sticks always come in handy, but it's also the environmentally conscious thing to do, and it also for anything photographer, he related. It makes getting your shot so much easier

Dalton:   25:27
and make sure you get stainless steel. Make sure it's stainless steel if you get the stones. I don't want him to rust, and they come in in all kinds of varieties. Some of them have little plastic handles on them, the figure so it's like a handgrip and some of her just a straight piece of metal, like a metal skinny metal dowel with a little clip at the end for you to clip onto your BC I mean, there's come in all different kinds of gives most and gadgets and shapes and sizes for you.

Todd:   25:59
Yeah, I actually took the one that comes over strap, and I actually remove the wrist wrap and put a little zip tie and then attached to many retractor to it. So it's out there and I can just do that, too. But they're cheap and they're definitely must have for underwater photographers. Absolutely. All right, Don't what's on your next on your loser list

Dalton:   26:19
loser list? Well, I think it kind of ah is going Teoh, Tie him with that a little bit and I'm saying, Ah, you know, like some of the cheap clips, cheap arm joints, um, things that aren't made from stainless still or aluminum. You'll get things that say they're saying that still, but the main part of the clip might be staying still with a spring or the pens are not. You make sure that everything is stainless still or aluminum, so it doesn't rust. We I think we both had. I know when I first started out with underwater photography, I had really cheap arm joints and after, like, two dives, they would rust and start breaking apart. And the finish would come off of, um and some like, OK, I'll spend the money and buy a little bit better joint, And then it would be The main component is stainless steel or aluminum, but the screw going through it was not. And so that part would rest up. Yeah, so just make sure that everything is stainless or aluminum. I think Todd had a carabiner that he thought was stainless, and it still might be rusted to his BC

Todd:   27:42
Yes, e actually finally got it off. It was actually a Margaritaville carabiner that I thought was super cool. It was green and it was rusted completely on the hinge did not work, and I couldn't get it off for probably a good years until I finally took some tools to to break it on, get it off. But, uh, sadly had to go. That was actually on next to my usual list. Also carabiners that are not really stainless steel it's their nothing's that expensive anymore. But obviously, you will see carabiners and things like that that are super inexpensive. Spend a little bit extra money to make sure they're stainless and you'll get tons and tons of uses. It that goes from the worst list. It's also the best. Less carabiners can have endless great uses. You should definitely have a bunch. You'll find reasons to have those.

Dalton:   28:33
I have one. I have them on my winners list too. So

Todd:   28:36
yes, Yeah, eso They just make sure the stainless steel. So that was on my list as well. So why don't we jump back to the next on your winners list?

Dalton:   28:47
Okay. Well, I think I'll go back to a diving thing since we're just talking about D rings a big stainless. Still, Deering not one of these ones that you find that you clip your car keys on, but a good full size stainless still dearing for your open hill fends. So if you're doing a beach entry and you're carrying a camera you're carrying fends, you're carrying all kinds of crap. Um, if you have your open hill fends if you have those on a d a D ringing. I'm clipped to your BC one less thing you have to carry through the through the surf through your beach entry.

Todd:   29:26
That's a good one. And speaking of open, he'll fins. I think, actually, this is one of the first things you got for me when I got certified in back in 2006 which was when he bought our atomic fins. You turned us on to the spring. He'll that you can replace the plastic strap with basically spring loaded, highest high tension spring heels. You didn't have to mess with the strap. You just pull the spring through him on there and made getting you're open. He'll fins, which are pain in

Dalton:   29:54
the

Todd:   29:54
anyway. That makes it so much easier to get on, especially since you have lots of other heavy gear that you're probably putting at the same time.

Dalton:   30:01
Those those were worth every penny. Those were, I think those were some of the best investments for gear acquisition syndrome that that we've had.

Todd:   30:14
Definitely. We don't use them a lot because we after we got all of our certifications, we try to stick the warmer water. But as we talked about in the last episode. When you go diving places like Bonnaire, you hook those things up to this big dearing. And then when you're doing your short entry, you just Jimmy foot in there, grab the spring pulled around your ankles and you're good to go

Dalton:   30:34
on. And also, with all the more temperate diving here in California, you want to get out the oil rigs and stuff s so that will definitely be try suit and open health ends. So what you got on your loser list there next time?

Todd:   30:50
Okay, so the next thing I have to do is not actually lose Elice that I bought, but I bought for May, which is on areas dive watch. Now, people love areas, dive watches. So this I'm not looking to slander anyone here. But we were a diving surf, had a sale, and she we got a great deal on this area's epic dive computer That was a rare integrated. It came with a transmitter and and was everything was great. The menu ing system on this dive watch made absolutely no sense. The instruction manual went along with It was also horrible. There was nothing user intuitive about this dive watch. It was off work. Great once you figured it out. But like to figure out how I need Set the night trucks, unite trucks, levels your night truck settings, changing everything else. May There was no good manual system. He had old combinations of two different keys and do all this stupid shenanigans. We had to call technical support on several occasions to figure out how to do certain things, and at first I thought it was just us. I tried to Google the answer. There was no answers for this stuff. It was only other people with the same complaints. So although good company and they make good die watches, this area's epic was one of the worst things. I could not wait to get rid of that thing for her. So I was thankful when I re sold it on eBay and moved on and got her on soon toe Dive Watch Systems, which has a much, much more user intuitive men Ewing system.

Dalton:   32:21
Yeah, I had at a similar experience with the Sherwood and Focus. I think it's called Bought that for Ramona and same thing the menu ING system on. It was very complex, not user friendly at all. Same thing combination of buttons to hold down. To get to this, and then you have to do all this other stuff. You almost had to be able to finger yoga Teoh stuff, you know? And it also doesn't help that you and I both have been diving Santo watches for 20 years. I Yeah, it's definitely a very user friendly, and we're accustomed to it. So trying to sort out something else, it can be a pain in the ass.

Todd:   33:18
I get you used, Teoh what you used to, and people are afraid to change whatever. But there's just stupid men Ewing Systems, that there's no excuse for for that. And

Dalton:   33:27
I agree. I'm just trying toe cover a little bit.

Todd:   33:30
I know, and I'm sure areas has new versions that are much better. I can only speak to this epic that just just in my mind, like I just wanted my get my money back a soon as I got that thing, but I'm sure it's much better, but it's a good P S A. For anyone looking to buy a new dive watch, which is we can talk about. It's one of the best things to spend a lot of money when you first, when your first No, you really going to be into diving is you want a really cool dive watch and just make sure you play around even if you're not certified. Ever think you're gonna dive night trucks? Make sure you understand how to get through this settings. Go go to dive mode. Had a review. Dive log. How did she change from air? Deny trucks and make sure all that stuff is user intuitive before you. Actually, you walk out the door with one. Or just make sure there's a good return policy and test out how to do everything beforehand to make sure it's not going to drive you insane as long as you that you'll be fine.

Dalton:   34:22
Absolutely. Just go to your local dive shop and or to a scuba show. When one comes around close to you and get your hands on ah, watching play with it and look at it before you actually spend the money on it. They're usually fairly pricey, I would say between 400 on the low end and 1500 to 2 grand on the high end, so before you go drop in that kind of money, definitely. Get your hands on it and play with it and make sure that it's gonna be something that you can ah, that you like. That's gonna be easy for you, Teoh to deal with when you're on a dive boat and doing other things.

Todd:   35:03
Another pro tip related since we're talking about dive watches is look for one that has user replaceable batteries, which is a godsend because our first dive watches. Although we're great on used for many, many years Cento de nine and D six, you had to send them any time the battery was low, you had to send them in to get serviced, and it should have been every other year. But as my watch got older after ascended in every year to get replaced. And it's not the cheapest thing. Most of dive watches nowadays lets you replace the battery yourself, and it's much, much cheaper. And it's much nicer having that ability,

Dalton:   35:41
right? Right for sure. So what? What's next on our on our list here?

Todd:   35:46
I think we got your loser list. Is next my

Dalton:   35:49
loser list already? You know, this one might get a little bit of ah little pushback, but that's fine. Just just I'm not a split fin fan. I waas I've bought two or three pairs of, like, a Tom Aquatic split fends, And, um, I felt like there were more hype than they were performance.

Todd:   36:13
So what? What was lacking? What didn't you like about them? Was it? I think it

Dalton:   36:17
was more function like sculling. Um, as photographers, you tend to do a lot of sculling and backing up and stuff and split fins just are not known for that. Um, basically, it's my understanding and from my experience, is that they're supposed to be very powerful good for going straight forward, cutting through a current kind of thing. If you're not doing that, that they're just not again. This is my experience. Um, for me, they were not the best fen, which I guess that also kind of goes Teoh. Just like anything that you're gonna buy to dive with. Try different things. Try split friends. Try full foot fins. Try open hill fans, try a full blade fan. You know, im find what works for you and what you like. But for me, the, uh, the full fit fins just are were more hype than what they were. Worse. Which this split finch of the split friends. Yeah,

Todd:   37:16
well, let's leave it at that. I I agree. I still have my only opening up. Finch is still the original atomic aquatics we have. I agree, though I think if you're looking for to get your max thrust in power out of it, you lose it with us with a split fin versus just just a full paddle. But I have been diving so infrequently in colder water that I haven't had cause to swap him out there. Find their good for, like, small little movements, I guess. But when you want just to get the most maximum return on your kicking, which will then translate into being more efficient underwater, you lose out the split friends and definitely ah, not ideal for that. But eso it's a good point, but having said that, some other people love them. But this is just what's on our list. It's in our opinion, all right. Why don't we jump to once you give us another from your winners list?

Dalton:   38:10
So probably on the more expensive side of gear acquisition syndrome. Um, there's the Hollis Explorers semi closed circuit rebreather

Todd:   38:23
talk again, Acquisition singer. Now, now we're talking the worst case.

Dalton:   38:28
So one of the nice things about being on a re breathers that you don't blow any bubbles, and you can stay down for extended periods of time. And it's the nice thing is a photographer about not blowing bubbles is that you don't scare the fish away. Most of Thesis E life are scared by the noise and the bubbles of you breed and on open circuit scuba. So when you switch over to something like the Hollis Explorer that is a semi closed circuit rebreather you're not blowing, you're not blowing any any bubbles, and your voi INSEE is not dependent on your breath. So as you scuba dive on open circuit, when you breathe and fill your lungs, you raise up and you go down depending as you exhale on a closed circuit or semi closed circuit. That doesn't change. As you breathe in and you breathe out. Your buoyancy doesn't change, so there's there's a lot of pluses to that as a as a photographer, and plus, I think if you're I think on the lease on the Hollis. I think you're underwater. Time is like four hours. There's something to be said for for that. So, yeah, that's that's Ah, that's on my high end of the gear acquisition syndrome list.

Todd:   39:57
Do you know what they go for? The about five sen Mike OK,

Dalton:   40:01
about five grand, but that's that's all in. That's your unit, your dive watch and everything. Your dive, computer and everything. It's all one unit. So

Todd:   40:13
and the Explorer Sports re breather for 49 74 on eBay. They have some other, but they have some other models out of that go up to close to 10 grand. But there's varying, different versions. Looks like to be a Hollis Prism. That's 8 85 100 Things like that. It's expensive, have acquires.

Dalton:   40:32
It also depends if you're going semi closed circuit or fully closed circuit.

Todd:   40:36
Either way, it's Ah, it's a whole another level of diving. It definitely was cool. I would. I really excited about trying at some point. I would love to go on a trip. We need to plan this where we can just rent them and go through, of course, and then actually do some diving on it. I've always wanted to, but I haven't Haven't done yet. Yeah, I was

Dalton:   40:53
lucky enough when I was going through my patty i d c We got to do some work on the Hollis Explorer, and it was It was phenomenal. It was so much fun.

Todd:   41:04
All right, well, next on my winners list and know what's on yours too. But it probably is more appropriate for me, which is a swivel hose for my regulator, because I have been known to choose through many in that mouthpiece trying to fight with the regulator I still do. It's just a lot less than it used to be back when I got my standard regulator, Um, it's just basically hose goes right in your regulator and you put it in your mouth and you're good to go. The problem is, once as your diving in your turn, hearing stuff and people looking around looking for stuff some will shake. Oh, come on, you look this your instinct is to turn one way or the other or whatever. Well, then, your mouthpiece is always fighting with you, and I have the tendency to bite down hard on it. So I would shoot through. I don't know how many different mouthpieces just doing that. As soon as I got the swivel hose added, instead of the standard one, the amount of tension in my jaw just the stress just went away and melted away. If I needed to do an infomercial in this trouble hose, I would be that pay thing because it was the best money I ever spent to the time.

Dalton:   42:07
So my recollection is that after we bought our aqualung legends, which was our our first regulators at the time, I want to say, within within 4 to 6 months, you had already chewed through your s mouthpiece. Yes, And then who found the, um, Atomic aquatics makes a braided swivel universal braided swivel hose. And that's the one you got. I think they're like 89 or 100 bucks.

Todd:   42:42
100 bucks area. Just looking it up now. Atomic one is,

Dalton:   42:45
but and the big thing about like he said, Is that so Your standard hose that your regulators on it says in a very narrow window. And when you have it in your mouth, if you turn your head all the way to the right. It pulls on your pushes on your on your mouth. If you turn your head all the way to the left, it pulls on your mouth. So you have, like, is very narrow window in the middle, where you're looking straight ahead or straight down that it's comfortable or fairly comfortable. And with the braided swivel hos, there's basically it's a softer hose being a braided hose. And then the swivel that it's on gives you so much movement in the regulator that no matter which way you turn your head up, down, left right, the hose just moves and turns with you. So it's definitely again another one of those things that I think were worth their weight in gold.

Todd:   43:47
Yep, so I'm looking just ah quick Google search that they still sell the Tom because about 100 10 bucks on divers direct, you can get one made by excess scuba on leisure pro for about 80 and then they make various adapters that you can take your standard hose and put a swivel on. There is cheapest 30 bucks, so lots of different options. But whichever way you go, you're gonna be happy that you spent the money. Teoh, get that little swivel. It just makes life so much your dive so much more enjoyable.

Dalton:   44:16
And what do you got for a Ah, for a loser there, Todd.

Todd:   44:19
Okay, so this one on my loser list I know I have a ton more. I was actually struggling because there's so much stuff I bought and just didn't use. And I'm just forgot about all the gear I was thinking. I need to go into my garage and just look to see what the department of my dive bag. This one here isn't necessarily a bad product. I just don't use it that much. Which was a macro close up lens. Basic little mini in macro adapter for the go pro backscatter. And some other companies make these cool adapters where you basically can flip in a wet mount. Close up filter for GoPro, concept is great. The pictures I saw were great, but the few times I try to use it, I just was not getting good results. And unless you put the GoPro on a little mini tripod and got it on a bottom dwelling critter, that would just stay there. It just what you weren't going to get any good footage with it. It was not terribly expensive, so it's not a big deal, but I just find I can never use it. It's one of things I bought because I'm like, This is the coolest thing ever. I'm going to be able to get cool macro video that I don't have to do with Abigail and I can get into small spaces because it's just a GoPro on and was great. I forget what it was. 50 to $80. It technically works, but I just It just I can't get it to work on any any my dies where I just had zero luck with it and I gave up.

Dalton:   45:41
So I've got a couple of things left on my loser list. Stranded Cy. I mean, it's on the loser list, but it's almost a requirement that you have tohave it in cooler water. And that's gonna be the seven mil wetsuit. It's a love hate relationship. You love that it keeps you warm, but you hate putting it on. You know, I have never been more motivated to get dry suits certified than after having put on a seven mil wetsuit unless you're you know, I'm going to say unless because I know that I've had super skinny friends that we've gone cold water diving with and they even struggle putting on the seven mil wetsuit. And when you talk about your bigger guys like myself trying to put on seven mil wetsuit, you feel like the state puffed marshmallow man when you get in that thing and it's hot until you get in the water and then it's, you know, finally cools off and gets relatively comfortable. But it is a, uh, it's a beast. It is a

Todd:   46:59
in the East. And don't even talk about putting that five millimeter hooded vest over the seven million made a wetsuit. You're motion restriction. I mean, you can't move any of your joints. It's ridiculous. I think back in 2006 when we got here, what should? I wasn't still relatively skinny then. That's tires were changed, but I did not enjoy it then, and I definitely don't enjoy it now, so it's it's it's great to have. You don't want to deal with with dry suits. If you're diving locally here in so Cal or anyone in cold water, you got it. You got to do it. Especially when starting out. But if I only knew better, I would just made the jump to dry suit much sooner. And we probably would have ended up doing a lot more divers locally than we dio

Dalton:   47:46
drives. It'll change your life, man.

Todd:   47:48
Yeah, that is for sure.

Dalton:   47:50
What do you got on your winner list? But

Todd:   47:52
so I guess keeping in the wetsuit section, I'm gonna go with my bare wet suits. And again, we're not sponsored here by anything. We're just talking about our experiences here. But one of the first wet suits I bought what's happened to be that 70 millimeter wetsuit is that here in the U. S. They don't do a lot of custom wetsuits, especially that unless they're super expensive. But the thing I liked about bear one, the material was great. But the second thing was their sizing. So instead of having just your standard small, medium, large, double extra plex, whatever they have for all of us, weird body types that are not super tall but still need you just still need more room. They have large shorts and large, tall and basically size. Basically Mawr standard sizing that is more likely to fit you. So you're not gonna have, ah, large or extra large wet suit. Then you have to bunch up all this material of the knees because you're not that tall. But you still need to get the material around your body. So bear for most for many of their wetsuits, I think three millimeter on up have standard sizing that has short and large, short and tall for all the standard sizing and materials great and super comfortable. One of us just had some great experience with them. I've had other what you said a great as well, but I just love the sizing options with the bare wet suits

Dalton:   49:11
right on. I don't think I've ever does bear. I've always been a whatever wet suit I confined. A work kind of can't exactly. Um, that's mostly because unless we're diving in cold water, I never wear what suits. I'm usually shorts and a pull over.

Todd:   49:29
Having said that, I think the other thing is, brands aside, I almost always dive. They'll never dies in which it I'm almost always in a full wetsuit, no matter what. So even in warm water. I'll put on what we like to call the super suit just so I can have some sort of protection if there's jellyfish or for a cool inflation retouching anyway. But I just like the peace of mind that I don't have any my skin exposed that way for brushing up against something. I'm not going to get a rash because I know we've got some

Dalton:   49:59
allergies going on there.

Todd:   50:01
Yes, yeah. So it's It's good, Teoh. Get for peace of mind that even if you're diving in warm water, these super skins that are basically don't give you any buoyancy, either, either half Miller just they're called dive skins or whatever. If you happen, have sensitive skin or anything like that. It's always good to have on, and it's super comfortable, even even in warm, warm days. Once you get in the water, it doesn't dry out quick, so it still keeps you cool. A super suits their unofficial winner in my list.

Dalton:   50:29
Absolutely. I think what I was going to toss in for a, uh, for winner is a fiber optic slave for your strobe. So I knew that like a light and a company called Angel fish. They make a a slave sensor that you can screw into your port on your rather it cycle I ds 1 60 or fiber optic on a CNC strobe. But then you can take that strobe and put it behind something. And then when you fire your strobes to flavor, the slave sensor will pick up and fire the strobe that you place behind. Whatever subject that you're trying to get a shot of, rather be a coral reef for something like that.

Todd:   51:19
Yeah, definitely something I want to get into. I haven't haven't had a chance to play around with that, but there's so much more fun lighting, opportunity conduce. If you can do that, it's not that hard to get set up, so definitely worth playing around. With what? You've got some time and you have a good shot in mind. Teoh. Get that set up for sure. Any other things I were I know we're just about an hour here, I guess the only thing I want to throw in a d. Y. I option that I still love, but I'm biased because I also made it, but it's having a handle on your diving on a bigger dive rig. I was inspired on a trip to Lim Bay. I want to say I was diving with Michael eight housing and to carry stuff from the camera room to the boat was quite a long walk. And you have this big rig with all these long arms and strobes and their ganglion. You have to hold on to them and it's a long walk into pain the butt. And you have to worry about tripping and following things like that. Well, I saw these guys and I believe that was not a cam housings. All the naughty cam housings back in the day had these little, many dealings on all their all of their underwater housings. And they have these little, many ropes and they could just hold it right in the center. So the center of gravity is there, no matter how big or small their arms are. It was just so much easier for them to carry their stuff on, like how come? How come I can't get on one of these Well and like, I need to get any to get this for I quite well at the time, I quite didn't make them. They now have a system. I'll put the cabbie on there, but it's very expensive to basically retrofit Onda have a handle, but I'm like, OK, there's gotta be way of doing this. And so I figured what I would do is get some steam the steel rings and get some pair record and do abraded pair record cable and slide the rings along the quickly sandals. And sure enough, they work great and tell you it's It's so much easier toe now that you have a handle that you can get your your rig from from your the camera room to the boat. And then also, when you have to hand up your rig to the boat from the water, they don't have to grab them by the handles or by the arms and accidentally pulled out. They just grab it by the handle. It's much easier to pass off your gear that way, So that's one of my favorite do you II options that I've done lately.

Dalton:   53:33
And it's ah, great one. Teoh. I love that handle that he gave me. Um, it might be a cool idea if we can do it today, Um, would have to find a way toe to set up some kind of give away, and we can give away a handle. Ah,

Todd:   53:54
good idea.

Dalton:   53:54
You know, it's not like they can leave a comment on. Can I leave comments on our podcasts, iTunes or Spotify forever?

Todd:   54:07
Uh, what they can do is we'll have in our notes. We'll have a link to the blawg that goes to this and on the site. You can leave a comment on the site. So if you go to a show notes and click on the link for a show, notes leave a comment on the Web page. It's basically is going to take you to our aquatic life podcast dot com and about this episode, you can then just leave a comment there.

Dalton:   54:30
Leave a comment. What's on their their winner. Dear Acquisition list. What's on their loser gear acquisition list? Let's see what other people are thinking as well. And you know, we'll pick somebody from those comments to get one of those handles.

Todd:   54:44
I like it. I like it. What else do you have on your list? Any other winners that jump out at you that we didn't get? Teoh Chai. Yeah,

Dalton:   54:52
I got a, uh you know, I'm gonna have to say my, uh, my atomic frameless mask. Um, I have seen other frameless masks and there were great. Um, I've even dove on several other ones in there. They're very comfortable as well. But the atomic frameless mask, I think I have half a dozen sitting in in the garage and the dive box. I don't think I could have asked for a more comfortable mask. I think he started diving at first, and then I tried it out on a dive and was hooked. And ever since then, pretty much the only mascot buys the atomic frameless. And it's, you know, worth every penny super comfortable. I think what makes it more comfortable for me is that the silicone on it, The silicone frame is very soft, and because I usually have a beard or goatee and mustache, the soft silicone it tends to make a better seal. Eso Whenever you're looking for a dive mask, looks something with the soft silicone is gonna make a better seal when you smile. If you have hair in your face, anything like that, as opposed to something with a little harder silicon that was a few. Smile or squint your eyes or do whatever with your face with the harder silicone mask they tend toe depends and open up a little gaps for water to leak in. Yeah, the atomic frameless has been fantastic. Very rare. Doesn't leak super easy to clear, low volume It's a dream to dive.

Todd:   56:32
Yeah, so two points on that. I just bought the frameless to Mass prior to my last dive trip because unfortunately I lost one of my coveted frameless masks. The frameless to is great. I don't notice much of a difference it off from the original. So in my two cents is don't spend the extra $30 that they want for the frameless to they still sell the original frameless. It works just as well. So if I had my druthers, I'd still just buy another regular frameless. But they're both great. They're super soft. If you have a tall knows like me, it's also great to have any famous master. You don't have a bruise on the bridge of your nose from it. But on the flip side, my wife can't wear that because the shape of her face just it just doesn't work. So, like anything else, One of the hardest things to get pieces of equipment are finding the right mask that fits your face once you find something that you absolutely love going by another one and always have a spare with you on on future dive trip. So once you find that one, that's your new spirit animal, right? Make sure that you buy at least one other one. Otherwise, you don't know if they go out of business. You can ever find again. You're gonna gonna be killing yourself. And sure enough, uh, may found a mass that she loved and was ocean ways. I think it was, especially when they were in business, had this brand ocean ways, and I think they they're Soltz else elsewhere. But they went out of business, and I'm we were to close out. I went and made sure she bought five of them because she doesn't want to wear any mash. Nothing works for this is the only brand that would ever work for. But now we're set that she should hopefully for the rest of her dive life, have a mask and never have to worry about it. Five might be overkill, obviously, but I would say spend the extra money once you find that the mess that you love and make sure you have a backup just in case.

Dalton:   58:20
Oh, for sure, I I'm a big proponent of having a t least two redundant masks I might not carry him. You carry three mask with me every time, but I definitely carry too, just for a bunch of different reasons. Strap could break. And instead of taking the time to put a leather strap on you just grab your mask and go. Don't worry about it on your surface interval. Um, something might happen that you lose the mask. You know, they're just a bunch of things that could go wrong in that arena. And it could fail Strap, straight strap, spraying all kinds of stuff. So it's always a good idea to have have redundancy.

Todd:   59:07
Yeah, that's a whole other thing, but pretty much all the major pieces of equipment. If you're going on a big, expensive diet trip, you probably want to make sure you have a redundant piece of just about everything with you, just in case something goes wrong. So having a dive mask is where it all starts out.

Dalton:   59:22
Absolutely. What about Utah? You got anything else on your,

Todd:   59:25
uh So I think one thing that's both on both of ours. I guess we could talk about it. And we have already in the past podcast, which is having an action cam with you. So it's It's so small and easy, and it takes great footage a lot of the time. And even if nothing else, it's still great to get stuff of you and your friends were going diving with friends. Get pictures as you're jumping in the water, talking about experiences Ugo. And it's just it's small. It's water proof. You can do tons of fun stuff with it, and you can have gear acquisition syndrome all around action cams. On top of it, it takes up no space, lots of great video to to get from it. Um, definitely highly recommended.

Dalton:   1:0:09
Agreed. And there's so many options of that now. Between the GoPro, the d G I, action Cam, there's some knockoffs that you can find on Amazon that air like 50 or 60 bucks. Um, yeah, which, for what you're getting is, you know, great. Even if it say it lasts you a year? Yeah, you get a bunch of dives out of it. And in the course of your vacation, or what not And you still get good footage and a lot of fun.

Todd:   1:0:40
Anything on your loser list that you want to call out or re exhaust yours Yet already,

Dalton:   1:0:46
Um, I think there's, like, one thing left on my loser list, and it was the I don't know if you remember it or if anyone else has ever even heard of it. It's called a turtle back. So

Todd:   1:1:00
remind me I don't remember What if you

Dalton:   1:1:02
think Camelback for bike riding, think turtle back for scuba diving. It is a Yep. It is a water hydration system that basically straps to the back of your tank via the strap for your BC That goes around your tank and you get a hose that comes over and hangs down off your BC. And if you get a little thirsty little parts while you're down there on that long dive, take stuff. Little sippy sip of some water. If you little dry mouth, you know, no problems now it was Ah, it is. Yeah, yeah, pretty much your reaction is the reason the loser list. Um, I don't even know if they still make him or not. But it was It was definitely an entertaining item. I saw the scuba show one year, and, um and then I have seen it around making the rounds in some of the Florida dive boats and stuff, but it was entertaining.

Todd:   1:2:05
So you're probably thinking of putting Malibu and there instead of instead of water and guess

Dalton:   1:2:10
Absolutely no carbonated. I might have to like some Malibu and some O J

Todd:   1:2:14
Malibu and seawater contrail, right? Not uproot, not approved. You shouldn't be diving and while under the influence. But, you know, people are thinking that that's what they want to do with it,

Dalton:   1:2:24
right? Right. But yeah, it's the The concept is interesting. Um, I don't know that I've ever felt the need. Teoh have something to drink while I dive. I mean, I know I've got a little dry mouth here and there, but, um, you know, I always hydrate before it. I've always hydrated my surface interval and always hydrate after my dot my second or third dive of the day, whatever it is, um, so I've never really thought about carrying something with me on. I mean, the Max dive time is an hour and usually our 15 hour 20. If you're lucky, unless you're driving the blue hair and bridge, then you can get like two hours of your dive time. But most boat trips is 45 minutes. Well,

Todd:   1:3:17
maybe one year's spring for that re breather in your diving four hours at a time you can. You can make a case for a turtle back, but, uh, but, like you said, I think you more often your expelling fluid will underwater than needing Teoh. But that's that's interesting. I totally forgot that you got one of those fascinated. Now we have to look that up.

Dalton:   1:3:39
Yeah, I'll send you else in your linked to it. It's It's Ah, yeah, it's about

Todd:   1:3:45
so here's another one from mind, and I think we'll have to wrap it up. Um, and again by itself, this isn't a bad product. I own a ton. Uh, we both go down the rabbit hole of having dry boxes of all different shapes and sizes all the time. This is something where it's easy. Have to go down this rabbit hole on just I need one. That's just from my phone. I need one for this size and that's that is gonna be held my laptop. In that case, the ship goes overboard. It's got a keep my laptop dry and blah, blah, blah. I have way too many of these dry boxes. Eso the drive boxes themselves are great, but I think I they take up more room than you need. I think dry bags are probably the way to go for a lot of stuff, anyway, especially if you're traveling, obviously certain other. Sometimes you want protection, so it makes sense to have a hard box. But there's a lot of times where you don't need it. But specifically why I had this in mind, which is having the the credit card size otter box that you typically would throw your keys and electron ICS and potential your phone in. It's not it's not a good idea. If you're worried about losing something and being something put, get something where you can basically lock it to your dive bag or make it harder for someone to get in there because you're more likely to flood and ruin your car, especially cut new car keys these days that all have electron ICS in them, or do something else or potentially lose something that was in a B C pocket that gets unzipped or

Dalton:   1:5:18
you put your on vacation and you put some cash pesos and you put some your credit cards in their your idea. Yeah, put it in your shorts pocket and forget about it and giant stride into the water and then realized that it was in your pocket. Amounts gone

Todd:   1:5:40
because they're float away, right? They're meant to float, go up. So they

Dalton:   1:5:46
it floated away. And I think I had Teoh borrow a few dollars until we could ah, get a credit card or debit card. Things straighten out. It was that was interesting. Trip. There's a lot of fun that

Todd:   1:6:01
U S o. Look, it seems like a good idea. Keep your credit card with you and your keys with you at all times, and in some cases you may have to, but I fight the urge and and find a different way to secure your stuff if you can, rather than taking it underwater with you, you're more likely to lose and or damage the contents, even though they're dry box that seeing your BC pocket or your shorts pocket. Then if you security is somewhere in your car or to your dive bag to make it harder and then hide it somewhere on, then it gets stolen there, obviously, and anything can happen. Nothing's 100% foolproof, but I think the chances of an accident happening they're gonna be higher than if you take a little bit extra effort and of getting it stolen.

Dalton:   1:6:45
Absolutely agree. And how about we ended with a winner? And I think we both can agree. Moisture munchers are a winner. Yes, so what you're telling about moisture brunches Todd,

Todd:   1:6:58
So Moisture muncher is actually kind of a kind of Xerox. Nowadays, there's a brand I believe called moisture months. Sure, they're great, but you've seen these little desiccant packets that come with anything you buy. This new that gets shipped from overseas is basically to make sure that there's no moisture in getting some Yeah, silica gel. So moisture munchers are in this case, have lots of good uses, but in this case, when you are shooting underwater photos, if you don't use them basically, humidity can get built up inside your housing and in a fogging your lens if you don't use them. So if you throw some moisture munchers or desk impacts in with your camera, they're cheap on and they will save you in your dive. They're usually good from multiple dives or days, but they're cheap enough that pretty much any time you're have to go into your housing to pull the memory card or anything else, it's time to swap them out anyway.

Dalton:   1:7:53
And, ah, little pro tip on those even land based I, um, if I'm traveling back somewhere, uh, back east, where it's a lot more humid than it is here in California, or if we're traveling somewhere cold like when we went to Iceland, I'll just I'll have some of those silica gel packs that I will. I've got a whole box just full of my collecting. Now, whenever I get a shipment of something, I take him out and I toss him in possum in a little little box. Keep the box closed and I'll throw him in my camera bag, and it helps keep my camera bag dry and just free from moisture. So when we're going to get out in the cold, there's less chance of fogging up when we're down in Florida or somewhere in the Caribbean. Without the humidity. There's less chance of it fogging up topside, a swell. So you know it's good for both spaces,

Todd:   1:8:55
definitely, and one thing quickly about moisture, much your brand. I like them a lot because they're small little plastic tubes with silica gel. Inside eso. They're easy to shove in a corner of a camera. They make that much easier to deal with. That's the upside, for the downside is because they're in a plastic tube. They're not rechargeable, so they start off with his color blue. Once they've had enough moisture and they turned pink, which is like another pro. It's obvious when they're saturated and they're no longer doing the job, you know when to pull them out. But theoretically, when they're done, you have to just throw him out there cheap enough. That's not a big deal. They're still great. I still pick them a couple dive trips, but you confined for very cheap on Amazon's and rechargeable little fabric pouches that have the silica gel, the benefit of them is that when you're done using them, you can actually throw them back into the oven and recharge them to dry them out. And you can reuse them over and over again. So technically, a little bit better for the environment. But, uh, you have to find the right size, and you have to make sure they can fit in the right crevices of your camera. It's a little bit, a little bit less user friendly, but still easily easy to dio.

Dalton:   1:10:04
And for your just for your topside camera bag, there's a product ever dry, I think is the name of it. It's a basically like a four by six container, maybe in have an inch to an inch thick and you can plug it in the wall. Um, you pull it out, you stick it in your bag, and it changes color just like the, um, just like the moisture munchers do. And when it's full of water, you know, full of moisture, you can plug it back into the wall and it will recharge it and get it ready to go again. So yeah,

Todd:   1:10:42
yeah, I got one in my wine fridge as we speak. Zac's cool I think that was fun. Settle lists. I think everyone else has their own gear acquisition syndrome list, so please let us know what some of your winners and losers are we'd love to hear, and we'd love to recount it on the show in a future episode. So why don't you email us at feedback at the aquatic life podcast dot com? Or, as Dalton said, Head to our show notes. The link will send us to the blogger on this page and let us know there so you can enter our give away. Let us know what your gear acquisition syndrome favorites winners are and losers are. I think it'll be great to hear everyone else's perspective.

Dalton:   1:11:22
Absolutely. And, you know, look forward to hearing from you guys.

Todd:   1:11:26
So I think that will wrap us up for this week. Check out our show notes for more information on where to find more examples of gear acquisition syndrome, and our list of winners and losers will be recap there. We'll send links to Balto. Everything in the show notes wherever we can find them if they're still around, including Dalton's infamous Turtle back. And if you like what you're hearing. Please take a moment to rate us on iTunes and describe to get all the latest episodes as soon as they come out. And ah, I guess all that's left is Don't want you tell everyone where they can find more your work.

Dalton:   1:11:58
Yeah, everybody confined me. Dalton ham dot com and on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram at Dalton Ham Photography. And for anything dive related pirate dive crew dot com What about Utah?

Todd:   1:12:12
They confined more. My work at Todd. Reimer photo dot com All of our info and social media is also list in the show notes. So take a look and join the mailing less Join the community we want to hear from you guys. We're real excited. Teoh get this group going. So thanks for joining us and we'll see you guys next week.