Packing under 50 lbs...

[mitsuguy]

Well, as many may know, my wife and I are moving to Honduras to do our IDC and to, well, live and dive...

We have bought the extra room for our bags on the plane, so, we both get 2 bags and 1 carry on, and 1 personal item...

Because we won't be diving between now and then (Feb 10th), I decided to clean up our gear, put our names on everything, and do some mods (mainly replace zipties with cave line/knots, etc...

Here's the dilemma, and I think I can work around it, it just is a pain in the ass... without paying extra, we get 50 lbs per bag, pretty standard. I put our BC's, boots, masks, fins, lights, and pretty much everything but wetsuits and regulators in one bag, and BAM, 55 lbs. WTF! Granted, I know its gear for two, but there are no regs or wetsuits... Neither one of us have anything super heavy or whatnot, in fact, my BC only weighs about 9 lbs, and hers is lighter... Needless to say, I pulled the fins out and got it down to 45 lbs. I'll stuff some other stuff in there, but damn... we're gonna have two bags worth of stuff...

RAWR... worst part is that the bag isn't even full, its just overweight...

[Coaster]

I have traveled with a mesh gear bag (fins, masks, computers, etc) as a carry on without any problems.

[fisheater]

Lighter luggage?

[mitsuguy]

Originally Posted by fisheater

Lighter luggage?

our stuff is pretty lightweight as far as luggage is concerned... Our largest bag is 10 lbs empty, but it's huge (4300 ci) - it would easily fit all of both of our scuba gear with the front expanded... Next bag is 8 lbs (2500 ci), and it's quite large as well... (they are roller bags, but I'll live with the pound or so weight penalty instead of carrying the things)

if dive stuff just wasn't so heavy across the board...

edit: and the airline regulations so crappy...

[sunshine121]

Make sure you check with the airline to see what the overweight penalty is vs. the fee for an extra bag. Flying to Australia this past summer, there was confliciting info and I took one bag which ended up being 7 lbs. overweight. I got hit with a hefty $85 fee. If I had divided my things into 2 bags, it would have only cost me $25.

(I agree with the above "edit".)

[Gombessa]

One thing you can try--I can stuff everything I have for warm water (minus tanks and exposure suit) in a carry-on, and they typically don't check those for weight (as long as you can heave it into the overhead).

[namabiru]

I know this is not the solution you want, but if you switched to a duffel bag, that would give you most of the 10 US pounds back. All bags are inevitably ruined by air travel. Even nice lightweight suitcases can get ruined on their maiden voyage (mine did, when I relocated). If you buy a cheap duffel bag, and pack it smartly (fins on outer edges to protect inside stuff, etc.), you've saved money on excess.

If you want to keep the same bag, though...
Put your torches in your carry-on, sans batteries (unless you have rechargeables). Buy batteries in duty-free either on departure or arrival. They get sealed in a bag that you can carry in addition to your carry-on. Truthfully, I'd also carry your masks on. If you've got spring straps, carry those on but check the fins. That should help a little bit.

[mitsuguy]

Originally Posted by namabiru

I know this is not the solution you want, but if you switched to a duffel bag, that would give you most of the 10 US pounds back. All bags are inevitably ruined by air travel. Even nice lightweight suitcases can get ruined on their maiden voyage (mine did, when I relocated). If you buy a cheap duffel bag, and pack it smartly (fins on outer edges to protect inside stuff, etc.), you've saved money on excess.

If you want to keep the same bag, though...
Put your torches in your carry-on, sans batteries (unless you have rechargeables). Buy batteries in duty-free either on departure or arrival. They get sealed in a bag that you can carry in addition to your carry-on. Truthfully, I'd also carry your masks on. If you've got spring straps, carry those on but check the fins. That should help a little bit.

Thats actually exactly what I started doing... going through and finding the little things that weigh the most (a pair of 4 c cell princetons actually weigh quite a bit). We plan on carrying our regs (we each have a complete reg set, plus each have an extra 1st/2nd stage) and even with miflex hoses all around, its close to 10 lbs per person.

We need two more pieces of luggage and I do think we are going to buy large wheeled duffelbags instead of regular luggage for those exact reasons... Either way, I can't wait until she starts packing and finds out that she is either grossly overweight or all her stuff won't fit in a bag...

[dallasdivergirl]

have you thought of shipping it down? I know Jackson shipping is one that goes from the u.s. to Roatan regularly.

[mitsuguy]

Originally Posted by dallasdivergirl

have you thought of shipping it down? I know Jackson shipping is one that goes from the u.s. to Roatan regularly.

Thanks for the reference, but the only issue with that is that we have to stay mobile... There's no telling when we'll decide to pack up and leave and go to Belize or Coz or GC or wherever...