A good diving equipment configuration should allow for the addition of items necessary to perform a specific dive without interfering with or changing the existing configuration. Diving with the same configuration not only helps solve problems, it prevents them.

Following is a list of equipment as that is of prime consideration:

1. Mask: Low Volume mask reduces drag and requires less effort to clear it of water.
2. Primary Regulator: Quality regulator that will be passed to an out-of-air diver.
3. Short Hose: Should be long enough to breathe comfortably, but not long enough to bow and create drag.
4. Back-Up Regulator: Quality regulator that a diver will use as a reserve either in the event of a failure or in an air-sharing episode.
5. Long Hose: Optional in shallow, open water diving, but mandatory in deeper or overhead diving; the long hose simplifies air sharing. When used, the long hose, along with the primary regulator, should ALWAYS be placed on the diver’s right post.
6. Back-Up Lights: Tucked away to reduce drag but still allow for easy one-hand removal.
7. Goodman Handle Light Head: Allows for hands-free diving while allowing the diver to easily direct the focused light beam.
8. Thermal Suit: Appropriate to keep diver alert and comfortable.
9. Crotch Strap: Allows for custom fit, and supports two D-rings: one works as a scooter attachment point; (divers should not hang equipment here as it would hang too low); and one further up, closer to the back plate, which works for towing additional gear. The crotch strap also holds the BC in position and prevents the BC from floating up away from the body.
10. Hood: Where necessary to keep diver alert and comfortable.
11. Mask Strap: Strong strap that will resist breaking.
12. Necklace: Designed to hold the back-up regulator within easy access.
13. Corrugated Hose: Should be just long enough to allow for ear clearing and potential dry suit inflation while actuating inflator, but not so long that it drags or entangles easily.
14. Power Inflation Hose: Should be long enough for a diver to easily use his/her corrugated hose, but not long enough for it to bow or otherwise create excess drag.
15. D-rings: No more than two on the chest, positioned to reduce the drag of attached items; one hip D-ring to hold the pressure gauge.
16. Pressure Gauge Hose: Custom hose allows a diver to easily read the gauge after unclipping, but does not bow or dangle, thus avoiding excess drag.
17. Pressure Gauge: Quality brass gauge should be easy to read and reliable.

18. Knife: Waist-mounted in front, near the center of the diver’s body, for easy access.

19. Pockets: Hip-mounted to reduce drag.

20. Knobs: Soft knobs (to limit risk of breakage) should be opened completely.
21. Valve: Contingent on environment and diving activity. Dual orifice valves (H or Manifold) are an excellent way to increase safety and redundancy.
22. Burst Disks: Use of double disks prevents accidental burst failure.
23. Buoyancy Compensator: Adjusted based upon needed lift whether one is diving single or double tanks. Buoyancy should be sufficient to float equipment by itself while at the surface.
24. Cylinders: Contingent on environment and diving activity.
25. Harness and Backplate: Designed to hold the diver snugly to their rig while reducing drag and increasing control.
26. Primary Light: Hip-mounted, canister-style light; this is optional in some environments, but valuable in nearly all.
27. Alternate Lift Device: Lift bag, diver alert marker, or surface life raft, for open water diving. Halcyon’s MC system allows for storage in backplate pack for increased streamlining.
28. Overboard Discharge: Also known as a P-Valve; used with a condom catheter by male divers to allow for urination during long dives with a dry suit.
29. Bottom Timer: Wrist mounted to eliminate drag and entanglement.
30. Watch: Wrist-mounted, with a functional stopwatch to allow for timing safety or decompression stops.
31. Compass: Wrist mounted to eliminate drag and entanglement.
32. Fins: These should have no attachment buckles that can break. Replace with a more robust connection.
33. Guideline Reel: Use is contingent on the diving environment; it is usually mounted on the rear crotch strap D-ring for streamlining and to reduce clutter. Spools and other guideline devices are usually kept in the diver’s hip-mounted pocket.

Source: GUE Fundamentals of Better Diving Manual

Since its introduction in 1996, the PADI Enriched Air Diver Specialty course has been the most popular PADI specialty certification. This popularity has only been rising and to meet this demand, the PADI organisation has launched the PADI Enriched Air Diver Course online. This online delivery, when combined with course revisions that include a computer-only option, simplifies the teaching process and enables students to get back in the water sooner using Enriched Air. This translates into more Enriched Air student divers – and customers for PADI Dive Centers and Resorts.

“Savvy dive operators know the key to a successful dive operation is to attract and retain new divers,” says PADI Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Kristin Valette. “Continuing education keeps divers coming back for more; the more convenient the course, the more demand increases and business grows. As a matter of fact, results from the 2009 PADI Certified Diver Survey show that divers pursuing continuing education are 49 percent more likely to own a complete dive kit and 41 percent more likely to travel than those who remain at the open water diver certification level.”

The PADI Enriched Air Diver Course online follows the same format used in the highly successful PADI Open Water Diver Course online. Student divers enroll and complete all knowledge development online, including all components of the newly revised PADI Enriched Air Diver Manual and Enriched Air Diving video. Then they complete practical application sessions and open water training (which is still optional, but recommended) with a PADI Instructor at a PADI Dive Center or Resort. PADI Resorts and Retailers receive a revenue share from their PADI Office for each new Enriched Air Diver Course eLearner that affiliates with their business.

Not only is the course available online, the content itself has been revised so it is now based on using a dive computer. Although using the Recreational Dive Planner and DSAT Equivalent Air Depth and Oxygen tables remains an option, divers taking the revised specialty course now focus on learning how to properly set and use an enriched air capable dive computer to plan and execute their dives. The new Enriched Air Diver Manual, video and exam also fully support the dive computer option. To learn more visit the PADI Web site.