What? A tech diving purse… I got your attention here. Well, I am talking about what you may call a butt pack, a zip pocket or expandable pouch. Whatever you like to call it, this is the must have accessory for any sidemount / tech diving.

Even if you do have 2 pockets on your dry suit or wetsuit, sometimes it is more efficient to have your items in a different place, where they are easy to access.

When I do stage cave diving in sidemount, I do like to have a separate purse with additional items since the tanks have a tendency to take quite a lot of space, and I don’t like to over fill my pockets with back up pieces. I love to keep my muscle memory on top of the game so I almost always carry my purse doing rebreather, cave or wreck diving.

But I had to decide first what I really need. Too little is like too much.  Here is my complete redundancy list no matter the kind of diving I will do.

The quick list of accessories I need:

• Primary Light
• 2 backup lights
• Primary mask
• Back up mask
• Wet notes
• Primary reel
• 2 spools and more
• 2 zknives or cutting devices
• 2 back up double ended clips
• Spare mouth piece
• Tie wraps
• Spare O’rings
• Adjustable wrench or stainless scuba tools
• Compass
• 2 back up clips with retaining short rope
• Pouch of liquid food
• Optional helmet with backup lights

Add ons for Open Water dives

• SMB
• Whistle

Add ons for survey dives

• Slate
• Short knotted line

Now that I have all the bits and pieces on my table, where do I put them on me?

If I have my helmet, both back ups are on.

On my harness, I have:

• Primary light
• The cutting devices that I can reach and use in each hand individually.
• Arrows and cookies
• Primary reel and 2 spools

In my pockets I carry:

• BU mask
• Wetnotes
• A spool if I need more than 2, for complex circuit or traverse
• BU light if I don’t have my helmet

And all the rest is in my pouch.  It is all the equipment that I might not need or I hope I won’t need.

I like to have a double ended clip, in the unlikely event I lose one on my spools as I use it. You never know… even if it is something that happens a lot during training, we might need it one day. Same thing with the clip with a short rope. If your bungee brakes and you need to do a quick repair underwater, you will be all set with 2 clips, especially if you have a continuous thin binge.

In the last year, I encounter a lot of reg problems with my students when we are ready to go in the water. I don’t want to walk back to my toolbox in my car or on the boat, so if I can fix it at the surface, I am more than happy.  A broken tie wrap or mouthpiece seems to be a classic, but on one occasion somebody’s hose wasn’t tight enough which resulted in an O’ring replacement and a retighting of the hose. So a stainless scuba tool is a must.

I have a small whistle as a safety device in open water. I carried it for more than 16 years before having to use it twice the same year. So I always keep it in my purse.

When I do surveys I carry my compass, a knotted line and my second wetnotes or slate.

And for the long dives, I love to carry a little bit of food. It can be a fruit compote or a syringe of Nutella for the higher demanding diver.

All of those items of redundancy equipment don’t weigh too much and don’t take up too much space, but if you have them, once in a while you’ll end up saving your dive or even your buddy.

Dive safe and have fun!

Find out more about Nathalie at www.nathalielasselin.com.