Diving Holiday Essentials

Start with the mask

A rental mask that does not suit your face will leak on every dive of the trip, and there is very little you can do about it once you are in the water. The Fourth Element Navigator Mask with FREE Snorkel is the one item on this page we would tell you to buy before anything else. It has a low-profile body to cut drag, a wide-angle lens, a soft silicone skirt and an adjustable strap system, and the snorkel that comes with it has a splash guard and a purge valve. Buy it, dive it at home, and know it works before you get on a plane.

A dive computer you can read on a bright deck

Three computers sit in this collection and they answer three different divers.

The Suunto Zoop Novo is the straightforward one: Air, Nitrox, Gauge and Free modes, a large backlit display that stays readable in poor visibility, a built-in dive planner and the Suunto RGBM algorithm. It is the entry-level choice and it does the job without asking you to learn a menu system.

The Shearwater Peregrine is the mid-range step up: a full-colour display, air, single-gas nitrox and multi-gas nitrox modes, full decompression support using Buhlmann ZHL-16C with gradient factors, vibration alerts, Bluetooth log uploads and wireless charging. It is the computer divers tend to buy once and then keep.

The Garmin Descent G2 is the premium option and the one that doubles as your everyday watch. It has an AMOLED screen under a sapphire lens, scuba, technical, freedive and apnea pool modes, GPS marking of your surface entry and exit points, and the fitness and notification features you would expect from a Garmin.

Exposure protection that packs down

Warm water and liveaboards

The Fourth Element Xenos 3mm Shortie Wetsuit comes in separate mens and womens cuts and was built for exactly this kind of trip, with stretch neoprene, rolled Smoothskin seals at the arm and thigh, blindstitched seams and a double zip flap to cut flush-through. Fourth Element point it squarely at liveaboards and multiple dives per day. It dries quickly between dives, which matters more than you would expect when you are climbing back into it after lunch.

When the water is cooler

Not every dive holiday is a warm one. The Fourth Element Proteus II 5mm, again in mens and womens versions, uses Hexcore lining through the torso, Thermoflex elsewhere, taped and blind-stitched seams, a Hydrolock neck seal and Glideskin wrist seals to keep water moving through the suit to a minimum. Add the Waterproof B2 6.5MM Semi-Dry Boot, which has reinforced heel and toe caps, an anti-slip sole and an extended zip and seal. That sole earns its keep on a shore entry over sharp rock as well as on a wet boat ladder.

Regulators, buoyancy and fins

Compact regulators

Both regulators here were designed with weight in mind. The Apeks XL4+ is one of the lightest in the Apeks range, with an environmentally sealed over-balanced diaphragm first stage, a pneumatically balanced second stage, flexible braided hoses and a Comfo-bite mouthpiece; Apeks position it for travel diving and as a stage regulator. The Aqualung Helix Compact Pro is the other compact option, available in yoke or DIN, with an Auto-Closure Device that shuts the first-stage inlet when you take the core off the cylinder valve, and a T-shaped port layout that keeps hoses tidy and bubbles out of your line of sight.

BCD or wing

The Aqualung Rogue BCD is back-inflation with SureLock II weight integration, folding pockets, stainless steel D-rings and ModLock connectors that let you swap shoulder and waist components rather than buy a new jacket when your fit changes. The XDEEP Zen Ultralight Wing System is the harness-and-wing answer: a double-shell Cordura wing, an ergonomic backplate, a narrow profile behind the cylinder and a modular weight system in place of a weight belt.

Fins that pack short

The Apeks RK3 Fins have a short, broad vented blade, an oversized foot pocket sized for boots, spring straps as standard and two large grommet holes that take a karabiner, which is handy for clipping them to the outside of a full bag. The Apeks RK4 Fins run a longer and wider blade than the RK3, with a flexible tip and a comfort heel pad. Both are worn over boots, so size them with the boots you will actually be diving rather than by your shoe size.

Torches, cameras and the safety kit

Even on a bright reef you want a torch, for looking under ledges, for signalling, and for the night dive that gets suggested on day three. The Divepro D5-3 is the compact twist-operated one that lives in a BCD pocket. The Divepro S20 is the brighter option and arrives with its cells and a USB charger.

The Beaver Delayed Surface Marker Buoy With Reel is the item people leave at home and then wish they had not. It is bright orange TPU-coated nylon with Solas reflective tape, an integrated reel, a line that changes colour from orange to yellow as a depth cue, an overpressure valve and a D-ring for clipping to your BCD. If you are diving from a boat in any current, take one.

For the camera, the GoPro HERO13 Black is the straightforward choice and the one most holiday divers end up carrying.

Getting it all there

The TUSA Roller Bag comes in three sizes, with an extendable heavy-duty pull handle, four compression straps, two carry handles and both internal and external zipped pockets. TUSA describe the small size as carry-on approved for most airlines, which is worth knowing if you intend to keep your computer, regulators and camera with you rather than trusting them to the hold. That is what we would do: exposure protection and fins in the hold, anything expensive or hard to replace in the cabin.