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NAUI Scuba Diver 42 Diving Equipment Maintenance You should rinse a diving suit with fresh water after every diving day. Rinse dive skins and wetsuits inside and out. There are commercial products you can use at the end of a dive trip to clean your dive suits completely before storage. You should store your wetsuits on wide hangers designed especially for wetsuits (figure 2-42), or unfolded, lying flat. If you get a hole in your wetsuit, you can repair it with wetsuit cement and neoprene patch material. If the inside of a dry suit is completely dry, and it is worn with under clothing, you only need to rinse the outside of the dry suit. You need to eliminate sweat, dead skin, and so on, from neoprene dry suits by rinsing the suit inside and out. All dry suits should be occasionally rinsed inside and out. You should lubricate dry suit zippers with only paraffin wax, beeswax, or preparations provided by the manufacturer. Your dry suit can be stored rolled up in a bag away from heat and ozone-producing machinery such as hot-water heaters and electric motors. Your dry suit, with its valves, zippers, and seals, should be inspected annually by a qualified repair technician. Dry-suit valves can malfunction if they are not regularly serviced. Your dry suit owner’s manual should be your primary guide and will list any special care instructions. Verify What You Have Learned Review the following questions about diving suits: 22. A ______________________ is suitable for only warm, tropical diving. 23. A ______________________ is made only from foam neoprene. 24. A ______________________ uses undergarments for insulation. 25. True or False. You do not need special training to use a dry suit. ACCESSORY EQUIPMENT Accessories are available that can make diving more enjoyable. There are also accessories for specialized activities. Some of the available accessories are described as follows. Attachment Devices Clips enable you to attach your instruments to your BC. Without clips, your gauges and octopus regulator will naturally hang at your side, and a foot or more below your waist, as you swim horizontally through the water. If you are swimming close to the bottom, your instruments can strike and damage marine life, or be damaged themselves. When corals and other delicate organisms are broken, they do not grow back - they die. Remember to clip your instruments to your BC on every dive to avoid damage to them or the underwater environment. The clips you use must be fastened so you can remove your BC easily and quickly in an emergency (figure 2-43). Accessory clips and other holders are available at most dive stores. Knives A dive knife is a working tool used for many purposes. Its most important function might be to cut fishing line or nets if you get tangled in them under water. Knives are not used as weapons to fight sharks, as you might have seen on television. FIGURE 2-43. YOU SHOULD ATTACH YOUR DIVING INSTRUMENTS TO YOUR BC SO THEY DO NOT DRAG ALONG THE BOTTOM.


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