Skip the Travel Vest, Just Wear Your BCD

In the last issue, I recommended buying a travel vest to hold your carry-on items and beat airline luggage weight restrictions. Reader Harvey Cohen (Middlefield, NJ) has a cheaper idea: Just put on your BCD over your shirt, wear it onto the plane, then stow it in the overhead bin.

“There’s lots of room in my carry-on bag for dive gear because I wear my Aqualung Pro QD i3 on board. I’ve done this on trips from New York to Nassau, Providenciales and Cairns. I unclip all hardware that’s not an integral part of the BCD, except the weight pockets and my PADI C-card tag. I do sometimes use the two zippered pockets to carry small stuff like snacks or a book. While I’ve never had any comments from airlines or security, I’ve had a couple from passengers. In the boarding line for the flight from Sydney to Cairns, the fellow behind me said, ‘Just can’t wait to start diving, eh?’”