New Scuba RVers

[Shaidah]

Greeting from Richmond, BC, Canada!
My wife and I just purchased our first RV - a 17' 1981 Bigfoot trailer.
We are obsessive scuba divers and are planning to use the trailer as a mobile scuba platform... roaming the coast (and visiting lakes) and diving our hearts out. We've named the trailer "The Octopod" and have already started stripping off the decals and "making it our own." So far we've replaced the duck decals on the sides with octopus decals and are working our way around the 'pod stripping off the brown and orange stripes and painting blue and yellow in their place.
We really have no idea what we are doing but we've had 3 successful camping/diving outings in it already and have about half of the trailer's systems figured out.

If anyone is into scuba RVing, please say hello and hopefully we can swap RV-friendly dive site ideas along the West Coast.

Cheers!
Shaidah

[Pam Garlow]

It looks great!! I love the blue around the window. Did you paint the gasket?

[Gail & Tom O.]

Your trailer looks good. We used to Scuba dive. Our whole family did, but we used a boat instead of a trailer. Did most of our weekend diving off CA coast at the Channel Islands until we moved to the FL Keys where we dove mainly at Looe Key Reef. There were some diving vacations to Hawaii and The Leeward Islands too. We had a compressor on our boat so we could refill our tanks. Now we are too old for that and we just cruise in the boat and our egg is land cruising .

[Kevin A]

Your trailer is looking great! Sounds like many fun times ahead.

[Shaidah]

Thanks! We're pretty happy with how the trailer is turning out... we just ordered another set of octopus decals for the front and back to complete the theme.

We didn't paint the gasket but that's a great idea... blue or yellow... hmmmm, tough call.

[Shaidah]

Originally Posted by Gail & Tom O.

Your trailer looks good. We used to Scuba dive. Our whole family did, but we used a boat instead of a trailer. Did most of our weekend diving off CA coast at the Channel Islands until we moved to the FL Keys where we dove mainly at Looe Key Reef. There were some diving vacations to Hawaii and The Leeward Islands too. We had a compressor on our boat so we could refill our tanks. Now we are too old for that and we just cruise in the boat and our egg is land cruising .

Wow it sounds like you use to be REALLY into diving! If only our little Bigfoot had room for a compressor, we'd be in heaven.
We dove once in Boynton Beach, FL and we LOOOOOOVE Hawaii. We've got a trip booked for Bonaire over Christmas, then we're planning to trailer and dive our way down the Oregon coast next summer. Oh boy!!!!

[Daniel A.]

Hi looks like we had a similar idea, I bought my Bigfoot to get to the lakes and do Hookah diving / metal detecting.

[Mike Magee]

That's a cheerful looking Bigfoot.

[Donna D.]

I missed this! Nice looking Bigfoot. And I like you're making it uniquely your own. We'll recognize YOU if we see the trailer out and about.

I was a diver years ago. Spent lots of time in Hood Canal. Back in the day before divers harrased the octos at the octopus shelf. Gosh, that was more than 30 years ago....

[Shaidah]

Originally Posted by Daniel A.

Hi looks like we had a similar idea, I bought my Bigfoot to get to the lakes and do Hookah diving / metal detecting.

Sounds like fun! How do you set up the hookah?

I've just started getting into treasure hunting in lakes. In my last 2 dives I found 1 iPhone (dried it out, got it working and sold it!), 4 Blackberries, 8 random cell phones, a wallet complete with $60 of waterlogged cash (found the owner on Facebook), lots of fishing lures, toys, a bikini bottom (no sign of the top) and a zillion lighters and beer cans.

It's great fun and sometime I hope to even see a fish while lake diving

Perhaps we can hook up for a dive sometime...

[Daniel A.]

Yes we can hook up and dive/ treasure hunt.

The Hookah is electric compressor floats up top puts out 4.5 cmf with the battery I'm using I get 2.5 hours of down time on the battery and I have two.
I'm good to forty feet of water but all the gold rings tend to be in less than twenty feet. I bought a full face mask this season much easier on the jaw.
The BCD has a line going to it as well.

I do have a few under water detectors.
I am heading to Alice Lake some time this week.

Dan

[Ken C]

I non-fiction Book Dive ha ha. Finished these three books this summer and really enjoyed them. Welcome to the forum.
Blind Decent by James Tabor
Last Dive By Bernie Chowdhury
Helldivers Rodeo by Humberto Fontova
(shadow divers is next on my reading list)

[Shaidah]

Originally Posted by Daniel A.

Yes we can hook up and dive/ treasure hunt.

The Hookah is electric compressor floats up top puts out 4.5 cmf with the battery I'm using I get 2.5 hours of down time on the battery and I have two.
I'm good to forty feet of water but all the gold rings tend to be in less than twenty feet. I bought a full face mask this season much easier on the jaw.
The BCD has a line going to it as well.

I do have a few under water detectors.
I am heading to Alice Lake some time this week.

Dan

That sounds like quite the rig! I'd love to check it out and join you sometime. We're heading down to Deception Pass in Washington this weekend but next time we're heading to a nearby lake, I'll ask you if you've got a dive planned.

Ken C: That's a great way to dive... and WAY less expensive! I'll have to check those out, thanks for the tip!

[EddyEd]

Good Morning,
I LOVE to meet fellow divers and egg owners none the less how awesome. You have to check out my pictures, I think you will appreciate my "Escape Pod" I have been diving for almost 20 years now and still love it. I actually get paid to dive now which is a bonus. As a matter of fact I found my "Escape Pod" (1972 Cloud) while I was diving...no it wasn't laying at the bottom of a lake but one of my fellow divers/co-workers and I were talking about camping and campers one day while we were waiting to do a series of dives and I brought up how badly I wanted to get a small fiberglass camper and that I had been looking for years. He answered "Oh, heck I have one of those out in the woods on my farm" well I jumped on that one immediately and a week later that hidden gem was hooked up to my Jeep and heading home with me. Talk about a lucky dive find. Can't wait to hear some of your dive stories and I own a Brownies 3rd Lung as well (Hookah type set up), it is what I first learned to dive with when I was 12, still going strong many years later.
Tyler

[Shaidah]

EddyEd, that is one sexy Escape Pod!!! I LOVE what you've done with the interior and the red accent paint outside!

It sounds like you've got a great deal are well equipped for some great scuba camping! Where are you located?

[EddyEd]

I am in Northern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior. Great diving but I still miss the ocean. Thank you so much for the great comments, I am glad you liked. I am surprised how many people don't know what a dive flag is.

[Shaidah]

Originally Posted by EddyEd

I am in Northern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior. Great diving but I still miss the ocean. Thank you so much for the great comments, I am glad you liked. I am surprised how many people don't know what a dive flag is.

Yes, it's particularly disturbing when people drive their powerboats right beside the flag to check it out while you're under it. Good way to lose a head.

I guess we probably won't be crossing paths on the road or in the water anytime soon, but if you ever make it as far as Vancouver toss me a note and I'd love to show you around our local dive sites.

[WildBirder]

Hi Shaidah, I just found this post. It looks like you joined shortly before I did. I'm a Vancouver based diver as well. Though I have to admit I haven't dove locally for several years. A good drysuit and gear costs more than my trailer. I still enjoy my tropical vacation diving though. I used to work at the aquarium and have several friends involved in the dive industry. Instructors, Co-owner of the Edge dive club, pavilion lake research project etc. If it's ok I'd like send them all a link to this thread so they can check out your trailer..…because it's awesome!

Cheers,
Mark

Check and see if there's a scuba thread under hobbies. If not it would be a useful one to start.

[Shaidah]

Hi Mark,

Sounds like you're well connected and all set for adventures in and out of the water. I dive locally twice a week and it sounds like we probably know a lot of the same people.

Feel free to show off the Octopod on my behalf. I recently put big octo decals on the front and rear as well but I haven't got pictures of it yet. We are also working on a Canadian/Scuba flag spare tire cover. The interior remodel will continue with the octopus theme (did you know they sell octopus cupboard knobs at Lee Valley!?!?) and we're very excited to see how it turns out.

We will have to see what we can do about that thread under Hobbies... good idea!

See you out there!
Scott (Shaidah's other half)

[Shaidah]

Finally a picture of the front sporting the new octopus decal which also occupies the rear.