Back in Black
ArticleWhy the colorful dive equipments disappeared in the past decades?
I approve of her decision. I feel I must support all those people who want to show their personality even on a dive boat. This lady has her own style, she prefers colors like pink. Why should she choose a black set of diving equipment just because somebody somewhere suggested this? I know many rules in diving which I found useful and important. The right color of your wetsuit or fins isn't one of these. I'm sure there are extra trained guys who would be able to tell a hundred reasons why to wear black all the time but I don't care about them.
Diving for me is the perfect recreational activity where everybody can find joy and excitement. And as everywhere, we feel much better if we are proud of our stuffs. Somehow the scuba equipment manufacturers seem to go back in time and black is the dominating color as it was 50 years ago. There was a short golden age of fancy colorful suits in the '80s. Some of them were funny, other ones are stylish- the divers had plenty of choice.
Now they can choose black-blue or greyish-black designs. Only the minority of the brands offer suits with small pink (shock! horror!), red, yellow or white color panels. I remember when we bought a wetsuit this spring to my girlfriend. We thought there is only one color design, the gray-black but I found the red-black ones in the manufacturer's website. In the shop they didn't have any of this style, they needed to order it from the factory! A tiny red panel on the upper body would make it impossible to sell for Hungarian diver ladies? I don't think so.
I'm the advocate of the diverse color pattern equipments. I don't think we should look like twins under water in our black suits and BC-s and yellow fins- I know what I'm talking about, whenever I browse my dive trip photos I find dozens of "men in black". Just have a glance at the picture below of a dive boat and count those wetsuits which primary color aren't black. I remember Henry Ford's words about the Model T: "you can have it in any color as long as it is black". I know it's not retailers fault, because they don't design those boring suits just sell them. Only the Japanese manufacturers offer white, yellow, pink, neon green suits - they're anything but cheap.
So I recommend to have at least special accessories. I even had a bright pink weight belt, a friend said Hello Kitty fans would fight for it. Some people thought I looked damned funny but when in a crowded dive boat they tried to find their weight belts amongst the similar ones I felt I didn't look laughable but they did. Hopefully my friend won't sell her pink fins and someday she can buy pink suit, hood or boots as well. We are not the same. We don't like the same colors. And the most important: we don't want to do the same dives. When I hear "black is compulsory" from an instructor I worry about my beloved fun dives. Who knows if he tells next time I need to dive exactly the same way as he does? Color me pink but I vote for bright colors, exciting designs and everybody's unique approach, pace and style of diving.
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