By John Brumm

Photography by Joseph Byrd

As any seasoned traveler will attest, airlines can--and often do--lose luggage. No dive gear, no clean underwear and no deodorant can quickly add up to trouble in paradise, but lost luggage doesn't have to spoil your trip. Now that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulations once again allow small liquid and gel containers in carry-on bags, savvy dive travelers are turning their carry-on luggage into virtual Save-a-Trip kits, packing just enough toiletry products, clothing and their most personal dive gear to stay happy, healthy and hygienic above and below water until the lost bags arrive.

All of these carry-ons have ample room for everything in our Save-a-Trip kit, yet fall within the airline industry's standard size and weight restrictions for carry-on luggage--30 to 40 pounds maximum weight and 45 to 51 linear inches in size (length + width + depth). Unless otherwise noted, these bags also feature rigid backs and bases, standard smooth-surface roller wheels and locking two-position metal pull handles.

AKONA: AKB176

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| AKONA: AKB176|
Hits: Built-in laptop sleeve; dedicated regulator compartment; easy-to-load main compartment.Miss: The bag stands upright when fully loaded, but isn't quite as stable as the others.Price: $120.Contact:www.akona.com.

Built for the new realities of air travel, this versatile carry-on has easy-access stowage compartments for everything you'll need to produce for TSA inspection--laptop, your clear baggie of toiletries and your boarding pass--so you can breeze through security. The large padded laptop sleeve is found inside the main compartment, yet provides easy access via a zippered slit on the side of the bag. The main compartment lid folds back for easy packing, and the Akona easily swallowed our entire Save-a-Trip kit. Nice touches include a big round-shouldered lid compartment for your regulators (a custom-fit reg bag is a $30 option) and a smaller lid compartment with a passport wallet and cell phone pouch, which easily holds your TSA toiletries bag.

DEEP SEE: Excursion Carry-on

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| DEEP SEE: Excursion Carry-on|
Hits: Stable wheelbase; mesh compartment for wet items; compression straps to cinch down the load.Miss: Main compartment zipper runs just two-thirds of the way down the bag, making it difficult to load laying down.Price: $109.Contact:www.deepseeinc.com.

The Excursion is a clever rolling backpack useful for both air travel and as a boat bag. The well-ventilated front pouch is perfect for stashing your stinky sandals or soggy swimsuit and the middle compartment has an expanding fin pouch large enough to accommodate a standard set of full-foots. For use as an airline carry-on, we tucked the contoured shoulder straps in their zippered sleeve, then folded the fin pocket inside the middle compartment to make a home for our reading material. We stashed our passport and tickets inside a zippered sleeve on back of the bag for easy access, and everything else fit nicely in the main compartment. If you carry a separate bag, the Excursion will accommodate an entire set of warm-water dive gear.

OCEANIC: At-Pak 4

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| OCEANIC: At-Pak 4|
Hits: Rock-steady wheelbase; main compartment lid folds back for easy loading; comfortable top lift handle.Miss: Non-locking extension handle felt a bit flimsy.Price: $94.95.Contact:www.oceanicworldwide.com.

This rolling backpack was also designed to carry a full set of tropical dive gear (including a pair of full-foot fins strapped to the sides), and still meet most airline carry-on size and weight restrictions. When tested with our emergency Save-a-Trip kit, the main compartment held the entire inventory of gear and clothes with room to spare. The larger lid compartment easily handles books and magazines, the smaller lid compartment offers pouches for cell phone, keys and pens and is a good place to stow your TSA toiletries bag. A small zippered sleeve on the front compartment works well for tickets and your passport. A super-wide wheelbase and pair of plastic feet help the bag stand rock steady when fully loaded.

STAHLSAC: Cayman Brac

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| STAHLSAC: Cayman Brac|
Hit: Tons of room; curved pull handle balances load.Miss: This bag holds so much you may exceed weight limits.Price: $239.95.Contact:www.stahlsac.com.

For durability and pure cargo capacity you can't beat the Cayman Brac. The main compartment on this well-built bag is huge, the two internal zippered pouches are huge, and the same goes for the two external lid compartments. We packed all our Save-a-Trip clothes and the bulk of our dive gear in the main internal compartment. Mask, dive computer and camera went in the upper internal pouch. That left the easy-access upper external compartment for a cell phone, passport and tickets, TSA toiletries bag and miscellaneous small items. Need more cargo room? There's a two-inch expansion panel between main compartment and lid to let you cram in last-minute items. Built to last, there's reinforcing armor on the high-wear corners and base of the bag.

XS SCUBA: BG750

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| XS SCUBA: BG750|
Hits: Heavy-duty zippers and wheels; stable wheelbase; rigid handle on the bottom makes it easy to lift onto inspection tables.Miss: Spring-loaded t-handle is sometimes reluctant to pop out of its recessed nook.Price: $80.Contact:www.xsscuba.com.

• 3 pair shorts
• 1 swimsuit
• 7 pair T-shirts
• 1 pair sandals
• 1 hat

• 1 TSA toiletries bag (pictured below)
  GEAR

• Regulator, octopus reg and gauges

• Wrist-mount dive computer
• Mask

• 3mm fullsuit
  OTHER ITEMS

• Laptop computer.

• Digital land camera.
• 1 paperback novel
• 2 recent issues of Scuba Diving

This compact bag rolls on a pair of rugged all-terrain wheels. The main compartment took the bulk of our clothes and dive gear, with internal tie-down straps to keep the load from shifting and a pair of mesh pouches for stashing sandals. While not specifically designed for it, the padded sleeve on the inside of the lid is a perfect place for stowing a small laptop. On the outside lid, the larger of the two compartments is gusseted so when the lid unzips it stays in place, making it easy to add or remove gear when the bag is standing upright. This is a good place to stow lighter gear, a hat and maybe a few T-shirts. The smaller external pouch is a good place for your TSA toiletries bag, tickets, books and magazines.

Scubalab's Save-A-Trip Kit

To see if these bags had the right capacity and features, we packed each one with the following items, on the theory that if our checked bags were lost, all we'd need to keep our dive schedule on track would be a rental BC and fins. The contents of your personal save a trip kit will no doubt vary.

CLOTHES

Carrying On

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Current TSA Rules for Liquids
Fliers traveling from the U.S. are now allowed to bring limited quantities of liquids, gels and aerosols, including shampoo, suntan lotion, creams, toothpaste, hair gel and hair spray on board in their carry-on luggage, with the following caveats:

• Liquids must be carried in individual containers no larger than 3.4 ounces or 100 ml.

• All liquid containers must be carried together in a single, quart-sized, zip-seal bag which can be completely closed.

• At the security checkpoint, the plastic bag must be removed from the carry-on bag and submitted for inspection or passed through the scanner.
  For more information visit www.tsa.gov/311/index.shtm.