Hi DIR community,
My diving experience is about a decade out of date as I have been pursuing other things. I have been tasked with putting together a gear set for a new diver who wants to eventually get into cave diving. If I were to make my choices 10 years ago, I would have dismissed Halcyon, Apeks, Scubapro, and Atomic as too expensive for no good reason, OMS, Hollis, Dive Rite (looking at you, TransPac, if you are still around), and XDeep as too weird, and would have likely gone with HOG regulators and a DirZone backplate and wing, plus a 330M bottom timer.
I am sure things have (massively) changed in a decade. I see a lot of new brands and a lot of new options (notably, not in the bottom timer department where sensible options seem to have gone the way of the dodo).
Please recommend a solid, true DIR, budget-friendly single tank setup available in the US. I know I can just put together a Halcyon set, and I am very specifically looking for other, newer and less obvious options
Thank you for your input!
My diving experience is about a decade out of date as I have been pursuing other things. I have been tasked with putting together a gear set for a new diver who wants to eventually get into cave diving. If I were to make my choices 10 years ago, I would have dismissed Halcyon, Apeks, Scubapro, and Atomic as too expensive for no good reason, OMS, Hollis, Dive Rite (looking at you, TransPac, if you are still around), and XDeep as too weird, and would have likely gone with HOG regulators and a DirZone backplate and wing, plus a 330M bottom timer.
I am sure things have (massively) changed in a decade. I see a lot of new brands and a lot of new options (notably, not in the bottom timer department where sensible options seem to have gone the way of the dodo).
Please recommend a solid, true DIR, budget-friendly single tank setup available in the US. I know I can just put together a Halcyon set, and I am very specifically looking for other, newer and less obvious options

Thank you for your input!