Sprocket
Registered
Hi,
I recently started my divecon at a local shop down here in Adelaide, so far we've done the first 5 chapters of theory, and will be in the pool for the first time next week.
A couple of reasons I picked this particular shop are:
a) It's one of the only SSI shops around down here and I enjoyed having a yarn with the staff. I'm new to Adelaide and they knew the owner of the shop I was diving though back in Sydney.
b) The owner is a mad keen cave diver and all the staff are tech/cave divers, and it's sort of expected I will go down that route too, which I'm more than happy to do. From what they've told me, they train OW students with secondaries on necklaces and long hose primaries.
A couple of nights ago the owner/instructor brought up the issue of gear. . . They deal for Scubapro, Halcyon and Inspiration. None of my gear is any of that and none of it is tech at all (Aeris regs/computer, Zeagle Ranger, Bare drysuit, etc). He's happy for me to use hire gear for teaching for now, but expects me to switch eventually.
He also suggested that if I'm real keen on caves, I may as well look at potentially getting a teaching/rec setup and a tech setup. Even went as far as suggest he could probably do an inspiration unit at cost and training in exchange for me working, cause the more of his staff using them the better it is for the shop, and if was looking at rebreathers it's easier and cheaper just to start tech training with one.
Being a scholarship funded PhD student, the pospect of having to dump that much cash on gear in the near future is a bit daunting, and probably not possible. I'm happy to switch over, but I was wondering what's a resonable expectation regarding buying gear from the shop you teach at and a reasonable time frame for switching over?
I'm thinking I'll try my best to get into scubapro/halcyon kit for teaching, dependant on how much teaching I'm actually doing and what sort of cash the shop will charge for it, and hold off on tech gear until I've done a bit of tech training.
Anyway hi all, and sorry for the introductory essay. Lots of thoughts bumping around at the moment...
I recently started my divecon at a local shop down here in Adelaide, so far we've done the first 5 chapters of theory, and will be in the pool for the first time next week.
A couple of reasons I picked this particular shop are:
a) It's one of the only SSI shops around down here and I enjoyed having a yarn with the staff. I'm new to Adelaide and they knew the owner of the shop I was diving though back in Sydney.
b) The owner is a mad keen cave diver and all the staff are tech/cave divers, and it's sort of expected I will go down that route too, which I'm more than happy to do. From what they've told me, they train OW students with secondaries on necklaces and long hose primaries.
A couple of nights ago the owner/instructor brought up the issue of gear. . . They deal for Scubapro, Halcyon and Inspiration. None of my gear is any of that and none of it is tech at all (Aeris regs/computer, Zeagle Ranger, Bare drysuit, etc). He's happy for me to use hire gear for teaching for now, but expects me to switch eventually.
He also suggested that if I'm real keen on caves, I may as well look at potentially getting a teaching/rec setup and a tech setup. Even went as far as suggest he could probably do an inspiration unit at cost and training in exchange for me working, cause the more of his staff using them the better it is for the shop, and if was looking at rebreathers it's easier and cheaper just to start tech training with one.
Being a scholarship funded PhD student, the pospect of having to dump that much cash on gear in the near future is a bit daunting, and probably not possible. I'm happy to switch over, but I was wondering what's a resonable expectation regarding buying gear from the shop you teach at and a reasonable time frame for switching over?
I'm thinking I'll try my best to get into scubapro/halcyon kit for teaching, dependant on how much teaching I'm actually doing and what sort of cash the shop will charge for it, and hold off on tech gear until I've done a bit of tech training.
Anyway hi all, and sorry for the introductory essay. Lots of thoughts bumping around at the moment...