Inexpensive but decent BC?

[DiveMaven]

Frankly, if I were 3 hours from ScubaToys, I'd be out the door and on the road!! I bought my regs/computer, and misc. stuff from Larry last year, and couldn't be happier with both the service and the prices. I'm even going to send my regs back to him to service, since even with shipping it's cheaper than my LDS. I'm so impressed and pleased with Larry's service and knowledge of diving and dive gear that I wouldn't even mind spending a few dollars more than another on-line company charges....but fortunately Larry matches prices, so I don't have to do that.

We like the people at our LDS and bought my husband's gear from them since it's Oceanic, Sea Quest, and Aqua Lung, (no manufacturer's warantee if you purchase these brands on-line), and we'll likely get his regs serviced there too. They are a great shop and even when they knew I wasn't going to buy my gear from them, they offered to rent me a tank and let me use the pool to test out my stuff. They are great about customer service, and even though we could have bought everything at Leisure Pro for $250 less, we wanted the manufacturer's warantees and the customer service our LDS offered us for my husband's gear.

 

[waterwraith]

I have always found SP stuff entirely too pricey.

If you are on a budget check out divesports.com, scubatoys.com, and scuba.com. all are great and they have some awesome package deals also there stuff comes with full manufacturers warranties.

divesports is my LDS and they have always gave me great deals.

 

[GotAir]

You mentioned Travel and Cost.
I feel like I got the best of both Worlds when I bought a Mares Jubilee.
folds down to nothing and still has a intergrated weight system! A BC
can be the size of half of all your gear together. so this BCs a travler.
the price was less that 300 bucks also.

FYI I buy alot from Larry and Joe at Scuba Toys and there Great Guys!
but got the Mares jubilee at Athens Scuba Park Tx.

GotAir

 

[Moogyboy]

My $0.02 here...Definitely check out Triple-L. I have a Stratos, and the build quality and features are first-rate for a jacket-style BCD in this price range. However, here are two caveats:

1) Be absolutely sure about sizing. Keep in mind that Triple-L sizes tend to be larger than you'd expect, and the shipping and restocking fees for returns can instantly erase a big chunk of the price advantage.

2) The Stratos in particular has this goofy elastic buckle-strap in front that tends to come loose far easier when wet than it should. I guess for some people it works fine, but consider the possibility of replacing it with a web strap when you think about purchasing a Stratos.

cheers

Billy S.

 

[ScubaCarl]

No one mensioned this, but if the two of you are just getting certified why not wait on buying gear intill after you have your c-card and had time to try out several types and brands of BC's. If I would of listened to this advice when I was getting certified it would of saved me a buch of money. btw a bp/w is the only way to go..

 

[EuphoriaII]

No one mensioned this, but if the two of you are just getting certified why not wait on buying gear intill after you have your c-card and had time to try out several types and brands of BC's. ..

The LDS offeres a $150 per person refund of your lesson fees IF you buy a complete set of gear from them within 1 week of completing classes (they also give an additional 10% for students). This brings the SP stuff down to a more competitively priced level. Still more expensive, but competitively priced. Yes I can wait longer to decide to buy gear, but if I do, the LDS purchase is no longer an option so I want to give it serious consideration before my time is up. Even if I do buy the gear from the LDS, I'll still get my accessories (knife, lights, etc) from Scubatoys and possibly a cheap wetsuit from triple L.

 

[EuphoriaII]

Another option, I might buy one set of gear from the LDS and one from Scubatoys/Triple L.

 

[farfromwater]

I knew I wanted a SP reg and you can't really get those at much of a discount with the warranty anyway.

But you can! Scubatoys.com sells them (not on the website), just call and ask. They match Leisurepro prices, but have the factory warranty. Plus you get the awesome customer service from Larry/Joe, and a great deal on annual service.

 

[Hoosier]

Trlple-L... You won't be disappointed!

 

[halocline]

But you can! Scubatoys.com sells them (not on the website), just call and ask. They match Leisurepro prices, but have the factory warranty. Plus you get the awesome customer service from Larry/Joe, and a great deal on annual service.

I've bought stuff from Scubatoys before; they're a quality place. But I'm pretty sure SP does not allow mail order or internet sales. Plus, there's limit of 10% discount off retail by SP dealers. Leisurepro sells SP stuff cheaper because they are not an authorized dealer, etc...that topic has been discussed maybe more than any other on this board.

Anyhow, back on topic of cheap but decent BC, after looking over the various posts I'd tend to side with the "rent and wait" crowd. I really don't think the $150 discount on the course is going to pay off if you end up buying stuff you're not sure you want. The LDS I got certified at offered a similar deal; after I added up the numbers it still didn't come out favorably. One thing to consider is buying a wetsuit at the LDS; in that case you can really make sure it fits and it's not that complicated to pick out somethng that will work for a good long time. And, honestly, any decent quality regulator will work well for you. Under normal recreational diving conditions, you'll be hard-pressed to tell the difference between SP, aqualung, etc.. entry level regs and really expensive high performance regs. Soooo....if it will save you money to buy those things, it's probably pretty low risk. But BCs are different, and you'd probably be best served by getting in some dives with rental gear, and start to get more experience with bouyancy issues before choosing a BC style.

Hope this helps.