First post from an excited new member!

[ScubaCarlJ]

Greetings,

Happy to be part of this community to learn as part of my journey into the world of SCUBA!!!

Love the absolute tranquility of being underwater and the silencing of the world. Quite the meditation experience for me.

Own all of my own Greenprene and a Garmin Descent Mk3i.

Have been renting during training and fun dives working up the courage to get my own gear.

My dream gear:

Scuba pro hydros with an Air2 and decent 1st and 2nd stage. Or an Atomic BC1 (or 2).
Wireless transmitter for my watch.

Figure this way, it’s only two hoses to my gear, low pressure to the BCD and my regulator.

Thanks for listening.

 

[happy-diver]

I feel your excitement, fantastic it's contageous, so start collecting used gear and you will have it in no time
I am wondering are you famous or a celebrity as I've noticed 541 hits on your greeting post with no replies

Must be someone more famous elsewhere on the site

 

[gamon]

I feel your excitement, fantastic it's contageous, so start collecting used gear and you will have it in no time
I am wondering are you famous or a celebrity as I've noticed 541 hits on your greeting post with no replies

Must be someone more famous elsewhere on the site

Why would members be less inclined to reply to a celebrity? How would anyone here know if a celebrity was hiding behind an anonymous user ID?

646 now.

 

[Still Kicking]

....so start collecting used gear....

There are great deals to be had with used gear but new divers who start collecting used gear typically end up with a pile of obsolete/unserviceable/unreliable gear that it is worth 10 percent (or less) than they paid for it. Seen it many times, unfortunately.

It's almost impossible to know what you are looking at as a new diver. Unless you can get solid advice from someone who really knows what's what, I would recommend buying new gear with a warranty to start.

 

[pdwh]

There are great deals to be had with used gear but new divers who start collecting used gear typically end up with a pile of obsolete/unserviceable/unreliable gear that it is worth 10 percent (or less) than they paid for it. Seen it many times, unfortunately.

It's almost impossible to know what you are looking at as a new diver. Unless you can get solid advice from someone who really knows what's what, I would recommend buying new gear with a warranty to start.

Unless you do a huge amount of research on places like ScubaBoard. That's what I did and it's served me well.

 

[boulderjohn]

Have been renting during training and fun dives working up the courage to get my own gear.

My dream gear:

In my experience, a newer diver's dream gear often contains future regrets.

I once had a student come to me for advanced training, and he had all his own gear, most of which was not appropriate for the classes he wanted to take. He knew that before he came to me, and he was angry about all the money he had spent on his dream package. He started to tell me what he had, and I interrupted to predict (with total accuracy) the rest. How did I know? I had worked at the shop where he bought it, and I quit when they adopted a policy of having every employee work to direct students to buy a specific set of gear in order to get the highest profit margin. As an instructor, I would have been required to use that specific gear and tell my students that I had personally selected those items because they were the best. In reality, the only item I would have selected myself was the wetsuit.

Take your time and do a lot of reading from independent sources. It is hard to tell who those are sometimes. Even some of the advice on ScubaBoard comes from dealers who sell those items.

 

[pdwh]

In my experience, a newer diver's dream gear often contains future regrets.

I once had a student come to me for advanced training, and he had all his own gear, most of which was not appropriate for the classes he wanted to take. He knew that before he came to me, and he was angry about all the money he had spent on his dream package. He started to tell me what he had, and I interrupted to predict (with total accuracy) the rest. How did I know? I had worked at the shop where he bought it, and I quit when they adopted a policy of having every employee work to direct students to buy a specific set of gear in order to get the highest profit margin. As an instructor, I would have been required to use that specific gear and tell my students that I had personally selected those items because they were the best. In reality, the only item I would have selected myself was the wetsuit.

Take your time and do a lot of reading from independent sources. It is hard to tell who those are sometimes. Even some of the advice on ScubaBoard comes from dealers who sell those items.

Yeah, I definitley second that.

I didn't buy the stuff the shop recommended because $$$. I researched, bought used, and because of that, was able to tweak things to get what I really like.

 

[Still Kicking]

Unless you do a huge amount of research on places like ScubaBoard. That's what I did and it's served me well.

The problem here is you get a huge amount of conflicting/incomplete information and it can be hard to apply it to what you actually see on FB//Ebay/CL etc. If it worked out for you, you did your homework.

 

[pdwh]

The problem here is you get a huge amount of conflicting/incomplete information and it can be hard to apply it to what you actually see on FB//Ebay/CL etc. If it worked out for you, you did your homework.

and asked a TON of questions of experienced divers before I invested anything. I also started with low cost stuff first.

 

[SeanDavid702]

Welcome. The tranquility of the underwater world has a way of sharpening our focus on what truly matters. Your dream setup shows careful thought, but keep in mind that simplicity often leads to fewer problems. Prioritize gear that is easy to service and has long-term reliability. The fewer failure points, the better.