Dr Dog
Contributor
Well after catching the diving bug last year, I was anxious to get myself my own gear, so I do not have to worry about rental gear anymore.
After talking to my LDS, I decided because I have future tech diving aspirations. I should buy once and get a BP/W and the obvious choice were the bigger names. The bad part about the whole thing was, is that I work for a living and I need the inevitable 5k $ for regs and a bp/w for other things, diving is not one of those things. The reason it costs so much is I need to buy my buddies gear too, who is my wife. So either way, i am taking the big hit.
As I started to look around and understand a bit more about the process of getting geared up, I realized other than brand name, there is not much difference between the less expensive brands and the " top of the line brands".
So I started to read a lot about HOG gear, and started following the forum and the posts within. Well, I started to notice things.. There are a few people who are answering all the questions, the ones I noticed was cerich and Jim LaPenta. Jim had replied to a post of mine a while back, and I remembered he told me he could gear up myself and wife for under 2K. So I sent Jim an email, to see if that was possible. Not only possible, he could have it at my address in a few days assembled. Well, because I have had issues in the past ordering from US based places, I thought I would head down to Pittsburgh area to pick them up and get a chance to meet another SB'er. Why not, I have never been to PA other than drive through. So it was a nice road trip. Gorgeous state btw, I was super impressed with the landscape in PA.
Jim is a great guy, He had us in his home for a while and showed us all about the regs and bp/w, little tips and tricks. Just a good rundown on how it all works. Next he had a pool booked at a local "backwoods" dive shop for us to try our gear and make adjustments and get a rough idea of weighting required with my new Henderson 7MM. Next Jim insisted, that we practice a couple rescue drills on each other to get a handle on rescue situations. Keep in mind, this was all free. The next morning he treated us to breakfast on our way back home. You would be silly not to do business with this guy.
I have since had the opportunity to dive 4 times locally with my gear. It has performed flawlessly. I got the 32 lb wing and SS backplate. Full harness and the backplate pad. The D1 HOG cold water reg singles in a long hose setup
We spent probably 4 hours within these dives floating at the surface the bp/w did not feel at all like you were face first, the wing was more than sufficient to keep us at surface comfortably in some nasty rain and biting wind. The water temps were mid 50 too, was a bit chilly on the xposed face parts
So, all in all I am super happy with my HOG purchase, and if you want to get quality gear for a good pricepoint you should check out this stuff
After talking to my LDS, I decided because I have future tech diving aspirations. I should buy once and get a BP/W and the obvious choice were the bigger names. The bad part about the whole thing was, is that I work for a living and I need the inevitable 5k $ for regs and a bp/w for other things, diving is not one of those things. The reason it costs so much is I need to buy my buddies gear too, who is my wife. So either way, i am taking the big hit.
As I started to look around and understand a bit more about the process of getting geared up, I realized other than brand name, there is not much difference between the less expensive brands and the " top of the line brands".
So I started to read a lot about HOG gear, and started following the forum and the posts within. Well, I started to notice things.. There are a few people who are answering all the questions, the ones I noticed was cerich and Jim LaPenta. Jim had replied to a post of mine a while back, and I remembered he told me he could gear up myself and wife for under 2K. So I sent Jim an email, to see if that was possible. Not only possible, he could have it at my address in a few days assembled. Well, because I have had issues in the past ordering from US based places, I thought I would head down to Pittsburgh area to pick them up and get a chance to meet another SB'er. Why not, I have never been to PA other than drive through. So it was a nice road trip. Gorgeous state btw, I was super impressed with the landscape in PA.
Jim is a great guy, He had us in his home for a while and showed us all about the regs and bp/w, little tips and tricks. Just a good rundown on how it all works. Next he had a pool booked at a local "backwoods" dive shop for us to try our gear and make adjustments and get a rough idea of weighting required with my new Henderson 7MM. Next Jim insisted, that we practice a couple rescue drills on each other to get a handle on rescue situations. Keep in mind, this was all free. The next morning he treated us to breakfast on our way back home. You would be silly not to do business with this guy.
I have since had the opportunity to dive 4 times locally with my gear. It has performed flawlessly. I got the 32 lb wing and SS backplate. Full harness and the backplate pad. The D1 HOG cold water reg singles in a long hose setup
We spent probably 4 hours within these dives floating at the surface the bp/w did not feel at all like you were face first, the wing was more than sufficient to keep us at surface comfortably in some nasty rain and biting wind. The water temps were mid 50 too, was a bit chilly on the xposed face parts
So, all in all I am super happy with my HOG purchase, and if you want to get quality gear for a good pricepoint you should check out this stuff
