what was the first dive gear you purchased?

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A knife seems a surprising yet popular choice. It was one of the last things I bought, and it comes in handy... for slicing fruit! :D

I bought most of my gear used. That is smart as there are a couple types of divers. Those that sell their equipment after it sits idle for years, and those that end up diving for life. The later spends a boatload on diving....
 
First thing was a BC, computer and regs. Since then it's been a torrent of gear both new and used.
 
Used the basic snorkel package for years, rented everything else. Finally decided to buy my own wet suit this winter so went to my LDS to see what he had. Turns out he had just bought out the inventory of two Dive Shops that had gone out of business so had a ton of used, one off, or off brand equipment. He had just gotten the stuff so it was pilled in heaps around his rental gear room. Spent two hours sifting through this stuff and walked out with 7mm Farmer John, Jacket BCD, hood, gloves, replacement boots for my old ones (lost), weights and weight belt, Reg. set (1st stage, two seconds, just serviced) with gauge console (no computer), wet suit shampoo and marking pen. Cost me about $400.00. All the equipment I bought was "used". Shampooed the wet suit and BCD, they look absolutely new and everything works great. I will recoup my investment this summer with the savings from not having to rent anything but tanks. :D
 
My first wife and I found two complete sets for sale in the classified ads for $700. We each got a backpack with a small wing, weightbelt with 20# of lead, US Divers Conshelf reg, 72 cu ft tank with J valve, depth gauge, compass and bottom timer.

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My first wife and I found two complete sets for sale in the classified ads for $700. We each got a backpack with a small wing, weightbelt with 20# of lead, US Divers Conshelf reg, 72 cu ft tank with J valve, depth gauge, compass and bottom timer.

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Nice stuff!
 
I started off with my basic snorkel gear: SeaWing Novas but traded for Twin Jets because of less stress on my right knee, for a mask I got a Mini Spectre with snorkel, polarized lenses. I won't ever do that again, the mask is a pain to clean the silicone residue off the glass without scratching it. After using rental gear in my first OW class I decided I needed my own gear for my wife and I. We bought Aqua Lung SolaFX wet suits, ScubaPro Mk11/C300 reg's, and ScubaPro BC's. We went out for our second shot at OW and passed with flying colors and loved our gear. It really is true what they say about owning your own gear.
 
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My wetsuit. It kinda bothered me thinking about renting something that other people probably peed in. Plus I dive in 50 degree water and the new neoprene seemed warmer. Then I bought my regs and BCD all together on a Father's Day sale! :D
 
I purchased a full kit the day after my first dive, it was like I was on crack. Paid list list price from the dealer after hearing about the evils of mail order gear.
 
The worst kit I ever had the misfortune to own, ranked in order of design buffoonery:

1) Dacor 'Rig-3' Hyrid BCD. A truly catastrophic design - too heavy, too cumbersome and almost entirely superfluous. The weight pouches slid out the back of the pockets and dangled - on every dive. I didn't know better at the time... and it seemed like a 'tekkie' backplate wing... but it wasn't... so much wasn't.

2) DiveRite Primary Reel. Otherwise known as the 'tangler', I can't believe that DiveRite still sell these. I've seen divers get insta-birds nests with these on every dive. One of the most hazard-prone pieces of equipment to take into an overhead environment.

3) Olympus SP-350 in OEM housing. The 'leaker' and the 'insta-corpse'. The Olympus OEM housing leaked at the drop-of-hat... just a trickle, but then, it only takes a few particles of water vapor in the housing to totally meltdown the SP-350 camera. Quite possibly the least robust camera you can (could) buy for underwater photography.

4) Deep Sea Explorers 30lb Donut Wing. A local (Philippines) copy of the OMS single-tank wing. I got it free, but I still hated it. The inner bladder was welded using weak paper glue, I suspect. After six months, it literally fell apart. Within 9 months, it consisted of more aquaseal than original materials.

5) Dacor 'Viper' Regulators. Now sold by Mares as an octopus, this was the 2nd set of regs I ever bought - to replace my aging (second-hand) Apeks. Seemed like a 'good idea' with side-exhaust, but they free-flowed at the drop of a hat in cold water. Caused me to have a significant incident diving in a cold UK quarry... and I went back to diving my 15 year old Apeks.

6) Poseidon Cyklon/Jetstream. Loved these - had 6 sets for technical diving in the UK. When I moved to Asia, I couldn't get parts or service for them anywhere. Sold them cheap on Ebay and replaced with Scubapros. Great regulators - but impossible to maintain if travelling outside of Europe.
 
My order of purchase was a rather logical one, it goes like this:

1)BC: because I want to be consistant in buoyance control
2)Computer: Rental reg usually dont come with a computer. Computer is not rentable in LDS. I didn't know how to track average depth at that time. Using table gives very short dive time. Computer was mean to maximized NDL/MDL time.
3)wetsuit: came across good deal
4)regulator: also came across good deal
5)knife and light: because AOW required one
6)drysuit
7)tanks

4, 5, 7, I don't use the same one I bought back then. I hardly use 3 anymore. For 1, it went from DR transplate to basic hog harness.

If I were to do it over again, I will skip #3, bump drysuit to 3rd or even 2nd place. And I will buy regulator the last. To me, regulator makes the least impact on my early stage diving.

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Amount these items, I think I wasted money on #4 - my first regulator and knife. The regulator, even bought it at a good deal, it didn't fit my usage. With my best effort, I sold it for about 50% of what I paid after one year. The knife, I bought one of those big Ti knife. It became such a entanglement hazard in kelp forest. I stop carrying it after a few attemp.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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