How many Open Water divers buy gear?

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Question for dive shop owners and instructors but anyone is free to share their perspective. Out of all the divers who come for Open Water certification, what percentage will purchase a full gear (BCD + Regs etc) at the time of certification and how many will be renting after their certification? If someone has any researched numbers on this those would be great otherwise individual perspective will help. Thanks.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

There were ten students in my OW class. Four bought gear during or before the class. My first wife and I were the only two who continued diving. While going through my DM class I helped out with dozens of OW classes. Nearly every student rented gear. When I worked at a dive shop, the rentals seemed to go out to those already certified.

 

[Snoweman]

Not in your target audience, but I can relate my buddies and my experience.

I already had booties and fins,. I bought a full reg setup with a dive computer, spg and compass. I also bought a new mask.

One dive buddy bought all the gear - wetsuit, booties, fins, regs, mask, wrist AI computer and BCD. He seemed to quit diving about four years ago.

The other one rented everything for years. He always claimed I was a fool for buying gear. Then his teenage daughter got into diving. During one dive, he thought his daughter was way too deep. It turned out that his dive computer was off on its depth. He then bought a Teric. Then came Covid. His wife made him buy regs for his daughter and himself. For our last trip, he bought gloves, booties, a hood, and a SMB (with spool). He now looks at BCDs and fins when at the dive shops.

I now own everything but tanks and weights. It's a PIA, but I'm happy. The dive knife screwed me when the international terminal at ATL was a zoo and I couldn't check my bag, even with being two hours early. Had I not had the knife, I would have been able to gate check the bag.

Edit: He is probably going to add a low pressure hose to his reg to inflate his SMB.

 

[shurite7]

When I went through my IDC the CD gave some breakdowns of students buying gear. BOW was <10%, AOW was a little higher, and rescue went up to 75%.

When I ran a shop, I noticed a larger class that had good camaraderie the numbers went up. When one or two students bought gear and showed it off, others came in wanting to buy a full set.

 

[Ben_3]

In my area what's mostly common is.. OW students must purchase mask, tuba, and fins + boots if needed) for their class, the rest of the gear is included in the price for the pool dives. An extra fee is then charged for gear rental and OW certification for the OW dives. Of course the student is told all this at sign up and the breakdown of the prices. Exposure protection such as wetsuits can be bought or rented depending on the students preference.

 

[Centrals]

All depend on your own disposal income!
I have actually seen divers bought everything before the start of the course. Most welcoming customers in any dive shop.

 

[Marie13]

I did!

 

[CycleCat]

I've got the disease bad! I just certified last year and have not had my first dive since but I have everything except tanks. Very much the fault of ScubaBoard classifieds! Regs for me and my wife, we each have BCDs, then I got interested in BP/W so got one of those. They are all used... but, still....

 

[graham p]

When I did my advanced course only two of us out of the eight divers had their own equipment. Two were doing this course immediately following open water and everyone else had some time diving following their open water training.

 

[Esprise Me]

When I did my OW course, there were 10 students to start, but only 6 showed up for the last dive. We all had to buy mask, fins, snorkel, and booties, but we rented everything else. One of the 6 who showed up for the last day had purchased a full set of gear the night before. After the course I lost touch with everyone except the friend I signed up with, and I know she never bought gear or, indeed, dived again. I bought a computer right after the course but otherwise rented gear for about 6 months after getting certified. When I bought gear, I started with a bp/w, long hose reg, and steel HP-100 tank. I've upgraded two of the first things I bought: my fins and computer. Otherwise, there haven't been many changes; I added a drysuit, camera, and some other accessories but have been really happy with everything I bought. I feel that not buying right away was a good decision.