Just had our first child, time to sell my gear?

[watboy]

So I'm 45 and just had my first child, beautiful baby girl. With the way the world is right now, I'm not sure when I can go diving again. Maybe everyone will be on rebreathers and people can take anti DCI pills by then, who knows. What to do w my gear? Only dove once in the last year with it. I don't think I could get much value selling it, the most recent gear is still a 4 year old Shearwater w 300 dives on it. The rest, Mk17 regs, halcyons backplate wing and SMBs, are all 10+ years with 1k dives on it. Just seems a waste to just have it sit in storage for years and years...
Oh, the I can still go diving... my wife is my dive buddy, and she's made it very clear I cannot dive without her. We've seen couples on liveaboards take turns diving while the other takes care of the baby. But she won't dive without me, and she won't let me dive alone out of this new paranoia that I won't surface and leave her a single mom.

 

[BDIVER1351]

I had a similar situation when I was first married and my first son was born. I was tight for money to boot and sold all of my SCUBA gear to a dive buddy. I always regretted selling and wish I kept everything. Eventually got back into diving and had to buy all new gear. I would say hold on to your gear and who knows, you and your wife may be diving again before you know it. Congrats on the birth of your new daughter!

 

[formernuke]

I kept mine, started diving again but I also ditched the abusive b%$^, so.......
I would wait you never know she might change her mind.

 

[BoltSnap]

Congratulations on the baby!!

Give it time and things will sort out with your wife, it is the "new first baby" syndrome and it will pass.

 

[BoltSnap]

I kept mine, started diving again but I also ditched the abusive b%$^

Hahahahahahaha

 

[Searcaigh]

I went to Sipadan a week after my daughter was born, I know I'll rot in hell, but she's qualified as a Staff Instructor and also has to dive for work occasionally as an environmental scientist.

So I wouldn't worry about it, keep your gear and I'm sure you'll get a dive in once in a while especially if you live near water.

 

[Belzelbub]

Unless your gear would fetch a premium on the used market, I see little benefit to selling it. It will only ensure that you’ll have to buy new gear when ready to dive again. When my kids were born, I dove quite a bit less, but I still have most of the gear I had back then.

My kids are older, and both are now certified, so I had to get new gear for them anyway. Not having to replace my own gear as well certainly helped to lower the total cost.

 

[TMHeimer]

Dive alone, keep your gear for 2036 diving and be happy you're not 67...

 

[CT-Rich]

Give up the idea of tech diving for a while. Choose easy (and inexpensive) shore diving until things sort themselves out. I am 57, and have much less to prove as a diver than I might before. I no longer plan on being the great challenger of the deep. Much more interested in nice, uncomplicated diving for fun. When the little one is old enough you can help them learn to swim, snorkel and eventually dive. Recreational diving is much less cash/time intensive than tech.

 

[lowwall]

I was out of diving for 8 years after my son was born. Now I'm diving again and my son was certified at the beginning of the year.

It sounds like you have good gear, but it probably doesn't look all that great with that many dives. So low resale value and high replacement cost. Hold onto it.

Except maybe the Shearwater.