RiverRat once bubbled...
Thank you all so far for your equipment advise. As you can probably guess my head is about to explode trying to make some decisions on equipment.
The don't rush. Rent for a while. See what other people have, what they like about it don't like, etc. I rented gear for awhile and even though it was annoying and made each dive trip more expensive I think it was very beneficial. Think of the extra cost as R&D money.
So far I bought the basics for pool training, Oceanic boots, Scubapro snorkel, well fitting mask. I'm going to invest in some decent fins, local DS is pushing split fins.
I wouldn't put split fins in the "decent fins" category.
I'm researching BC's and Regs now. Local DS is pushing Scubapro Classic BC and Scubapro regs. They don't seem to have a large selection. I've been looking at Dacor Falcon, SPro Classic etc. for BC
I rented a normal jacket BC, a back inflate jacket (which many people seem to recommend), and a Dive Rite Transpac II before I bought my BC. When I finally pulled out my wallet I felt like I was making a very informed decision.
and ScubaPro, Apeks, Mares regs. I hear the Apeks' are sealed very well? I also hear the Scubapro regs are pretty reliable.
Apeks are reliable too. I've heard some people say more so then Apeks. Not all Apeks are sealed. For example, the make a US4 and a DS4 first stage. The first one is an unsealed version of the latter. FWIW, I have a DS4 with a TX50 second stange and I've VERY happy with them.
It seems the BC's with air in the back are the latest rave but the local DS stated the Scubapro Classic would be better for flotation at the surface?
A BC is not a life jacket ....
I'm guessing the air in the back BC's would tend to push one forward in the water?
This is a common fallacy.
Also, I would guess at deeper depths each type of BC would perform differently?
I would say that different types of BC are more approriate for different depths than others. In theory they should all work the same.
I think as far as the BC goes I'll rent a few and try them out to see what may work best for me.
You might have to look around at different shops but you can find a very wide variety of BC for rent.
And as far as getting F****d by the locals, I have found some pretty decent pricing on the Web.
You might not be getting ****ed as hard as you think. ScubaPro and APEKS (and others I'm sure) offers a "warranty" which cuts your yearly regulator maintance down. I looked at buying my regs online and it would only take a couple of years before total cost of ownership for the online regs exceeded the LDS regs. Oh and my LDS is quite happy to help fix little things on my gear free of charge. I doubt they would if I had bought it online.
Cornfed