Buying dive gear

[FinnMom]

Wait, try different syyles and brands and listen to folks who have been diving in the places and conditions you want to dive.

If you want to dive locally and the locals say so, you might want a dry suit. I wasted months and dives and comfort for 2.5 yrs before getting my drysuit. Since then I've consistenly had at least 2x as many dives per year. I put my daughter in a drysuit from day 1 and she's been a hugely more active & comfortable diver because of it. Diving is for fun. If you're toughing it out, bearing up and occasionly sitting out when you'd like to be diving but it's/you're too cold => you're not having the proper amount of fun. Also esp. for the wife: the need to pee is hugely decreased by no longer being compressed and surrounded by cold water.
Oh, and most drysuits have pockets! Pockets on your suit are a big part of being happy w/ a BP/W which of course has no pockets.

If you want to do winter diving you will have to talk to those that do it in your area and buy regs that are good for cold weather. Know too that some reg brands may have an equal or cheaper purchase price but significantly higher servicing fees. You only purchase them once, the servicing fees are there to stay .

 

[jord1990]

What nobody mentioned and what is my main reason to get a drysuit. Is the moment of changing back into clothes or during SI. That got me so cold I had to call a second dive of the day before I even zipped up my (wet) wetsuit. (A shame cause I travelled quite a bit for it)

Jord

Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk

 

[Rampantmarine]

I am a little bit north of you, and I was part of the "Buy and train in my gear" crowd. I like that I got comfortable with my stuff when we went training. I have 7mm Hendersons full suits with the chicken hood. Love them in West Hawk. Minneapolis has quite a few dive shops for you to research and I think one has a pool on site to try stuff out. I went with our training shops brand as he includes free annual service for as long as I I own it (but I know I paid more for it - but it was a reasonable amount). I did the research on what was carried locally and came down to two choices. If the service was not the factor I would have bought from the Aqualung dealer.

The key was I know what type of diving I am doing for the next number of years, and what I purchased lets me play in out in the local lakes and not turn blue. I may venture down south one day, but that's quite a few years away.

Have fun! Read lots.

 

[mac.calder]

Not going to say much that hasn't already been said - except: If you plan on doing a bit of traveling or using multiple shops, look at getting your own computer sooner rather than later. You CAN dive tables - but a computer has a number of advantages if you plan on doing diving holidays etc with multiple dives on multiple days. I am firmly in the "do not rent a computer" camp - you need to know how your computer operates, where it puts the information and how to use it effectively for it to be a useful tool. You get get a wrist mounted dive computer that will cope with anything you throw at it recreationally for less than $300. I would then pair it with an eezycut trilobite line cutter on the wrist strap.

When it comes to regs, shop around and buy once. My first set of regs were Scubapro MK17 first with 2 x G250V second stages (the shops used to joke with me saying that I obviously loved my buddies) - I shopped around for them and bought them for a great price - only slightly more than some people pay for a cheap unbalanced set - and whilst friends have had 2 or 3 sets of regs, these are still going strong. (I also have 2 or 3 sets of regs, but that is due to an acute case of dive gear acquisition disorder).

Instead of giving you an order in which to buy, instead I will finish by saying that manufacturers never intend to make a bad piece of kit. Do your due diligence online and talking with the shop (and also some neighbouring dive shops) and make sure you are buying what works for you.

 

[a z shohan]

I really appreciate this reply. I have overcome a lot of questions from this post.

Thanks!

 

[Aqua-Andy]

I second, third, fourth, or what ever it is now the drysuit. Look at Dry Suits - Dry Suits & Undies - EXPOSURE GEAR they have probably the best selection and package pricing on the net and there CS is second to none. The most important part of diving is having fun and if you are cold you will not be having fun. I will let you in on a little secret, diving is a huge pain in the butt!!!! You will need to get up very early on your day off or stay out late(like well past midnight on a work night) to do most of your diving. You will have to lug heavy gear around the house, in and out of cars, up and down rocky shore lines, back to the car, dry it all out when your done, hall tanks to and from the dive shop for fills, get tanks and regs serviced and more other stuff I can't think of right now. Trust me it is a HUGE pain in the butt!!!! Now do you want to do all this knowing you will be cold while you are in the water? I think for cold climates a drysuit is a necessary piece of equipment, because if you are comfortable in the water you will be having fun and all the other stuff will seem like nothing at all. A good semi-dry will cost almost as much as decent entry level drysuit and the drysuit will last longer to boot. Just some ramblings to think about.

 

[CT-Rich]

I go with buy the items where fit is important first. A dry suit would be a good investment if money is no object. you can always buy an inexpensive wetsuit for times when a drysuit is overkill (in your neck of the woods that won't be often). keep you initial rig simple and add to your kit one piece at a time. Nubes tend to get sucked into buying stuff because someone else swears by it. You want to be able to use the stuff you bring in the water effectively more than to bring ever conceivable piece of junk with you.

To start, keep it simple and focus in on dialing the important stuff. Master your trim and figure out how you want to distribute your weight before you start worrying about cameras and lights (personally I like a weight belt and some integrated weights). A computer is a nice tool but take the time to plan your dives with pen and paper first and use the computer to track your data. You can do without the computer to start, but personally I think you do best if you get in the habit looking at your data (pressure, time, depth and direction) from the very start. Situational awareness allows you to make good choices and prevents you from following someone else's bad choice (to deep, to long or wrong direction).

There is a lot of excellent use gear out there, just go with a friend who knows what he is looking at when going to buy. Don't buy because it is a great bargain, buy because it will do the job you want it too do. A lot of people get involved in diving buy good/great equipment and find that life takes them in another direction. Have the gear serviced before use and factor that in to planning the purchase.