Buying Gear off Internet

[canadian_mofo]

Ok thanks guys, my instructor said never to buy off the internet because the equipment you use is lifesaving, and he'd never trust internet bought stuff, say off ebay or something. But i think he's just plugging the dive shop so we buy there. Oh and XL i s pretty big in the waiste, but i cant even get close to getting a Large BCD on, even the XL is tight in the upper body. I have a large upper body from bodybuilding but ill deffinatley try on a whole assortment of BCD's before i go and purchace myself one.

 

[outlawaggie]

Yeah, its tacky.

No it's not. I've yet to understand this prima dona view of the LDS. If you stop and think about it, just about everything else a person buys, shoes, cars, clothes. You go to multiple places (its called shopping) and nobody has an issue with it but all of a sudden when it comes to "support your LDS" the rules change. that's BS.

Canadian Mofo my advice is go to as many shops as you need to to find the one you like then order it from Scubatoys.com or scuba.com or even LeisurePro.com (As a note, LeisurePro will not give you a Manufacturer's warranty, the other sites will.) I saved $400 on a Zeagle Ranger at Scubatoys over my LDS.

Another benefit of Scubatoys is they can "build" you a BC. ie my ranger is a large but with medium straps and fits perfectly.

I love my LDS but $400 is enough money to cover my trip to the Flower Gardens next month.

 

[fookisan]

Some people (myself included) think that's tacky. I think if you take advantage of a shop to try stuff on and find what you're looking for then you should buy it there. If you want to do mail order that's fine, but then do it that way and be prepared to send things back and eat the shipping if it's not right.

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I try to support my local shop whenever possible, although sometimes they price items too high but they will usually cut a break to those divers that support them verus the net. Once in a while I order from the net. I especially like to shop "in store" for items that require exacting fit as the shipping both ways for testing mail order equipment can add up. When I used to live in L.A. there were many possibilities. Now we live in a small town and only have one dive shop for many, many miles so like to make sure they have biz to continue operations. While air is free in nature, nature can't fill my tanks.

 

[ae3753]

Ok thanks guys, my instructor said never to buy off the internet because the equipment you use is lifesaving, and he'd never trust internet bought stuff, say off ebay or something. But i think he's just plugging the dive shop so we buy there. Oh and XL i s pretty big in the waiste, but i cant even get close to getting a Large BCD on, even the XL is tight in the upper body. I have a large upper body from bodybuilding but ill deffinatley try on a whole assortment of BCD's before i go and purchace myself one.

canadian_mofo, here's a thread that you might want to read, if you haven't already done so.

The good online stores will be more than happy to walk through your options and work on putting something together for you. And the best ones even guarantee fit (you don't have to pay for shipping if they sized you wrong).

 

[mrjake]

A bargain may not be a bargain if it's not covered by warranty. Some manufaturers prevent their authorized dealers from selling on the internet. I'd make sure you're getting a manufacturer's warranty with whatever you buy. My LDS charges more (lots more) to do yearly service and inspections required to keep warranties valid if you didn't buy it from them (unless of course you recently moved to the area). I have bought a used Suunto computer with only 4 dives logged but I paid less than half the new price because I know I have no warranty on this item. Watch what you buy and from whom.

mrjake

 

[mrjake]

Ok thanks guys, my instructor said never to buy off the internet because the equipment you use is lifesaving, and he'd never trust internet bought stuff, say off ebay or something. But i think he's just plugging the dive shop so we buy there. Oh and XL i s pretty big in the waiste, but i cant even get close to getting a Large BCD on, even the XL is tight in the upper body. I have a large upper body from bodybuilding but ill deffinatley try on a whole assortment of BCD's before i go and purchace myself one.

I am also a large person and had lots of trouble finding a BC to fit. That was my main objective in buying my own because I found that the dive shops didn't always have one to fit. I ended up with a ScubaPro Knighthawk (XL). It seemed to be more adjustable than any of the others I tried on. I wanted to try a Zeagle Ranger as well, but no one near me stocked them.

 

[scubatoys]

I am also a large person and had lots of trouble finding a BC to fit. That was my main objective in buying my own because I found that the dive shops didn't always have one to fit. I ended up with a ScubaPro Knighthawk (XL). It seemed to be more adjustable than any of the others I tried on. I wanted to try a Zeagle Ranger as well, but no one near me stocked them.

If you want a Zeagle, it's very easy for us to get your sizes, and ship one out to you. We guarantee that we can get the fit right, if not, we pay the shipping both ways to get you a different size. You will find the Zeagle to be a far superior BC, and comes with a life time warranty instead of just a few years.

And we carry Zeagle stock sizes in XL and XXL, and the other nice thing is you can customize the fit by having say an XXL waist panel, but L shoulders if you have a large waist but are not very tall.

My other suggestion would have been the Zeagle Brigade which gives you the zeagle ranger harness, but the bladder is slightly smaller - same as an escape - in fact looks a lot like the Knighthawk bladder. And that BC in custom sized is $399 - lifetime warranty.