- Any well-built cold water reg will perform great in warm water, too.
- I wouldn't advise buying a BCD or reg setup prior to getting certified. Lots of weird things can happen during OW class. You might discover that you don't like diving. People have also been known to drop out of class for medically-related conditions. Make sure that you are willing and able to continue on with the sport before committing financially by purchasing a reg setup.
- Most dive shops include BCD + reg + weight rental with the cost of the OW class. Use class time to become familiar with the rental gear. Figure out what you like and don't like about it. After the class is over, it might make sense to talk to other local divers about what regs they use and where they get them serviced.
- Your police department dive team may have guidelines specifying make/model/features for certain gear. Although you'll have a separate reg set for work, it might be nice to match up your personal reg with your work reg (same brand, similar model). You'll be more familiar with the reg and be able to interchange parts in a pinch.
- Reg performance has a lot to do with the skill of the reg repair tech who last tuned/serviced it.
The Titan LX second stage is basically the low-end Legend.
As
Rick Murchison mentioned, the Titan LX Supreme first stage is environmentally sealed, which is preferable for cold water diving.
Aqualung has a global network of dealers. You shouldn't have any trouble getting an Aqualung reg serviced wherever you are.
For anyone interested in learning how to service his/her own regs...
With respect to the HOG reg repair class mentioned by
Thalassamania,
the OP should know that the class is not open to recreational divers. The manufacturer is adamant that the HOG line of gear is marketed to the tech diving crowd only. Thus, a diver is permitted to sign up for the class only if he/she holds a tech certification or has taken some sort of approved tech class. This policy specifically excludes recreational divers who want to know how to service their own regs. This may not be a big deal for the OP since law enforcement diving may qualify him as a "tech diver."
While I normally don't pay much attention to stuff along the lines of what I highlighted in this post I'm going to have to refute this and say it is a BS statement. It is a fact that HOG regs are marketed primarily to the so called "tech diver". But the fact is that according to the CEO of SEI, the primary agency I cert thru, all diving is technical.
And the statement that HOG regs are marketed towards the tech diving crowd only is more BS. I have sold dozens of HOG regs and HOG components to what would be considered recreational divers. The class is open to recreational divers with a prerequisite that they have a class that HOG considers a technical cert under their belt. That definition is quite broad in all actuality. PSD diving is something that as a HOG tech instructor I would lean towards it meeting the qualification provided
it is an actual PSD cert. Not the PADI search and recovery specialty.
In addition there are recreational certs that meet the criteria. Ice for example from any agency is acceptable since HOG sees ANY overhead training as a techincal cert. In addition an intro to tech qualifies as well. There is a great deal being made and a lot of misinformation being disseminated regarding the HOG regs and the class to service them.
It is true that HOG regs are sold in the DIN configuration and for now require a spin on adapter. That is going to change. Near the beginning of March HOG, thru it's retailers, will be offering an official conversion kit to change the reg over to yoke. It will still be sold standard as a DIN reg and not available as yoke from the factory. But now those who do not want to use an adapter can have the reg converted.
Sorry for the hijack but I'm tired of seeing sour grapes spread around and the real facts not told.
For the OP, as much as I'd like even the remote chance to sell a reg to you now when business is slow, I'm in the camp that says wait until you actually start training. You really have no idea now what your needs and possibly the needs of your yet to be formed team are. You may not even like diving and if you do you may find that PSD diving is not for you. There is a huge difference in diving where you can see and where you cannot. And even more in diving where you cannot see and diving where you cannot see with the possibility of finding a dead body by feel when you stick your hand into it's mouth or chest cavity. I cannot see myself doing the latter.
Also you will not be doing PSD diving for probably a year or more after your cert if you have a PSD instructor worth their salt. They are going to make sure you are properly trained as a recreational diver and accomplished there before starting any kind of genuine PSD training.
One of the side effects of Sept 11th was the seemingly endless supply of money made available for homeland security for those who knew and know how to write grant applications. As a result every little town and fire dept with a creek or oversize puddle saw that they could form dive teams. Many went about it the wrong way. I see it all the time.
There was one shop that is now no longer around that got every fire dept in the area set up to do "PSD" work. They talked them into the most expensive gear, split fins, $40 dry snorkels, big bulky jacket BC's, dry suits or heavy duty 7 mils, some even bought sea doo scooters that the shop told them would be needed. Then they put them thru a min standards cert for OW, AOW, Rescue, and a recreational Search and Recovery course and told em there you go. You are now a dive team!
It was disgusting to see. Some of these people cannot swim without rototilling the bottom, have never had a proper PSD course, or forensic diving class and they are supposed to be PSD divers.
You need to finish your recreational certs, get some dives in between classes, and then think about the PSD stuff. As for your gear you are more than likely going to find out that what you buy now for recreational diving will not work well for PSD.
HOG regs will work like any other but you need to be ready to change your hose configuration as it may prove necessary. That is one of the nice things about HOG is that hoses are bought separately so you don't end up like me with a bunch of hoses that came on a reg set that do not work for my style of diving.
And yeah you can get into a full sealed cold water reg set with first stage, two seconds, hoses, and SPG for under 550. And as a recreational diver you can take the class to service them yourself. You just need to add a class to your diving education that will give you some knowldege that would be considered "technical" in nature. You could take an intro to tech class that would have a big advantage in your PSD training by getting you started on proper gear configurations, task loading concerns, and a few more items your recreational training should include but likely won't depending on the agency and instructor you use.
