Equipment advice wanted!

[DiveMaven]

Beardown, do yourself a favor and take a roadtrip up to Dallas and see Larry at ScubaToys. Not only are his prices excellent, but his customer service is outstanding and you won't be sorry for making the trip.

I live FAR away from Larry but he took the time to speak with me at length on the phone about the pros and cons of various pieces of equipment I was considering. Ironically, the BC was the one piece of equipment we didn't discuss and I wound up selling my first BC to buy a Zena from Larry this year. Fortunately it wasn't an expensive mistake for me, but now I'll call Larry first!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Whoever told you that is either lying to bait and switch you into different gear... or is clueless. The Tusa IR3 Octo inflator is made in Italy - in the same factory as the Scubapro Inflator. They are virtually identical units except one has round blue buttons and one has square gray buttons... Internally they use the exact same parts.

As far as their other gear, most is manufactured in Japan - Tusa being a Japanese company originally called TABATA, but then changed to Tusa for the american market - Tusa for Tabata USA. And over all, their regs are great regs that come with a lifetime warranty on parts.

I agree with Larry about TUSA regs ... although I currently own all Apeks and Scubapro regs, my first regulator purchase was a TUSA RS130, and it served me well for hundreds of dives in all kinds of conditions. It's certainly not high-end gear ... but for the price it's a very good product.

For back-inflate BCD's, try out several models and get the one that fits you best ... proper fit and lift capacity are the two primary considerations. If it's an option, try several different models in a pool and see which one feels most comfortable.

Ignore all the branding hype ... most experienced divers have witnessed dive shops talking down a particular brand as "junk" or "dangerous" only to be hyping it a year later as the greatest thing to ever hit the scuba market. They are, after all, only trying to sell you what they carry ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)