Equipment rental?

[snowflake4727]

In my experience, tubing and zip ties make the best octo holders.

Most rental gear is worn and faded. Pools will do that, and rental gear spends alot of time in pools.

Where are the holes?

Most shops don't give out regulator bags. They have a habit of not coming back.

 

[Goannaman]

Your experience seems pretty common with what I have seen in Florida. Some places are better some places are worse. If you are renting from a local shop, make sure everything works before you get to your dive site.

Cosmetic damage (like holes in the shell of the bc) are going to be pretty common. This is rental gear. It doesn't often get treated well by the renters, and the shops are in business to make money, so if it looks bad, but works fine, you can bet it is going back on the rack to be rented again.

I'm glad I have all my own gear so I don't have to deal with it. But I get to experience my girlfriends frustrations first hand.

 

[Darth Sillius]

Thanks for all the input! I just got back and the gear worked great, and that is what counts!

 

[Lorenzoid]

I've rented gear at swanky dive resorts that looked brand new, and I've rented gear from dive outfits in places that are popular with hordes of young international backpackerts that was absolutely threadbare, full of holes, leaking bubbles, wheezing regulator noises, etc.--pretty much as you described. It all depends where you are in the world and who is the average customer as to what the "standard" is.

 

[SeaHorse81]

Reading this thread, I'm feeling like I've been very lucky over the years. With the exception of personal gear (mask, fins, exposure protection) I have always rented. The reason is that I dive primarily on vacations and have been unwilling to drag the extra weight of scuba equipment through airports, so I rent where I stay. In ten years, I've had one BC that looked terrible but did do its job acceptably; everything else I've had looked like it was reasonably up-to-date and maintained. On those rare occasions when I have rented locally for fresh-water diving, the equipment has generally looked like it came right off the sale rack. Based on the very limited database of me and my experience, it sounds like you could be getting better value for your dollars. And I agree, nobody ever seems to include an octo-holder on the BC.