First gear?

[Wreck/Tec]

RR75
There's so much nice gear out there. Cyclone and Pug make sence. Read all you can! If you have an idea where you may be heading, deep, ice, salt water, fresh, all require fore thought, and the realization that this is keeping you alive! I will say this, and I try not to sway entry people as much as give them sincere advise when asked. I feel those second stage reg/deflator/inflator systems are dangerous. THINK, How do you manage an emergency ascent with your deflator being held to your mouth, holding your buddy, controling, or watching your ascent rate, as well as your buddys concerns. This is only my opinion. Get an additional second stage like your primary, and leave that inflator to do what it does best. You may have to depend on that additional second stage at depth. It would be nice if it performed as well as your primary. Do as you please with the rest of your choices, and excuse me for butting in. I do feel this is an important matter. I believe it's shameful the shops permote these like they do to entry people. I'm thinking of your saftey buddy! There were similar views with respect to shops giving solo diver certs, lots of debate! Be care ful, and have fun.......
Wreck/Tec

 

[Dr. Jay]

Hmmm....order?

The first thing I bought was the wetsuit (mostly for spring diving). It's a real pain in the rear trying to find a wetsuit that fits you correctly and doesn't leak. Plus, you never know who's pee'd in those rentals uke:

I guess if you're looking for an order than I guess the stuff that comes in different sizes would be beneficial to get first (exposure suit, BC, fins, etc.)

I doubt you'll run into a problem of getting a rental set of regs that "doesn't fit".

Although, I'm sure someone has a unusual story about that.

 

[Groundhog246]

Dr. Jay once bubbled...
I doubt you'll run into a problem of getting a rental set of regs that "doesn't fit".

It's not a just "doesn't fit" issue, as much as a doesn't work issue. There are enough shops out there with poor maintenance of their rental gear (which brings up the questions of how good a job do they do of the annual on your gear?) to raise real concerns. My preferred local LDS, is really good. I had a buddy last summer show up with gear from another LDS and the BC was a disaster waiting to happen. Among other things a really poor fit, they asked what size and he said large. So he left with a large, closer to an extra large and in really rough shape although it did hold air. He had tried it on in their shop over a T-shirt and expressed concerns on size and they insisted it would be fine with the wetsuit. With only a dozen dives, he didn't know enough to argue (I'm sure he will next time).

 

[Conor]

I am in a similar position, although I have started to gather a few things. I started out with a mask, fins and boots, it was all I could afford at the time and the boots made things a lot more comfortable for shore dives. Mask was nice for the first dive, but to be honest it will become my spare - lesson learned try to try before you buy in the water if at all possible and avoid anything that is in the slightest bit gimmicky.

Then I got a wetsuit (3 piece 5mm combi), bought mail order, seemed to fit perfectly out of the water, in the water was a little large, mail order company won't exchange as its been used - lesson learned, try on a suit before you buy and be wary of buying a suit you haven't tried on with the advice of someone with experience who could possibly pick up the sizing issues. In this case, paying a little over the odds at an LDS may actually be worthwhile.

I am now looking at BCD's and Regs, having had minor incidents with both while on holiday. This is where my view has changed, given the time again I would probably have invested here first, at the end of the day a mask is a mask, fins are fins and a wetsuit (yes you guessed it) is a wetsuit. I have had BCDs that leaked, dumps that stuck, poorly balanced 2nd stages that either freeflowed or required so much effort my air consumption increased by 20 % and I felt like Darth Vader. When you think that Regs are your primary life support, you should not be forced to put up with second best and a good BCD will help you enjoy your diving a lot more.

Anyway, I'm still shopping so let us know how you get on. I found the following link which, although biased towards long hoses and wings, does give some good points to consider.
http://www.bitz.fsnet.co.uk/

Best advice I can give is think about how you see yourself diving in the future and try as much equipment as you can. Decide how much you can afford and try to get the best regs/BCD you can, the rest are cheap by comparison.

Good luck

Conor

 

[MikeFerrara]

I have been diving a while. I own lots of gear, I'm an instructor and own a dive shop. I still don't know what to tell people when they ask me what piece to buy first. I bought everything and I would do it again I would just buy different stuff.

Research is fine but you will hear many conflicting points of view and you may have no way of spotting the bs. Diving with different stuff is also of limited value in the beginning because for many beginners it can be hard to tell good from bad.

UP has a point about the mentor but good luck finding one.

I'm starting to think that if your training is complete you will have a real good idea what to buy by the time your finished. If not why?

 

[jhelmuth]

rr75 - Buying gear is fun. All of the aforementioned advise is reasonable and "not bad". Here is my 2 cents...

Delay the purchase as long as possible so that you will keep the joy in the pursuit of the elusive "perfect" selection. Experience will likely progress your ideas of what is "right".

Make a commitment to purchase it once. Don't make the most expensive decission and settle for something that will never do in the long run. It's cool to have a lot of gear to choose from. It's not cool having a lot of gear that you really don't want or won't use any longer. This is even more important in finding the right reg - BC (don't forget the trim) - and exposure protection.

Accessories are inevitable, and I imagine you'll find that things like lights, knives, etc. are best when you have a selection to choose from for the purpose of the dive (sort of like exposure suits).

Notice that I left off tanks. Depending upon your circumstances (like owning your own boat and/or living right there at the dive location), you are likely best off to skip any "investment" in the tanks. They just don't make sense for most of us - rent 'em (but be sure to know who you rent them from)!

 

[PnL]

My wife and I are new divers and the first piece of gear we purchased were our wetsuits. The water isn't tropical in SoCal so being warm and comfortable was important to us ... and the thought of sharing a used wetsuit that's been pee'd in didn't really appeal . No matter how good the rest of the equipment is, if you're cold and uncomfortable because your wetsuit doesn't fit properly (i.e., rental) then your enjoyment level of the dive will most likely decrease. We ended up purchasing a BC next just because we wanted something consistent on our dives - getting our buoyancy right is still something we are working on and having the same BC definitely helps. The next thing we got ... well, ... the spending kind of went into a fury at this point and we purchased most of our gear - mostly because we were tired of paying close to $90 in rentals everytime we went diving. It adds up really quick.

Definitely do your research about the gear, read reviews, read the threads here and base your decision on what you are comfortable with. Try as many different types/brands as possible to get a feel for the different types. You will hear a lot about which brand regulators you should buy, and which are poor choices, but many regulators out there perform very well - find the one that you feel comfortable with after trying it. That's really the only way to learn about the equipment out there and which suits you.

Best of luck and have fun diving!!

 

[DiverBuoy]

IMO - Your first equipment purchase should be an integrated BC with plenty of divisional weight increments and more weight than you will actually need. This will help you to work on the second most important aspect of scuba diving - buoyancy (the first is of course breathing continuously and never holding your breath).

While ScubaKims makes a good point about defacation in used wetsuits, be aware they are cleaned and the materials used in manufacturing help prevent the forming of mildew and fungus. The best part is you'll get to try a variety of suits out and most shops have dozens of suits to offer - one to surely fit your size and comfort. However, what shops very rarely offer are quality BCs. And even rarer are weight-integrated, thus you are stuck using a weightbelt. I'm a big proponent of weight integration, though this is just an opinion. As you've likely read on this board, others are big proponents of Back Plates which would require a weight belt. Whatever your preference this purchase will make the single biggest difference in your diving experience - IMO.

Like MikeFerrara I bought all my own equipment up front. I did the research and tried many things on before I purchased to avoid the pitfalls suggested by jhelmuth. I had my own equipment head to toe by my 3rd and 4th Open Water class checkout dives! I never looked back and I still dive on my original BC! Of course things that wear out like wetsuits, booties, and gloves have all been replaced once since - but I'm still diving the same brandnames - only scaled up to top end (which just proves that you should think long term and buy very good quality).

However, I definitely suggest that you don't delay this decision as suggested by jhelmuth because equipment ownership keeps you diving, and when your comfortable and familiar you'll dive even more.

 

[Scubaroo]

DiverBuoy once bubbled...
As you've likely read on this board, others are big proponents of Back Plates which would require a weight belt. Whatever your preference this purchase will make the single biggest difference in your diving experience - IMO.

Weight integration options are available for backplates - Halcyon manufacture 10 and 15lb capacity-per-side weight pockets for mounting on a harness, and Dive Rite makes a 16lb per-side setup.

The Halcyon 10 and 15 pockets used to be called ACB+ and ACB, they're now marketed as ACB 20 and ACB 30 respectively. I use the ACB+ (ACB 20). I use and prefer this to a weight belt, however others have had the opposite experience. The ACB 30 is designed to mount a canister light on, however you can also mount a smaller NiMH canister light on the smaller ACB 20. Something to keep in mind if you ever purchase a canister light later in your diving career.

Halcyon's Active Control Ballast
Dive Rite's Integrated Weight System

Sorry to stray from the topic at hand of first gear, but I just though I'd point out that weight integration is available for backplates, and it's an option you can add to your rig after using a weightbelt for a while if you're stuck for cash.

 

[DiverBuoy]

I didn't mean to imply exclusivity - only that a BC/BP in any format should be the first gear choice - that is assuming one is only willing (or able) to obtain a single piece of equipment as first purchase. Scubaroo thanks for the clarification.