Gear ideas needed for young girl

[JuLe]

Here's the situation:
My 13 year old daughter wants to follow in her dads and sisters footsteps and start diving. She'll be starting her course with our local dive club next spring.
I am looking for ideas for gear for her (for her Birthday and christmas presents) She has mask, fins, wetsuit + boots but now we need to find regs, bcd and tank. The gear should be as light weight as possible, as we will be doing mostly shoredives and she will have to be able to carry her gear to a bit to get to the water. Light weight will also help when we pack our stuff and head for warmer waters for vacation.
So, any ideas on minimizing the weight of basic scuba gear is much appreciated.

 

[VikingDives]

For wetsuit diving (and travel) you'll want to get fins that are positive or neutral in the water. Deep 6, UTD equipment, and a few others (Apex?) would do. Those fins tend to be lighter.

I'm not familiar with what's available in Finland, but a tank that's around 7.5L would probably be adequate for a young woman doing rec. dives.

A hood and gloves would not be a bad idea either... If you're going the bcd route, I'd recommend a travel bcd with back inflation. Another option would be a soft wing. Depending on her height and body type, maybe an aluminum hard plate, but if she's under 172 cm, hard plates can be problematic. A lot of women need more weight on their hips than men.

If I were you, I'd find things that you'd dive, or you can make use of as well. In a couple of years, she may have other priorities, or she may decide she doesn't like diving. Having gear you like is a good way to ensure that if that happens, you have gear you like in your dive locker.

 

[JuLe]

Thank you for the input.
I forgot to mention that she has a hood and gloves also. We have 3 divers in the family already and pretty much set with gear for each individual likes so getting stuff that may be useful for me in the future is not really necessary. It is also relatively easy to sell (and buy) used equipment here, so if she decides not to continue diving later on, getting rid of stuff is not very hard.

Girl in question is quite small: 157cm and about 50kg.

I was also thinking a 7L tank might be good, because like her Sister, her gas consumption will most likely be almost non-existant if compared to me. I don't know if we can find a suitable backplate for her size, but that might be a good option. Maybe we should go to the pool and try her sisters backplate + wing before writing to santa...

 

[Angelo Farina]

When young, my sons were happy with my plastic backplate plus small wing.
If properly weighted, they were simply not using the wing, it was there just in case of need.
And the plastic backplate comes with a very confortable and easy to adjust harness.

 

[VikingDives]

Thank you for the input.
I forgot to mention that she has a hood and gloves also. We have 3 divers in the family already and pretty much set with gear for each individual likes so getting stuff that may be useful for me in the future is not really necessary. It is also relatively easy to sell (and buy) used equipment here, so if she decides not to continue diving later on, getting rid of stuff is not very hard.

Girl in question is quite small: 157cm and about 50kg.

I was also thinking a 7L tank might be good, because like her Sister, her gas consumption will most likely be almost non-existant if compared to me. I don't know if we can find a suitable backplate for her size, but that might be a good option. Maybe we should go to the pool and try her sisters backplate + wing before writing to santa...

There are a few manufacturers that make short plates, but my guess is a soft plate will be the way to go. DGX (I think) - Edge-Hog has an XS plate that I find works quite well with smaller women.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

The gear should be as light weight as possible, as we will be doing mostly shoredives and she will have to be able to carry her gear to a bit to get to the water. Light weight will also help when we pack our stuff and head for warmer waters for vacation.
So, any ideas on minimizing the weight of basic scuba gear is much appreciated.

I would look at the Dive Rite Hydro Lite BCD.

Hydro Lite BCD - Dive Rite

Dive Rite's Hydro Lite BCD is a technically-inspired, lightweight system for single tank divers looking to streamline their equipment setup. The compact Hydro Lite BCD weighs only 6.2 pounds (2.8 kg) and packs up easily thanks to a soft backplate, making it the perfect system for travel...

www.diverite.com

 

[formernuke]

Reg, any environmental sealed reg ( I like sealed regs because they are easy to clean)

BC, I am a fan of BPW. If you can get get a plate that fits her in AL go for it, if not go for a back inflate.

The problem with teenagers especially early teen girls is fit, so go for best fit.

Wetsuits, I would just rent.

 

[lowwall]

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[JuLe]

Thank you all for your comments. (Including the one about getting lightweight lead, that has since been removed. I had a good laugh at that )
I think we'll look into finding a suitable BPW and a 7L tank. As for regs, maybe we'll just go with the same set from apeks that the rest of the family is using.

 

[happy-diver]

Thank you for taking my good natured comment with the humour and goodwill with which it was intended

They breed them tough where you're from, enjoy your diving as I'm sure you will, and say hello to everyone