General advice to new scuba divers: do not waste your money!

[Litefoot]

I’d like to go back and add to the original topic of this discussion. The prevailing advice is to rent until you figure out what you like. I’d also like to add “rent until the holiday sales return”. I might also add that if you’re buying new equipment in todays supply-chain crisis world, you better buy during the off season. I just bought all new gear recently. Now, much of that gear is already unavailable here in early March.

 

[lowwall]

OK, I finally figured it out! You have just saved me a lot of aggravation. My Chrome had spellcheck turned off, and I had to restart the computer to turn it on.

Does it have a grammar checker option?

...what you intented to write ...

You are not alone. I probably average 3 edits per post to fix typos or awkward grammar. Most of my posts are done from a phone and I use a swipe keyboard, so the typos are in the form of entirely wrong words instead of mere spelling errors. I also have Polish and Spanish keyboards loaded, so the wrong words can be in a variety of lenguas.

 

[Bigbella]

The prevailing advice is to rent until you figure out what you like. I’d also like to add “rent until the holiday sales return”. I might also add that if you’re buying new equipment in todays supply-chain crisis world, you better buy during the off season. I just bought all new gear recently. Now, much of that gear is already unavailable here in early March.

The only issue that I have with the rental advice is the woefully crappy rental fleets that I have seen, most everywhere in, say, the last ten years -- typically only sub-basement models of either Oceanic or US Divers, whose only determinate would be, which one sucked the least?

The oh, so dubious choice between a late 1970s Pinto or a Tercel?

When I wanted to try out Apeks some time ago, they were nowhere to be had -- and I wound up just exchanging regulators with a friend who swore by them, while diving on a local day boat . . .

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Mine was pool only. Open water would be more. Pool only can be done by a DM; OW requires an instructor. OW ratios are different. Logistics are more complicated.

The Try Scuba in our area (RI, south coast Mass) are pool sessions costing from $60 to $150, with little to all of it being applied to the OW course, if you take it.

Erik

 

[travisfull]

What model did you have and what didn't you like about it?

Suunto stinger…it lasted longer but not good underwater in my opinion

 

[travisfull]

In my 19 years on ScubaBord, this is the firt time I can remember anyone talking about how expensive Disover Scuba classes are. That frankly floors me. For the operator/operator instructor, the purpose of the class is to entice students to go for full certification. It seems like idiocy to price it out of the reach of prospective students.

Many years ago I dived with an operator in Aruba who talked about the fact that he used to do the nearly free Discover Scuba classes for a hotel that went out of business. He said that was how he had gotten nearly all of his students, and losing that introduction nearly put him out of business, too.

Agreed.

And the cost of scuba diving is the main reason why a lot of my friends (between 35-40 yers old) they dont want to dive…there is no a new generation of divers, people prefer the new iphone or spending money on clubbing

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The only issue that I have with the rental advice is the woefully crappy rental fleets that I have seen, most everywhere in, say, the last ten years -- typically only sub-basement models of either Oceanic or US Divers, whose only determinate would be, which one sucked the least?

The oh, so dubious choice between a late 1970s Pinto or a Tercel?

When I wanted to try out Apeks some time ago, they were nowhere to be had -- and I wound up just exchanging regulators with a friend who swore by them, while diving on a local day boat . . .

You mean a Pinto or a Vega?
Tercels were actually a pretty good car for the money.
As far as rental fleets, I’d personally look for a place that rents MK2’s with R190’s or if you’re lucky maybe something balanced for the second stage, but good luck on that.

 

[Bigbella]

You mean a Pinto or a Vega?
Tercels were actually a pretty good car for the money.
As far as rental fleets, I’d personally look for a place that rents MK2’s with R190’s or if you’re lucky maybe something balanced for the second stage, but good luck on that.

My mom had a bomber Vega that lasted almost ten years; and I had a Tercel that was nothing but problems.

Good luck finding Scubapro in current rental fleets; can’t recall the last time that I saw them . . .

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

My mom had a bomber Vega that lasted almost ten years; and I had a Tercel that was nothing but problems.

Good luck finding Scubapro in current rental fleets; can’t recall the last time that I saw them . . .

I’m still driving my 2002 Toyota Tacoma, 303,000 miles, just regular maintenance. It’s the Conshelf of vehicles!
You’d have to find an SP shop to be able to rent SP regs. It used to be that they were afforded rental regs somehow by the company, sponsored or sold to the shop dirt cheap? I’m not sure they do that anymore.
I know my shop had MK20/G200b’s for rent when I certified. It worked on me because I ended up buying that same setup. I should complain but I really can’t because it’s a nice setup and worked out very well.

 

[Bigbella]

I’m still driving my 2002 Toyota Tacoma, 303,000 miles, just regular maintenance. It’s the Conshelf of vehicles!

1998 Toyota Tacoma beater, with about 298K -- feel much the same . . .