General Rental Question

[Dad_Crush]

Hi all -- I will be completing my OW certification with my dive shop in a couple weeks. (had to wait for the ice to melt up here) I would like to ask everyone for how long did you all rent equipment on average or, better yet, how did you begin to accumulate the gear you needed/wanted?

For that matter, what equipment did you not decide to buy and still rent?

Lovin' the discussions on the board....very enlightening.

M

 

[spectrum]

I broke what has come to be my common advice.....

My wife and I certified in 100% our own gear including our first pair of HP80s. I will say that the prior year we had been in the water skin-diving intensively, I logged 90 dives that year. This meant that we had a fair amount of the basic gear and we had a good idea of what we were getting into.

For me it was a lifelong dream and not staying with it was inconceivable. My wife was a "fussy diver" and rental was not going to cut it. At worst I figured a lot of her stuff could be my back-up gear so we took the chance.

We have no regrets and all of that gear is still in regular service. I had been a Scubaboard junkie for a year at that point and I had learned enough to make good choices. At 48 I was beyond the impulsiveness of youth and as I said we had spent the prior season in the water and were looking forward to staying down.

Owning your own gear is the key to frequent local diving.

I generally suggest waiting until you are certified (some never dive after that!) Then if decent rentals are available try things you'd like to buy. Otherwise try stuff in shop pools if possible. Blow enough bubbles to find what you like or at least learn what you do not like. Then do your homework and start spending.

I suggest that you start with whatever is most difficult and fit intensive to rent. That usually means assuming you have a mask, snorkel, booties and fins:
Neoprene - Suit, hood, gloves
BC
Regulator
Computer
If you can do the regulator and computer together you can deal with all of the instruments in one shot.

You will want a small light early on to see under stuff. The big light comes when you're ready for night diving.

Pete

 

[Meng_Tze]

I rented equipment for a a long time, a: because I did not dive enough to justify the cost and B: I didn't have enough money to begin with.

Once I started diving regularly (several times per month), I started buying my own equipment.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Read what both Spectrum and Meng_Tze wrote. Both are equally good answers.

When I began diving 30+ years ago, there were far fewer equipment choises, and I bought a full set of the best dive gear I could afford when I finished my class. I dove almost every weekend for two years, and owning all my gear was the right decision.

Then I took a very LONG break from diving for college, career and family, with only sporadic diving. For those occasional dives I rented gear. When I returned to diving about a year ago, I was certain I would be sticking with it, and again purchased a full set of gear.

So, if you have been "bitten" by the dive bug and are pretty sure you are going to dive pretty regularly, then buying you own equipment is a good decision that you will not regret. Just be sure to ask lots of questions, shop around, and hopefully avoid the "impulse" purchases many new divers make.

Oh, and welcome to diving!

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

sell everything you own of value including your house. Then spend all your money on gear and training and maybe a tent so you have a roof to sleep under. If you want to own everything a diver "needs" look at spending tens of thousands of dollars.

Hey that actually doesn't sound like a bad plan except I dont own a house or anything else of value, I'm gonna have to work on that.

 

[gnwes]

sell everything you own of value including your house. Then spend all your money on gear and training and maybe a tent so you have a roof to sleep under. If you want to own everything a diver "needs" look at spending tens of thousands of dollars.

Hey that actually doesn't sound like a bad plan except I dont own a house or anything else of value, I'm gonna have to work on that.

You forgot to tell him sell his car and house, buy a dive van and live in that... two birds, one stone.

 

[mig_diver]

Buy buy buy!

I only just bought me gear about 10 dives ago and it makes a big difference. You go diving much more when you have your own gear. I'm kind of glad I didn't have my own gear for my rescue course though cause I would have trashed it, dragging it on sand and everything.

Its a very expensive habit we have all developed unfortunately

 

[Spimon]

Where I live it's about $75 to rent the whole setup (regs, tank, BCD, wetsuit) assuming you have mask and fins. I've spent about $2000 on gear and now have everything I need to dive (BCD, Regs, Tank, Wetsuit + some extras).

So for me, if I was to rent 27 times I'd have paid for my own equipment anyway. This way if I sell I might get something back for it too.

Also much nicer equipment than rental stuff and it fits properly. For me it's also sometimes a problem getting equipment back to the shop before closing time. Owning my own means I can go camping or a boat dive and not have to worry about being back before closing time.

 

[driftwood]

Since you are living in the midwest, get the exposure protection you will need to dive locally. The most important thing is to dive regularly. My wife took about 10 months off and when we went diving last Friday, her buoyancy control was way off. Better to practice in poor conditions than to not practice at all. After your exposure protection, get a good but basic computer and get very good at reading what it is telling you. Personally, I think that the Suunto Gekko fits the bill and is not that expensive. My LDS sells their old rental units every year for around $175.

Also when you are thinking about buying gear, look at how often you will use it and what maintenance costs there are. A VIS on a tank runs us $15 a year, the hydro $40 every five years and an annual service on a reg should be less than $90 plus parts. If you dive twice a year, then rental gear is much less expensive. If you dive twice a week, then look at buying.

I live about 20 miles from my LDS, dive two days a week, so just the gas to pickup and return one piece gear would run me $15. Easier to justify buying your own gear with those type of gas prices.

Don't rush into things, buy what you need and make those purchases the best you can afford. If you cannot afford what you really need save your pennies.

 

[redrover]

Hi all -- I will be completing my OW certification with my dive shop in a couple weeks. (had to wait for the ice to melt up here) I would like to ask everyone for how long did you all rent equipment on average or, better yet, how did you begin to accumulate the gear you needed/wanted?

For that matter, what equipment did you not decide to buy and still rent?

Lovin' the discussions on the board....very enlightening.

M

I too learned a lot here, still do. Found it as a matter of fact researching for my gear purchases. Began buying the night after pool dive 1 and all but tanks done by open water 1, or in 3 weeks with no regrets. Have good shops here I pestered the daylights out of hitting up different people with the same questions. Rented tanks for a couple of months until figuring out an AL80 is not my kind of tank.

Renting is a good idea to experience the variety available. I think people tend to swear by things that work best for them and it really is not black and white across the board for all divers, there is no ‘best one’ of each item or a manufacturer. If you are going to rent, find all the different brands and models you can and make copious notes for what you like and/or don’t for future purchase. This stuff is all very confusing being similar and vastly different at the same time.

Read here about all the diving there is. At least I had no idea different types really should use different equipment…I don’t know how to say that right. If I were say diving somewhere else, some of my choices made initially would not be right for me there. If you haven’t seen or figured out what a BP/W is do a search, there are a whole lot of options to choose from.