Getting started costs

[rex_b]

Well I'm just looking for middle ground stuff. No need for the fancy's yet, I haven't even dived yet!!

I guess I will do some diggin first, then see what happens.

 

[fmw625]

friscuba probably has the best idea for you since you haven't dived yet. Renting as many diffrent types of gear as you can will give you a better understanding of what works for you. Each divers gear is personalized to their own needs and style of diving.

 

[rainmaker]

I was certified several months ago. My OW certification from SDI was $234, and that included everything.

Excluding the camera and 7/5 wetsuit (but including the 4/3 wetsuit and 2 AL80 tanks), I've spent about $1,800 on high quality, name-brand gear. When I dive now, all I need to buy is air. Most of my gear came from ScubaToys.com .

 

[Far_X]

Hey rex, one of the big things that will influence how much it is going to cost is where you dive. I know you are not far from Lake Charles but not too sure how the diving is there. When I lived in Covington, LA (last year), I went to Florida to dive which added up gas and accommodation. Here in NY, I dive off the beaches which is free, and also from the boats, which are not free - $70 - $85 per trip. AFter renting a while, and if you are going to dive frequently, then you'll probably want most of your own equipment which again will vary depending upon what sort of diving you are doing, and where. here the first thing I bought was a dry suit. I got a really good bargain for $500, new, from a LDS and a free lesson in the pool thrown in. No, wait, that was me thrown in. If you are going to dive the rigs in the Gulf, then you have the expense of getting there. Any technical diving will up the outlay. I don't have a ballpark figure because there really isn't one. Go online and see what prices are being charged there and then add a bit if you purchase locally, for a better service (though not always), or you may strike lucky like I did with my drysuit. Hope you get your first dive soon.

 

[spectrum]

What would you say is the average amount of $$ for a beginner to start diving? Can you lay it out in a little table.

Thanks

Lot's of food for thought has been posted and as you see the range has varried.

You seem to be where I was about 6 months ago. Devour the info on Scubaboard, especially the gear forums and be sure to consider the LDS vs Online purchase question (plenty of discussions to wade through).

I worked up a spreadsheet for my wife and myself and began plugging in brands/models and prices of items that were at least frequently held in high regard even if they may not be the ultimate choices. If you PM me with your email I'll send it to you, it's in Excel.

We already had our personal gear (Booties, fins, masks, snorkels) so it's not on the list. I went so far as to assume a pair of E7-100s each as place holders. We're looking at about $3700. (US) each including OW and AOW instruction. We're also planning on about another 50% to add drysuits and undergarments.

Watch out for incidentals, for instance:

Wife wants purge mask last year, immediate intended use was snorkeling, worked great. Starts OW class and realized that the valve makes it uncomfortable to pinch nose and clear ears. She also realizes that repeatedly pinching the soft pocket may (I SAID MAY) cause the valve to become a failure point. Go back to square 1 and buy a new mask. BTW she cleared beautifully w/o purge from the first try.

We (BOTH) got booties and good fins. Will they fit the drysuit boots? Time will tell.

Do your research, make a plan and work the plan. When you get to a question that seems to go unanswered ask the braintrust here, they're great. Take your time and know why you choose what you choose. Ask, listen, test, try, rent borrow, whatever it takes to sort it all out. You will always get more than one side to the story here and that makes the info very valuable.

Without a doubt I have learned more about gear (and technique) here than in my class and from the many books I've read. Diversity of opinion is a wonderful thiing. Let me take this oportunity to thank all the knowlegable and helpful folks who have put up with me for the past 8 months.

Forgive my rambling, I need to kill time for about 3 weeks when we start our OW dives!

Good luck,
Pete

 

[MoonWrasse]

Of course, you could just snorkel, where your costs would be around $100 for your equipment

 

[Tom Winters]

Interesting point about gear costs. When I get off my lazy butt and do a new ad campaign for a tech manufacturer that is months' overdue, they want to stress how reasonable their gear is if you don't buy three other things along the equipment route. In other words, don't keep reinventing the wheel.
Since you're perusing the scubaboard, you're seeing inputs from new divers as well as from old decrepit senile totally worthless ripe-for-liquidation divers, people like myself for instance. 2011 will make 50 years of scuba for me, if I make it.
Now I love dive shops - I bet I've been in at least 2,000 around the world over the decades. But oh man, there are some real dim bulbs in the diving industry, and for every person who knows their stuff, there are a whole raft of clueless people selling life support equipment.
Read, ask questions, think things through - then fork over that moolah. Diving is not a cheap avocation - go price rebreathers and the training involved.
Just try not to buy 3 or 4 bc's along the way, or three or four regulators. Research it the first time - taking your time - and maybe plow the money you save into some worthy trips or training.

 

[DiveMaven]

Check with Larry at ScubaToys when you're ready to buy. He has some excellent packages with great prices to get anyone started. You can easily pick up everything you need for around $1000 (give or take).

We decided to purchase our own gear when we realized we were going to do about 1/2 of our diving out of the USA, and frankly had heard too many horror stories of rental gear in Mexico to feel comfortable renting. I look at it this way...is my life worth the $1500 I spent on solid equipment? My husband agreed, and about $3000 later, we were had everything we wanted. It really paid off when we dove in the Caribbean and saw the condition the rental stuff was in. It might have worked fine, but didn't give me warm fuzzies to look at it!

If I were going to do most of my diving locally (in the US), I'd probably have rented for awhile before purchasing. Especially in the case of renting different kinds of BC's. I bought a jacket BC based on the recommendation of other people, and although it's a quality BC, it never fit perfectly, and after losing some weight, doesn't fit at all. Now I'm replacing it with a back inflate BC (don't really want to do the BP/W set up) that fits me as if it were made for me, and is totally adjustable as I continue to lose weight and get into shape. Live and learn, eh?

 

[UnixSage]

Another option is buying some used equipment from LDS or a local diver. My LDS has some setups for sale and am thinking seriously of starting with that. Some folks run the other way but it is a "in between" of renting vs buying. Used trainning regs scare me less from a LDS because they were used to train students and assuming they were not killed by dropping a tank on them they are probably fine. I do not own any equipment yet have do my checkout dives first. I have to admit when I started down this path I was looking at cool stuff like Regs and Computers.. Now it appears that I am going to spend the upfront money on a drysuit so I can dive more often PA,NJ,NC and try to lowball on the regs for now. I would like to have a computer too so that will be on the top of the list more for saftey, I like beeps to help keep me from doing something stupid. I know it wont replace my brain but it cant hurt.

Another point is that if you dont dive often the yearly maintence (on regs) may exceede renting depending how often you dive.

 

[scubaaaronh]

I've been diving for about 11 years now and my equipment costs are as foloows
zeagle tech 50d severe main reg 560.00
oceanic octo 120.00
Mares BCD 500.00
wetsuit 450.00
boots 40.00
gloves 30.00
mask 75.00 - 130.00 - 60
snorkel 35.00
knives 40.00 - 20.00
shorty suit (warm water) 60.00
oceanic gauges (yes i still use gauges) 175.00
an upgrade to a oceanic compuer (veo 250) runs about 460.00 (which i have on order)fins 120.00 - 189.99
I wont mentioon photo equip cause then you might get scared
You can get into diving for a lot less my first reg i bought used for 125.00
If you shop online lioke scuba.com diversdirect divebooty scuba toys they can save you quite a bit of money. Start out by takling your class then start hitting the different shops in your area have a list of questions made out to ask try on equipment see how it fits. rent some gear do a couple dives with it, see what you like and what features you like. I bought my zeagle so i could ice dive the other reg was a warm water reg and was ok for that temp but i didn't want to take a chance on a freeze up so i upgraded. Also consider if you want a standard non adjustable reg or one wiath a sensitivity knob or a venturi assist(ask at your lds for explanations and to show the differences) Take into account all considerations that you might do and that will help you decide also. Make sure if you buy online that you get a warranty and that the online dealer is an authorized dealer. As far as reg i like to buy them from my LDS so i can get them serviced. Some of the LDS wont work on a reg that you bought online.
Good luck and have fun diving. When you get done you could have anywhere from about 1500.00 to a few thousand and when you throw camera equipment in it goes up a lot more.