Greets from Central California!

[teamgs]

Greetings,
A whole group of us turned 40 this year , and will be making a trip to Maui over the Labor Day week. I have been there twice before, but never have been diving.
My wife and I, as well as my brother and a friend are going to get certified in the next few weeks, and the LDS was even kind enough to have the instructor do our pool work in our own pool!
We will be taking guided dives with 4 friends who are experienced divers, and 2 others who are certified but not regulars.
I am now going through the standard " buy or rent", "what brand of gear?", "wetsuit?", etc. questions.
I am leaning towards buying the required stuff, and a wetsuit, and renting everything else for this trip. Is this a sound plan?
I have a wetsuit purchased for my jetskiing in Tahoe, and the Cali coast, but I am not sure it is functional for scuba. It is a full suite, but with short sleeves, and long sleeve "gauntlets" that can be pulled on to give more arm protection. This is more a surfing suit, I think.
Any thoughts on our next steps?

Regards,

Gary

 

[GrierHPharmD]

Your approach sounds reasonable. Just have your experienced friends help you walk through the checkout process for the rented gear.

You can find lots of useful advice for new divers in the New2Scuba and Basic Scuba Discussions forums. Be sure to check those out when you get a chance.

Good luck with your course and on your trip. Happy birthday and welcome to the Board!

-Grier

 

[pasley]

Welcome to the board. Your approach, as GrierHPharmD said sounds reasonable. Surface conditions tend to be warmer than what we experience diving. The short sleeve suit you described with the gauntlets is probably not going to cut it. Naturally you will want to continue your diving here in California when you return and will need a 7 mm suit or a dry suit. We have excellent scuba diving here with our rocky reefs and kelp forest. Drop down to the club section of this board and check out California Kelp Divers. You will probably want to joint the Northern California Sub-group. Monterey has some awesome diving, but you will definitely want that 7mm, plus a core warmer (spring suit worn over it) for your winter diving or a dry suit.

A dive buddy of mine just got back form Hawaii. After a recent Southern California dive, he commented that in our local waters we have better diving. Hawaii may have more exotic and colorful fish, be California has interesting fish too, and lots of them.

 

[headhunter]

Welcome to ScubaBoard!

It might just be me, but I don't like to rent regulators. This is life support equipment that I'd rather own. I don't want to rely on a shop I don't know when it comes to this one. I'd feel OK about it if I knew the shop. So, I'd rent regs here to take with me.

Your surfing suit might be OK in Hawaii, since it's so warm there, but on that question, I'll defer to someone who dives there regularly. In fact, you may want to ask that question in our Hawai'i O'Hana forum. It definitely won't work well in Monterey.

Other than that, you may want to wait on most of your equipment until you get a little more experience and have a chance to read through some of these forums on ScubaBoard. It's always a drag to spend a bunch of money on something only to discover that you think you should have bought something else. I'm sort of a research nut, so I actually enjoy the process of figuring out what I want.

To get started with your research you may want to decide between a Backplate and Wing or a Jacket Style BC. In my opinion, this is a foundational piece of equipment which will guide other future equipment purchase decisions. There are many differing opinions on that, which I'll let you discover on you own. I'll just cast my vote for BP/W and let you do your own research.

Dive safe!

Christian

 

[teamgs]

Thanks everyone for the great information! I am also a research nut, but I am beginning to sense the onset of sensory overload! My experienced friends also recommended purchasing a reg, and not renting one.

Regards,

Gary

 

[baitedstorm]

I'm with Headhunter, I will NEVER EVER EVER rent another reg again..... (thankfully I own all my own gear and wont have to) I had a terrible expierence with rental stuff, so did my husband.... Please.... just make sure you inspect everything twice, and then let your buddies with expiernce check it again.... Sounds like other than gear, you'll have an amazing time.. Please keep us updated on your progress..and bring us back a trip report,

Have fun and dive safe!
Vickie

 

[DandyDon]

Howdy!

Welcome to SB!! :happywave Put us in your computer's favorites and check in often. This is a great place to learn, compare, argue Look around our various forums - everything from New-To-Scuba to Instructors-Only to Dive Medicine.

I'm all for owning your own gear, knowing it well, servicing it right. And my favorite suggestions - Safety Sausage, Storm Whistel, and 4 Weight Keepers even if your BC is integrated.

don

BTW - Did you set up your Profile? Some ideas for your Profle might be taken from looking at mine. Click on my Username to the upper left, then click on my Profile, and see what I've done. For your's, click the [CP] in the upper left of the screen, then click [Edit Profile]. If you need any help, PM me direct.

 

[Wildcard]

Maui dive shop has a bunch of rental return gear, freshly serviced including regulators as well as new and used wet suits. If your budget dosen't allow every thing at once, this might be an option. I just moved to Big Isle from Maui in January, good place to dive but I thing Big Isle is better. I grew up ( a highly debated topic) in Foothill Farms and Penryn, right there in your neck of the woods....Aloha and welcome to the board.

 

[teamgs]

Thanks all! This is quite a friendly board! Yeah, I think we will be buying the regs and wetsuits at least. Dang! I had almost talked my wife into a supercharger for my car! By the way, Wildcard, Alaska/Hawaii? That's a hell of a commute!

Regards,

Gary

 

[Wristshot]

Gary,

Buy or Rent?
Consider how often you will be diving. How often you really will dive, not just how often you think that you will be diving. (many start out planning to dive a lot and end up diving one 5-day dive trip per year.)

It costs in the neighborhood of $90-100 to rent gear for a day/weekend here in San Jose (that includes 2 tanks). Weigh that versus $1000-2500 to purchase everything for yourself. Add in the costs for annual regulator service and BC service checks. You get the idea.

Sure it is so much better having your own gear, knowing where it has been and how it has been handled. Sure it is much better diving with the same set up every time so you know where everything is and how everything works (and how it is supposed to work so you can tell when it isn't)

However, only you can decide whether it really is worth the money to you to buy everything.

With renting, you will almost always be getting gear that is a year or two old, but eventually your own personal gear will get older than that!

I rented for the first 10 months until I was sure that I really wanted to do this and until I was sure that I would dive enough to justify the expense of buying my own gear. It also gave me a chance to see what I liked and didn't like before I committed to any major purchases. (My buddy bought everything before OW class, and he has replaced almost everything. I waited and have not replaced anything.)

Weigh the costs and the benefits and decide from there.

Of course getting a wetsuit that really fits is a very good thing. Plus the only pee in it comes from your own personal bladder. Just a couple thoughts.

-------
Do you need a Full Wetsuit for diving in Maui in September? I have no idea. Maybe some Hawaii divers can shed some light on that. I suspect that a lot of people dive in Hawaii with shorty wetsuits or no wetsuit, I don't know.

I have different thickness wetsuits for different water temperature ranges. Above 74 degrees .5 mm works fine. Between 74 and about 60 degrees 3 mm works fine. When it gets below 60 degrees I use a 7 mm wetsuit. Haven't dove below 47 degrees yet. Drysuit is a couple years away.

Of course it also depends upon how your body reacts to cold water and how much you plan on diving. You want to be comfortable to enjoy diving. Two dives a day or 4 dives a day?

I would guess that a 3 mm wetsuit (even without arms) would probably be fine for diving in Hawaii in September. If you take your existing wetsuit (saving money for now) and you discover that you need more, you can always rent while you are there. Just a thought.

--------
Next steps?

Depends upon your financial situation and what you are looking for. Might be better to rent and save up to buy when you are ready. Might be better to bite the bullet and buy now. Just be extral careful if you decide to try to be "frugal". Be very very careful buying used gear from anyone or any place.

Personally I would hold off buying until after the trip. Then you will have a better idea of whether this is something that you will spend many days, many dives and many dollsrs on over the rest of your life, or whether this was a so-so adventure that you can take or leave.

Of course, these are only my opinions, and only because you asked.


Wristshot