How do folks navigate buying scuba equipment?

[happy-diver]

Where did they go out of business chief

Deepblu - Revolutionize your dive

Based in the heart of Copenhagen, Deepblu designs, manufactures, and sells diving computers and cutting-edge diving wearables to fit modern divers.

shop.deepblu.com

 

[jellycatsdad]

Where did they go out of business chief

Deepblu - Revolutionize your dive

Based in the heart of Copenhagen, Deepblu designs, manufactures, and sells diving computers and cutting-edge diving wearables to fit modern divers.

shop.deepblu.com

Their app server is offline, and their support hasn’t been responsive. Unless you sideload the Subsurface Mobile .apk on an Android phone or install Subsurface on a laptop running Linux(and with a Bluetooth LE complaint adapter), you can’t grab your dives off it.

Deepblu app servers going offline

When the Deepblu app was launched, it was acclaimed as being for the ‘next generation of divers', but now, ten years on, its creators have announced they are shutting down its servers due to ‘lack of paid users'. There are many dive apps out there, but when Deepblu launched, it was described as...

www.scubadivermag.com

 

[Living4Experiences]

To the OP: Curious...what did you end up doing? Buying a new regulator or are you renting?

 

[Jersey1971]

With a simple BP/W and DGX or Deep6 regs, you can get set up with equipment that will take you all the way to advanced technical diving for a fraction of the cost of retail recreational dive equipment from an LDS. You'll have equipment that is bullet proof, modular, and easily configurable, with simple to replace, generic parts in the unlikely case you need to switch something out. Mailing regs out for service to DGX is actually faster for me than driving (twice) to an LDS. And if you decide to someday learn to service your own, service kits are readily available.

I've been steered poorly more than once by LDS's not out of bad faith but just out of ignorance. That being said, I need them for air fills and want them to stay in business, so I do try to buy ancillary equipment and consumables from them, even if it costs more than online.

Also, on the rent vs buy debate, there is something to be said for the familiarity that comes with having your own equipment. When you put on your own BP, you know where every buckle and ring is, and you don't have to make any adjustments. And with your own computer, you can play around with it at home until you're much more familiar with it than you would ever be with a rental.