jsado
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SCUBA is a pretty expensive activity to get into.....
How much $$$$$$ do you make?
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bamamedic
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More than I did when I worked at McDonald's as a teenager, but less than my physician friends (much less!) 
In all seriousness, you don't have to be wealthy to dive...I've met a lot of divers who were college students, or simply working middle class like myself. It's just a matter of where your priorities lie...if diving is important to you, you'll find the time and money for it. When purchasing gear, a lot of deals can be had in the Scubaboard Classified section, Ebay, or even at your LDS (usually they will sell their old rental gear every now and then as they upgrade). Not all your diving needs to be at exotic, overseas locations, either. The local quarry is a great place to get wet!
Basically, diving can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it.
In all seriousness, you don't have to be wealthy to dive...I've met a lot of divers who were college students, or simply working middle class like myself. It's just a matter of where your priorities lie...if diving is important to you, you'll find the time and money for it. When purchasing gear, a lot of deals can be had in the Scubaboard Classified section, Ebay, or even at your LDS (usually they will sell their old rental gear every now and then as they upgrade). Not all your diving needs to be at exotic, overseas locations, either. The local quarry is a great place to get wet!
Basically, diving can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it.
Scott M
Contributor
LOL, Yes it is but there are ways to keep the costs down. Here are a couple of tips.
-Looking for good used gear is always a good way. There is tons of gear that people have bought, used a few times that they are selling.
-Trying out gear prior to purchase is always a good idea and will often times keep someone from having to buy multiples of the same gear to get the right fit. This will avoid the crates and crates of gear that sit idle. Don't ask me how I know this.
-Decide what kind of diving your going to be doing prior to gear purchase, again don't ask.
Regards
-Looking for good used gear is always a good way. There is tons of gear that people have bought, used a few times that they are selling.
-Trying out gear prior to purchase is always a good idea and will often times keep someone from having to buy multiples of the same gear to get the right fit. This will avoid the crates and crates of gear that sit idle. Don't ask me how I know this.
-Decide what kind of diving your going to be doing prior to gear purchase, again don't ask.
Regards
bamamedic
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Exactly! When I first started diving, everyone advised me to rent for a few months instead of purchasing my gear right away. Of course, I was way too excited at the prospect of owning my own gear, so I went ahead and purchased a perfectly nice recreational rig (AIR 2, Ladyhawk BC, gigantic console, etc, etc).
Unfortunately, I failed to predict that, by dive 8, I would fall in love with the idea of cave diving (and none of my brand new recreational gear was even slightly appropriate for it!). That was an expensive mistake...
Hey, I'm a professional dive bum. I don't make money, I spend it. Good thing I bought most of my dive gear back when I had a decent job!
This is very subjective. I was probably making around $2,000 a year when I started and $10,000 when I finnaly purchased a set of used gear. It's amazing what you can buy out of the newpaper classified ads. Full gear for around $350.00.
OldNSalty
Contributor
I have found that the more money I make, the less diving I do. This is probably because the higher paying jobs require more time and with age comes other responsibilities. I probably make at least 10-20 times now what I was making when I started diving but I have a lot less time between work and family.
I always laugh when people talk about how expensive scuba is.
Peter and I were headed somewhere with our dive gear, including scooters, and calculated we had about $20K of equipment in the car. That's for two of us. $20K will buy you a promising three year old horse who knows almost precisely NOTHING. It won't buy you the saddle or bridle to ride it with, and it won't pay the $500 to $1000 a month it costs to keep the horse in a stable. And it won't pay the $500 to $1000 per competition to show the horse. (Oh, and BTW, to buy a competitive dressage horse which has enough training to show will cost from $40K up into the millions, and it is not surprising I don't own one )
Everything's relative.
Peter and I were headed somewhere with our dive gear, including scooters, and calculated we had about $20K of equipment in the car. That's for two of us. $20K will buy you a promising three year old horse who knows almost precisely NOTHING. It won't buy you the saddle or bridle to ride it with, and it won't pay the $500 to $1000 a month it costs to keep the horse in a stable. And it won't pay the $500 to $1000 per competition to show the horse. (Oh, and BTW, to buy a competitive dressage horse which has enough training to show will cost from $40K up into the millions, and it is not surprising I don't own one
)Everything's relative.
TSandM:
Everything is relative. $20K is extremely expensive for some, for others it's not something they even notice. Some folks are wondering how they're going to feed their family.
jsado:
Am I the only one who thinks this is a rude question?
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