First of all, if you're buying that much stuff from a local dive shop and they aren't cutting you a killer deal, you should probably look for another dive shop. Lots of dive shops can meet or beat online prices, especially when you start putting a lot of things together into a complete package
When my wife and I got certified 22 years ago, our instructor was into ScubaPro, so that's what we bought at the end of our OW class - ScubaPro's high end regulator and BCs. She's relatively small and her BC never really fit her right. She's a vacation diver, eventually went through a couple of BCs, now won't dive anything except a backplate with DiveRite Transplate harness, because of comfort, fit and ease of diving. Before you buy the HYDROS PRO, you should definitely dive it with the exposure protection you're planning on diving regularly to make sure it fits you right and dives well
I still have my original ScubaPro jacket BC. I only use it in the pool now. It's horrible for open water diving compared to what I dive with these days and I don't care what chlorine will do to it. It's basically indestructible.
The dive shop I used to DM for had a lot of problems with ScubaPro wings on their backplate setups. Check reliability from actual owners before you find you need support from a platinum dealer. If you're on vacation in someplace tropical and remote, buying from a platinum dealer won't do much to solve your problem in the middle of nowhere when you're supposed to be enjoying yourself instead of worrying about dive gear problems
You have to be careful with the ScubaPro free parts for life program. I kept it up for as long as we had our ScubaPro regulators. If you miss one service, you're on your own. It only covers parts, which are relatively inexpensive compared to the labor cost for regulator service. We replaced our original ScubaPro regulators with Atomic ones, which have a longer service interval (2 years) than what we were used to (1 year), so end up spending less on service now than with the free program. The two guys who designed the ScubaPro regulators left to start Atomic, and do everything better without all the corporate bs from ScubaPro's parent company. You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference in how Atomic regulators breathe compared to ScubaPro, although the Atomic SS1 does breathe better than the Air-2 (we had Air-2s before and have Atomic SS-1s now)
Mixing gear isn't a problem - any regulator works fine with any BC with any dive computer with any integrated octo/inflator. If you're looking at spending $3K, you should definitely get what works best for you instead of trying to stay within the confines of a single manufacturer's offerings. After looking around you might think ScubaPro is best for you, but at least you won't be second guessing after the purchase you should have gotten something else
When my wife and I got certified 22 years ago, our instructor was into ScubaPro, so that's what we bought at the end of our OW class - ScubaPro's high end regulator and BCs. She's relatively small and her BC never really fit her right. She's a vacation diver, eventually went through a couple of BCs, now won't dive anything except a backplate with DiveRite Transplate harness, because of comfort, fit and ease of diving. Before you buy the HYDROS PRO, you should definitely dive it with the exposure protection you're planning on diving regularly to make sure it fits you right and dives well
I still have my original ScubaPro jacket BC. I only use it in the pool now. It's horrible for open water diving compared to what I dive with these days and I don't care what chlorine will do to it. It's basically indestructible.
The dive shop I used to DM for had a lot of problems with ScubaPro wings on their backplate setups. Check reliability from actual owners before you find you need support from a platinum dealer. If you're on vacation in someplace tropical and remote, buying from a platinum dealer won't do much to solve your problem in the middle of nowhere when you're supposed to be enjoying yourself instead of worrying about dive gear problems
You have to be careful with the ScubaPro free parts for life program. I kept it up for as long as we had our ScubaPro regulators. If you miss one service, you're on your own. It only covers parts, which are relatively inexpensive compared to the labor cost for regulator service. We replaced our original ScubaPro regulators with Atomic ones, which have a longer service interval (2 years) than what we were used to (1 year), so end up spending less on service now than with the free program. The two guys who designed the ScubaPro regulators left to start Atomic, and do everything better without all the corporate bs from ScubaPro's parent company. You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference in how Atomic regulators breathe compared to ScubaPro, although the Atomic SS1 does breathe better than the Air-2 (we had Air-2s before and have Atomic SS-1s now)
Mixing gear isn't a problem - any regulator works fine with any BC with any dive computer with any integrated octo/inflator. If you're looking at spending $3K, you should definitely get what works best for you instead of trying to stay within the confines of a single manufacturer's offerings. After looking around you might think ScubaPro is best for you, but at least you won't be second guessing after the purchase you should have gotten something else
