Land Locked In Colorado

[dreddyk]

Hey Ya'll

Great Posting Board.

I am a former Padi DM, from the SF Bay. Life, Family and Moving to Colorado had pretty much killed my diving. A few years back, I sold my Imelda Marcos esque collection of dive gear. I've logged a lot of diving in the past. Primarily cold water ( Monterey, Channel Islands, etc ) but many of the fun popular tropical places.

A buddy got certified and I told him I would go to Cozumel if he followed through. I'm headed there in Sept. I figure its time to re-invest in gear for my wife and my self. We will probably 4 warm vacations a yr and the obligatory altitude diving here in Colorado.

So much has changed in the past 12 years that I am not sure where to start. I've stopped into a couple of shops to talk, and got the sales pitch, not the information.

I am looking for some suggestions for good quality reliable gear that will offer some bells and horns but I don't need top of the line anymore. I used to be a diving bad ass ( or so I thought ) now I'm just a dad with little kids.... Not sure about Nitrox, still on the fence...

ME:

* Fins? not a split fin fan due to the vortices that stir up the bottom
* Mask? ( I have a big face )
* BC? I don't need a tech BC anymore, just comfy but versatile
* Computer? Air integrated was always a question mark due to the battery failure issue... I take it it's not an issue anymore.....
* 1st and 2nd stage I don't plan to Ice dive anymore, only Alpine Lakes and caribbean/South Pac. ( I do like plush easy draw Regs, tho.. )

My Wife:

Novice with little experience, I 'm often keeping her in the corner of my eye....


Your input will be very helpful.

Thanks Guys,


Ed

 

[boulderjohn]

The first thing you need to do is to go down the the regional travel section and introduce yourself on the Rocky Mountain Oysters site. There you will find local people with whom you can hook up for diving. Colorado has among the most divers per capita in the nation, so although our local diving falls a notch or two short of ideal, there are plenty of divers around you.

I am personally laid up by injury at the moment, but I hope to recover in time for my own trip to Cozumel in September.

If you are really interested in more advanced diving opportunities, there are shops in the area to which I can steer you. I can also give you a hand myself. Just drop me a private message and give me more details about where you live and what you are interested in.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

Great that you're getting back into diving. I'm planning on a trip to Cozumel myself, apparently one of the best areas to dive in all of Mexico.

Fins- you can still use the good old Scubapro Jet Fins or other types of paddle fins, though people have different preferences and heated arguments about splits vs paddle. Mask - whatever fits and makes a good seal. Can't really give any advice about the other equipment - your experience and comfort will probably help you out more than I can.

 

[Griffo]

Welcome to the forums. Just don't expect to get a simple answer on any of your questions

On the regs though, you should check out the Edge / HOG line. I own both HOG and Aqualung Legend regs. If anything the HOG breathes easier, but cost 1/3 of the price.

 

[beaverdivers]

Hi Ed,

Welcome to SCUBAboard!

I would recommend:

Mask - frameless Scubapro
Fins - Scubapro Nova
Reg - Mk25/ S600
Computer - Galileo Luna

You probably noticed all the gear is Scubapro.

We are the only Scubapro Platinum Dealer in Colorado.

Good Luck & Good Diving!

 

[chrpai]

Hi Ed,

Welcome to SCUBAboard!

I would recommend:

Mask - frameless Scubapro
Fins - Scubapro Nova
Reg - Mk25/ S600
Computer - Galileo Luna

You probably noticed all the gear is Scubapro.

We are the only Scubapro Platinum Dealer in Colorado.

Good Luck & Good Diving!

No comment.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Ditto the mask and fins comments above. In my opinion almost nothing beats a jet fin, after 28 years of looking for something better. Another great fin is the old Mares Power Plana, and the Mares Quattro comes close as well. If anything beats the Jet Fin, it's the OMS slipstream, as it is basically a lighter weight monoprene version of the neoprene rubber Jet Fin. It's stiffer, but feels the same in the water in most conditions.

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If you want a versatile BC, a Dive Rite Nomad XT is hard to beat. It will do singles (side mount or back mount) as well as doubles (sidemount or back mount) and it works fine for monkey diving. It also fits in a Gen 2 Dive Caddy and is pretty travel freindly.

A few years ago I discovered at age 45 I was not going to get any younger and as I plan on cave diving (and general rec and wreck diving) into my 70's it was obvious back mounting doubles was going to start adding more wear and tear than was optimal for that plan, so side mount made sense.

If you don't need that much lift, I'd still consider a side mount rig as it offers a great deal of benefit even for a single tank and a razor style harness with a 20-40 pound wing designed for that style of harness will work nicely for single or double tank diving. They offer greater comfort, greater mobility, more stability and better trim than a back plate and wing or conventional jacket BC.

If you are not ready to go the side mount route, a back plate and wing, with either a hog harness or a pivot ring harness would still be very versatile, comfortable and travel friendly. If you won't be diving doubles, you can avoid a metal plate and go with something like an Oxycheq travel plate, which is a small nylon fabric "plate" that uses a hog harness and an 18#, 30# or 40# Mach V wing. The whole package is very comfortable, very streamlined and very travel friendly.

And if you want a traditional BC, then at least go with a back inflate. Scubapro makes the Lite Hawk that is very travel friendly well streamlined and not overly expensive.

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In my opinion, second stage reg performance peaked in the mid to late 1980s and nothing breathes significantly better than a Scubapro G250 (or it's current G250V incarnation), and along with that, nothing provides better subjective breathing in any position than the D400 (at least the earlier pre-plastic orifice D400s) or the D350.

If you can find one of those on a Mk 10 or Mk 20 first stage, you are good to go.

I am a big fan of the Scubapro Mk 17 first stage and I switched to them in preference to Mk 20s and Mk 25s as soon as the Mk 17 came out and have never regretted it. It offers more than enough flow for any rec or tech purpose, has excellent response time and is fully sealed making rinsing easy after salt water or silty water dives, and is the most reliable cold water first stage available anywhere.

The Mk 11 is a current unsealed version and its a bit smaller and lighter for travel, but Scubapro uses a different diaphragm and washer arrangement that reduces the flow rate slightly - not a deal breaker for recreational diving but annoying that they actually went to the effort to reduce the potential performance.

The discontinued Mk 16 is a great deal used as they all got updated with Mk 17 internals several years ago and for all practical purposes are an unsealed Mk 17 with one less high pressure port.

------

As a diver and a tech, if I could not get a Mk 17 G250V, I'd probably go with an Aqualung Legend. It's a good diaphragm design and the second stage is more or less a G250 knockoff with a poppet that is a cross between the older Scubapro balanced poppet and their current S-wing poppet.

As a tech, I also like the quality of Apeks and Zeagle regs as well as Dive Rite. Some of the clones based on those designs however look more or less the same but the difference is in the details and the tolerances.

As such the Hog regs have solid designs, but at that price point it's almost certain the OEM making them is cutting corners on quality and tolerances to make that price point. At the individual level it means you might get a Hog reg that breathes great, or you might get one that's pretty mediocre.

At the other extreme, Apollo regs are very well made, but they are badly over engineered, are a bit of a pain to work on, and are not as reliable (in my opinion) over the course of a 100 dive dive season from a maintenance and adjustment perspective.

One reg I advise divers to avoid is the Sherwood SR1. It's got serious reliability issues with the high pressure seating system it uses and is hard enough to work on that it falls in that category where the tech needs to be on his game, and the average tech may not be all that good with it, especially if they only work on a few of them per year.

 

[chrpai]

As such the Hog regs have solid designs, but at that price point it's almost certain the OEM making them is cutting corners on quality and tolerances to make that price point. At the individual level it means you might get a Hog reg that breathes great, or you might get one that's pretty mediocre.

Do you have one shred of evidence to support that? I don't recall ever reading someone post that they got a lemon.

I highly reccomend Edge / Hog depending on your desire for Yoke or Din and traditional hose lengths or Hogarthian config.

I also highly suggest looking into the DRIS BP/W. It's a great rig at a great price with steel and aluminum options to meet your weighting needs.

While I'm at it, I picked up Hollis F1's used with a couple dives on them for $75. Also a nice Hog low volume, black skirt mask can be had for $40.

Bottom line is unless you are going great deals on used Scubapro equipment that you rehab yourself, I'd stay away from the overpriced stuff that a 'platinum' dealer will try to sell you on. You can get solid equiipment that will last a long time over your diving career for a fraction of the cost.