New diver in Brooklyn, NY

[formernuke]

I'll do Dutch Springs in Pa

I need to make it there, I'm thinking sometime this summer.

 

[Salamandra]

Thanks all, and no worries on the gendering. It's the internet, right

RichieRich, glad to run into another Brooklynite! I am up in Crown Heights, near the Brooklyn Museum. So far the only dive shop I've been to is LeisurePro so it would be cool to come see your shop and meet you.

Marie13, I got the Atmos Mission One computer.

Tridacna, Yep, Sea Gypsies seems like a great direction! I need to follow up with doctormike. I

Thanks again to everybody!

 

[Diverlady13]

Thank you so much everybody, I'm feeling very welcomed

Boundforelsewhere - ooh I will keep an eye on those late August flights. I wouldn't think it would be deal time with everyone trying to come home for the start of the school year but it can't hurt to look.

It's deal time because people are not scheduling family vacations for late August, September, and most of October. (The people flying back to get ready for school likely booked those tickets back in the spring.) Airfares start to pick back up later in the year as people start to schedule holiday travel. You might even be able to find good deals on airfare earlier in August since a good portion of the US starts school early to mid-August. This is mostly the southern and southwestern states. School years are substantially different in these areas due to what is often extreme summer temperatures. Trying to air condition schools in the summer months gets expensive very very quickly when even June temps can be in the 100s. I'm from the Chicago area and we started school after Labor Day and ended mid to late June. Down here in Oklahoma some districts start as early as the first week of August and the kids are out early May. Depends on the district, but usually all the kids are in by the third week of August and out by second week of May.

In regards to the price of wetsuits, there is a HUGE range of prices. You certainly do not need to spend thousands, but you can. I tend to go up and down in size and I also don't always want to wear a wetsuit. While much of my gear is high end and expensive, I bought a comfortable and fair quality wetsuit for about $150. I also have a shorty that was $99 on sale. I will likely upgrade later on or buy more wetsuits, but I didn't have a need to spend a lot on that particular item. For me, it was more important to have a better quality regulator and BC, so that's where I spent more. Oh...and a good dive light. I did spend a good bit on a nice light after having trouble with the cheaper one I had. It's nice when the light reliably comes on when you press the button. Diving is one of those pursuits that is relative expensive, but that can also be very very expensive depending on what you purchase and where you go.

 

[formernuke]

Just to add in. If you just doing recreational diving and don't collect cert cards. Most gear is buy once, cry once. Get a quality reg, bc etc and you won't need to replace it unless you get the wrong one. That's why I'm a huge advocate of trying out different things so you only buy once.

 

[drrich2]

The above mentioned light is mainly for technical and cave diving.

Yes. My Big Blue light was around $150, has an adjustable diameter beam, and works just fine for the mainly tropical diving in good viz. conditions I do. If I were doing deep dives in dark, low-viz. conditions with a lot of particulates to cut through, I might want one of the 'can lights' I used to read about, with a cable to a battery pack. But that's way more than I need for what I do.

Just to add in. If you just doing recreational diving and don't collect cert cards. Most gear is buy once, cry once. Get a quality reg, bc etc and you won't need to replace it unless you get the wrong one. That's why I'm a huge advocate of trying out different things so you only buy once.

Agree again. Getting your gear choice right the first time can save you money later. That said, and if your local diving is often cold water (?), let's talk about some factors you may find useful.

1.) Regulators - for some environments, some people like environmentally sealed regulators. Do you anticipate ever diving really cold water?

2.) I use a B2, a mid.-range regulator in the Atomic Aquatics line. A.A. makes much more expensive reg.s with more titanium content that weigh a little less...but I'm told breathe about the same. Personally, not worth it to me. My point is, sometimes the juice ain't worth the squeeze. There are a number of reputable brands.

3.) With BCDs, jacket style predominant, there are back-inflate models that could aid horizontal trim underwater, and some here like back plate/wing setups instead (modular, more customizable, but require more learning curve to make your choices). If you think you might go for technical diving someday, BP/W might be worth pursuing from the outset. If you rent gear in tropical destinations...you'll be using a jacket I expect.

4.) Dive computers - you can drive yourself crazy trying to compare them all. There are 3 main 'styles' - console, wrist 'puck' (bigger than a watch) and wrist watch. Each comes in 2 choices - air-integrated (acts as an SPG and shows your gas pressure, and often estimates air time remaining) and non-air-integrated (so you'd need an SPG). Many can connect to your home computer (some your phone) and upload dive data; air-integrated ones may upload start and end pressures and SAC rate. Air-integrated puck or wrist models require you to put a wireless transmitter on one of your regulator 1st stage's high pressure ports.

There are a number of popular brands. On Scuba Board, the Shearwater Perdix A.I. and Teric are praised. I'm not saying they're your best bet, just pointing you at something to start with...that's higher end. Deep 6 has a reputable non-A.I. option - the Excursion; some recommend buying a cheaper computer now figuring by the time you need something high end you may want a new one anyway.

5.) Cutting tools - you likely don't need a big dive knife. It's not to fight off sharks. A Trilobyte (or DiveGearExpress EZ cutter, with a non-rusting blade, IIRC), or a titanium small knife or line cutter can serve. Regular 'stainless steel' dive knives are cheaper than titanium dive knives, but rust pretty easily. I opted for an alternative to titanium - a Spyderco brand knife model with H1 steel, and like it.

Some people prefer breaking the tip off a cheap steak knife and using that as your cutting tool. So there are different approaches to deciding on a cutting tool.

I suspect for travel diving warm water, high viz., 'aquarium-like' conditions, you can just rent gear other than a mask and be fine for awhile. If you aim to get seriously into cold water diving, I suspect you'll want more of your own stuff sooner - like thick wetsuit (or dry suit), hood, gloves and boots, your own BCD you're familiar with, etc...

 

[formernuke]

If I were doing deep dives in dark, low-viz. conditions with a lot of particulates to cut through, I might want one of the 'can lights' I used to read about, with a cable to a battery pack. But that's way more than I need for what I do.

You just described even some shallow dives around here, that's why I have one of those fancy can lights.

OP another factor and reason to wait on big gear purchases. You indicated that you weren't sure how much diving your going to do. If your just doing once a year trip to X destination it might be cheaper to just rent. If your like me and a lot of others on this board were weather permitting in the water 2 or 3 times a week it's cheaper long run to own.

I forgot to mention this before, one of my local has a rent to own program. You pay 1/2 up front then rent the gear at there normal rental rate when the number of rentals equals the cost of the remaining half they order you a new set and that set is yours. If you decide to buy maybe one of your local shops will something similar.