Next piece of gear - Dry suit or reg/octo?

[cricfanSD]

My point too. A Scubapro top shelf reg may breathe better but does not really breathe significantly better compared to an Oceanic GTX3 ($200 last years model) or a Mares MR12, so that you can plonk down $400 more. You may have your own opinion but they are definitely not piece of junk.

Do you honestly feel that an annual maintenance catches any catastrophic failure ? You are definitely more knowledgeable than I am but the failures you mentioned may have happened more due to the negligent maintenance by the diver. Just to be clear I am definitely not advocating 5 year interval between maintenance but skipping a year when you are diving may be 15 weekends a year may not be all that bad.

 

[StevenN]

As far as regulator choice goes I bought the one my LDS rents out. You get a solid work horse regulator that your shop is familiar with working on and has the parts for it in stock.

 

[kathydee]

Keep your eyes on Craigslist. I found an almost new DUI suit (used less than 20X), weights, undergarments, boots, hood for $600 (but have seen many other great deals).

Invested a bit more for seals & pockets and am very happy with the suit now ! It's toasty !

Think it's best if you can try the suit on for fit & meet the prior owner.

Good luck!

 

[ccohn2000]

If you can't try the suit on, but see a screaming deal on E-Bay or similar, try checking the manufacturers size chart. You can generally find them on-line and they're usually pretty detailed. You should be able to determine if you can wear the suit. FWIW a little big is fine, a little small is not. The suit I bought was a small. My personal specs fit the extra small for that mfg almost perfectly. The suit is a bit big but works fine, and I can wear a thicker undergarment in it than was intended. For me, that's a nice option. I get cold fairly easily.

Make sure the seller gives you the correct size of the item they are selling though. I bought one suit that was advertized as a small, thinking it would be big. It turned out to be an XXS and was slightly small. I sold it for what I purchased it for though, so all I lost was time. It was listed by a guy who didn't understand that there is a BIG difference between S, XS, and XXS.

 

[pacificgal]

Thanks for all the input. I think I will continue to wear the wetsuit till it needs to be replaced, since it's a Hederson Hyperstretch that may be sooner rather than later from what I understand, and go with a reg first so all I would have to do is rent tanks. I don't see the point in owning tanks, really, as you still have to go to the LDS to have them filled, and the hydro, etc.
I have an octo/spg already, I don't see any reason why I couldn't just swap out the primary with a better one, leave the alternate (after servicing) and then maybe upgrade the alt and console at another time. I like the rentals with the digital spg's though, mine isn't that fancy.
Still trying to find a regular group of people to be diving with to improve my skills and experience, maybe not such a great idea to buy a drysuit and have it hang in my closet for 364 days of the year.

 

[MrSpock]

I don't see the point in owning tanks, really, as you still have to go to the LDS to have them filled, and the hydro, etc.

Only if you dive doubles or willing to pay for the convenience of always using exactly the same type.

I like the rentals with the digital spg's though

What is digital SPG? Never seen one...

not such a great idea to buy a drysuit and have it hang in my closet for 364 days of the year.

Exactly!!

 

[pacificgal]

Digital SPG, meaning one with a computer attached that gives you depth and temp. I have a wrist computer that does that, but kinda nice to have one attached to SPG so I am checking that stuff when I am checking my remaining gas.

 

[pacificgal]

Anyone else having really slow days at work where you find you're spending 7 of your 7.5 working hours on Scubaboard? Jeez, things have got to pick up!

 

[MrSpock]

Anyone else having really slow days at work where you find you're spending 7 of your 7.5 working hours on Scubaboard? Jeez, things have got to pick up!

It's Friday, isn't it? And almost Beer O'clock!

 

[Clammy]

My point too. A Scubapro top shelf reg may breathe better but does not really breathe significantly better compared to an Oceanic GTX3 ($200 last years model) or a Mares MR12, so that you can plonk down $400 more. You may have your own opinion but they are definitely not piece of junk.

Do you honestly feel that an annual maintenance catches any catastrophic failure ? You are definitely more knowledgeable than I am but the failures you mentioned may have happened more due to the negligent maintenance by the diver. Just to be clear I am definitely not advocating 5 year interval between maintenance but skipping a year when you are diving may be 15 weekends a year may not be all that bad.

I'm going to have to disagree here as well. There are several parts in a regulator that go brittle or bad with time, diving it or not. Most of them are O-rings, seals, and seats but obviously having anything go bad in life support is not a good thing.