Plan of Attack

[bc214]

Hey Guys,

I just posted in the introductions section the other day, as I am just preparing for my Scuba classes this month. I followed the general directions I have found through my searches and I'm going with an SSI instruction. Not because of his agency, but rather because of the instructor himself. I shopped around a bit and feel the most comfortable with this instructor. I happen to teach myself, and I got a good feeling from this shop/instructor combination, and he came highly recommended by some of my acquaintances.

That being said, I'm considering equipment. The instructor said to bring nothing more than a bathing suit and towel to the first day, and he will have various personal equipment to try out to help guide us in purchasing our "personal equipment" as he called it. I though this was nice, as although I'm sure he uses it to some extent to push the sale of his products, it will be nice to try a few sets of fins or maybe a couple masks before picking out gear. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems better than just guessing in the shop.

The equipment that we must have for our second day of class includes: Mask, snorkel, booties, fins. And by the check out dives we must have gloves as well.

On a side note, I was gifted a Mares Puck Pro and a nice titanium dive knife. The knife isn't with me here but I believe it's called and underwater kinetic knife with the flat tip. I enjoy watches and knives, so a dive computer watch and a titanium knife were fun to get even before I begin. Probably not day 1 type equipment, but I have them regardless.

The actual point of this post, if you are still even reading my overly-long story, is other equipment in the future. I would eventually like to have a full dive kit, but I won't likely spend all of the money on it in one shot. I'd rather acquire over time. For now, after I finish my certification, I will probably just dive on vacation here and there. But I have friends in the Carolinas that wreck dive, and a few others that dive lakes inland that I visit from time to time. It would be nice to go out with them in the future.

That being said, what plan of attack do you recommend for equipment. Outside of the "personal equipment" that I need for class, and the knife and computer that I already have, what order should I look for equipment? First and second stage to bring with me on vacation while renting BC and tank? Dive suit(s)? Is it even possible to rent parts of a dive kit while on vacation?

I did a search and didn't find much relating to order of acquisition or partial rentals. But maybe I missed it.

Thanks for reading, and your thoughts.

-BC

 

[BDSC]

I would suggest getting a good fitting wetsuit to start with. That will have a lot to do with you being comfortable in the water and I just don't like the idea of wearing a wetsuit someone else has worn or many people have worn. After that I'd go with a good reg set and then a BC. I'd suggest you try a variety of BC's. There are jacket styles which a lot of folks like, what I would call tradtional back inflates, and then there are backplate wings which are a type of back inflate. Try all the styles and see what fits you the best and what your preference is before you buy.

 

[Bob DBF]

I agree with BDSC's progression. As for what gear, check out the rigs used by divers in that area and find out why they have the gear they use. When the choice makes good sense to you, it's time for a purchase. I put dive appropriate safety gear right after the wetsuit.



Bob
-------------------------------
I may be old, but I'm not dead yet.

 

[DukeAMO]

We acquired our gear over a period of several months. It's a good plan. It's nice that you already have the computer and knife, and that you can try several different styles of gear in the pool to see what feels right. Fit is key.

You may never need to buy tanks; just rent them pre-filled. If you're travelling, weight rental is cheap (usually free on boats) and easy, and nobody wants to carry extra weight in their suitcase! We eventually bought weights because we were doing a lot of local shore diving on our own, so those did pay for themselves after 10 dives or so.

We always bring our masks, because those really need to fit. We have been bringing our own fins everywhere, but only because we could fit them into our bags without adding another extra bag.

We don't travel by plane with wetsuits, because it's such a pain to rinse and hang up wetsuits in a hotel room, deal with the neoprene smell, pack wet wetsuits back into a suitcase for the flight home (they never dry in time), and pay $35 each way for the extra bag for 2 wetsuits. We did eventually buy semi-dry suits that work well for the local conditions, because the water is cold, and we wanted a custom fit to stay warm. We use the semi-dry suits for local dives, or when we're travelling by car.

I always bring my own BCD on trips because rental BCDs don't fit me correctly, and you don't want your BCD shifting around. However, most men would probably be fine with a rental BCD.

We bought our own regulators eventually too, just for peace of mind, and if you do a lot of diving, they eventually pay for themselves. (If you only dive a few times per year, regulator maintenance is kind of expensive, so it's cheaper to rent.)

Computer rentals are expensive, and they last a long time without needing anything more than a battery, so buying one of those pays for itself fairly quickly, as long as you don't get an expensive computer.

We also own a few other things that we use often: cheap waterproof watches ($30 Timex Ironman); slates; small, bright dive lights; sea snips and line cutters; DSMBs; whistles; extra D rings and bolt snaps; a save-a-dive kit. We got most of that stuff about a dozen dives in.

Don't worry about a camera yet; your pictures will be lousy until diving is second nature anyway. You have to get really close, have perfect buoyancy control, hold very still, and have big lights to get good pictures.

My next gear configuration change will probably be to the long hose setup, but still with my back-inflate BCD. Fancier air-integrated computers and a better bungee-mounted compass are on the wish list too, so we can get rid of the consoles, but none of this is urgent.

 

[iluvtheocean]

op already has a DC so that's 1 expensive part down for now.... bc & regulators can be rented -- depending on how much diving will do --and always good to try out....
and depends on where you are diving... up there in the cold north or some place warm down here makes a big difference..
also don't forget any gear you bring has to fit in your checked baggage etc... which either have to pay for the extra bag or not take some stuff along...
ex: BCD, reg, 80cf tank, weights combo $38.00 - $45 is normal down here. and many boat dives may include tank & weights in the trip cost.

and of course what you buy now -- your needs may change -- i've already started modifying my kit, heading towards long hose and bp/w)

 

[bc214]

Thank you all very much for the insight. After a few classes I will check back in. For now I will focus on the mask, snorkel, fins, boots, and gloves that I need for class. I'll dig up a few sets of EMT shears; I have a few around the house, and maybe look for a line cutter while I'm out and about. I'll keep an eye out for regulator deals as I start to become more familiar with them.

Hopefully I can get to a point where I can travel with my personal gear, DC, knife, and eventually regulators, with the rest being rentals as it would likely be cumbersome to fly with BC and suits. I have a few friends that dive the Carolinas, so hopefully one day I will assemble and entire kit and be able to head down there with them by car and bring everything.

Thanks again for the info, and I'll try to update as I find new items.

 

[phork]

EMT shears are line cutters. Me personally, I don't see a point to having a knife AND shears but again, that's just me. I've been carrying around a folding knife with me for the last 4 years and it's been fine. When I get into more wreck stuff, I'm going to replace it with the shears because knives can't cut wires, shears can, and agian, I don't see a point to carrying both unless you want redundancy.

I'd recommend picking up a nice set of regs first after your basic purchases (mask, fins, wetsuit, gloves, boots). After than, talk to your buddies that you mentioned and see if you can have a dive on their BCs. Test out as many as you can to see what you like and don't like before you buy. Then you'll get into the whole jacked style vs bp/w which is a whole other can of worms.

 

[WB2GLP]

Are your eyes set on diving the Jersey Shore?

 

[bc214]

Are your eyes set on diving the Jersey Shore?

Not especially. I'm not certain of what is available at the shore, but given a proper opportunity and a nice dive location I would probably take it. For now I'm looking more towards vacations diving.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DukeAMO]

EMT shears are line cutters. Me personally, I don't see a point to having a knife AND shears but again, that's just me. I've been carrying around a folding knife with me for the last 4 years and it's been fine. When I get into more wreck stuff, I'm going to replace it with the shears because knives can't cut wires, shears can, and agian, I don't see a point to carrying both unless you want redundancy.

Yep, they're for redundancy. And yes, the Sea Snips are just EMT shears in a handy pouch. They're cheap, and the line cutter is tiny (and I got it used). When I'm on a wreck, I like to have the shears on one side and the line cutter on the other. When I'm not really expecting to be around fishing line or anything that needs to be cut, I'll just bring the little line cutter. My husband has a fancy titanium knife. If you have a nice titanium knife, I can't think of a good reason to have that and a line cutter. Just be aware that you can't bring a dive knife to some places.