all he told me is that if i am serious about diving is to first get a good mask snorkel and fins which i did. he didnt really cover gear because he said he thinks its bull**** to try to push the gear on us. the type of diving i want to do is shipwreck dives. at the moment i seem to dive in warm areas.
Explaining gear and covering the best types for conditions and needs of the student is NOT pushing gear sales. It is part of a good course. What else did he not cover in your class? I spend at least 2 hours going over gear in the classroom. Explaining the difference between balanced and unbalanced regs, sealed versus unsealed, types of configurations, and how to select one along with BC's, tanks, exposure suits, and extras like lights and reels is all stuff that should be covered in a basic class.
My advice is to do some research, sit down and decide what direction you want to go in, and determine your means and how much you can and are willing to invest. If you are doing only warm water you can do fine with a midrange model. I would suggest that if you plan on doing wrecks that may involve some colder water at some point. If this is the case a reg that is environmentally sealed is a must. An adjustable second stage is nice as well. Something like an Oceanic GT3, Aqualung legend, Apeks XTX, or one of the Scuba Pro midrange models will do fine and last you many years. In fact if you move into more technical stuff you will not need to exchange one of these. And my rule is you can never have too many regs.
I have six plus my argon set up. THen will you be renting tanks or buying your own. If strictly renting or traveling alot go with a yoke connection, if you plan on buying and again if you want to get into wreck diving in any real degree you'll be buying tanks and I'd suggest bigger lp steels and that means DIN.
Too bad you are not up in my neck of the woods. If you go to my website you'll see I offer a Equipment selection service. For a few bucks we'll asess your needs, look at your interests and where you plan to go with this. THen we'll determine how much you want to spend. THen we'll make some choices and visit a few shops. There are 4 within a half hour of me. I'll go with you and we'll try to get you the best deal for you. I will not let anyone oversell you or get you to buy what they think is best for them to sell you. I do this for free for my students. Since I'm an independent and have good relationships with a number of places my goal is to serve you.
If you want more info Pm or go thru my website and I'll try to give you as much info as I can. I don't know what you have available in your area but I should be able to help you more than your instructor did.
Jim
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