Rental Gear Question

[Scubanoobi]

If your timex watch is not a dive watch (I don't believe they make dive watches) then the 50 / 100 meters does not actually mean 50 / 100 meters, you will be lucky not to flood it at 10 meters.

I would consider renting a computer.

 

[oreocookie]

Thanks! I think a standard timex watch goes further than I'd want to dive.

If the watch has never been opened for a battery change, you might be fine with it, otherwise all bets are off about it's depth rating. I had my timex ironman take on some water while snorkeling and diving down to depth of max 10ft, probably even shallower than that... it works fine now, but I'm glad I wasn't relying on it during the week and a bit it took to dry out (fog made it hard to read and the indiglo barely lit up)...

You say you don't want to rely on somebody else for safety equipment. Inthat light, I'd reconsider not renting a dive computer. DMs will lead dive profiles based on what their computers will allow. If you don't have a computer, you have 2 options: 1) dive with tables and actually use them, which may annoy people if the shop's policy is the whole group ascends at once, or 2)you trust the DM's computer, which is common practice in some (a lot?) areas but not a good idea. If you rent a computer for your trip ($50 for a week is common around here), you can still plan your dive and be able to follow a similar profile to the DM, so you don't necessarily have to settle for shorter dives... how much is a few extra minutes of dive time per dive worth to you?

 

[diversteve]

Casio Women's LRW200H-1EVCF Dive Series Analog Watch: Watches: Amazon.com - $19. 100M water resistant

On Roatan Subway rents computers for $10/day - Barefoot it's $20. Barefoot rents SubGear XP10's - you can download the manual and familiarize yourself with it. http://www.subgear.com/media/9908/xp10-multilanguage.pdf

I'd want a full suit on Roatan in December. The water may just be a little colder than would be comfortable. They can probably provide one instead - maybe for a few dollars more.

 

[Searcaigh]

Full gear in my part of the world is

BCD
Regulator including gauges and LP connection for BCD
Tank and Weights

Everything else you provide yourself although mask, fins, wetsuit and a computer can usually be rented I have never seen an SMB for rent. Personally if I ran a dive op, SMBs would be mandatory and if you did not have one you would be obliged to rent one.

 

[Scubanoobi]

I think in this case - your most important piece of safety equipment will be a computer.

 

[Skittl1321]

Inthat light, I'd reconsider not renting a dive computer. DMs will lead dive profiles based on what their computers will allow. If you don't have a computer, you have 2 options: 1) dive with tables and actually use them, which may annoy people if the shop's policy is the whole group ascends at once, or 2)you trust the DM's computer, which is common practice in some (a lot?) areas but not a good idea. If you rent a computer for your trip ($50 for a week is common around here), you can still plan your dive and be able to follow a similar profile to the DM, so you don't necessarily have to settle for shorter dives... how much is a few extra minutes of dive time per dive worth to you?

Just a few minutes of dive time really isn't that important to me... since I'm new, I imagine my air consumption won't be fabulous anyway, so dives aren't going to be super long anyway...

I will see if my local shop rents a computer that I can take for the whole trip. Buying a computer is out of the question right now, ththe $600 + basic equipment of the certification alone blows my budget.

I'm not sure who I'm diving with in Roatan (leaning towards Subway) but the op in Cozumel doesn't have the whole group ascend at once. I guess I'll have to find out if she rents computers. I can swing $10 from Subway in Roatan, if that's who we go with. Does it make sense to rent computers from them though- I thought you were only supposed to use a computer if you used the same computer? We'll be in two different locations on two days, so a computer can't take that into account. Or is okay to use a different computer as long as it isn't later that day?

 

[windapp]

Thanks! I think a standard timex watch goes further than I'd want to dive.

Actually, the quoted depth is for a single sample sitting very still. It doesn't included any sort of shock or movement.

The minimum depth rating for any dive watch is 200 m. You could get away with 50 or 100, but that would be lucky.

 

[Skittl1321]

Actually, the quoted depth is for a single sample sitting very still. It doesn't included any sort of shock or movement.

Thanks A few people have corrected my misconception.