Sherwood Vs. Dive Community

[DA Aquamaster]

Sherwood is one of the oldest scuba equipment manufacturers and they are one fo the few with their own production facilities.

The irony here of course is that Sherwood, a company alleged to sell junk by many retailers hawking something else, make the equipment for those same brands that are alledged to be so much better.

Aqualung, Apeks, Scubapro and most other companies contract out the manufacture of their designs to companies like Sherwood and Tabata - who most would try to have you believe, revert to making trash when they sell it under their house brand names.

What you can count on is that when you encounter someone pushing that type of "they make junk" BS, they are either being dishonest or are just ignorant.

 

[Couv]

I recently started working at sports challet in the SCUBA dpt and I am, basically for the first time, talking to people about gear. I'm not as experienced as the next guy, but I am on my way to Rescue, because I'm aiming to do some sort of diving job. Anyways most people except like two people who I'm friends with (hoping this isn't the reason) say that Sherwood is trash. Now I realize that all I have from Sherwood is a mask and snorkel, but I don't see how their gear can be so much worse. Is it really that unreliable? I can deal with the warrenty but most people that I've talked to say comparing Sherwood to something like Aqualung is like comparing apples to God. Any notes on this topic?

Does Sports Challet (sp...) sell Sherwood? Do they perhaps sell Aqualung or both?

c

 

[castanagajt]

yes, they sell both. They sell the high end aqualung such as the legend, lower end one like the titan and calypso and middle like the micra. Sherwood? They sell only the Oasis regulator Why? Because I know for a fact that the Legend series has a higher mark up than the Sherwood Maximus and such. Unfortunately, they won't carry the Maximus.

There BC's they sell the Avid and Tortuga.

You could special order from them what you need but on the flip side they make you pay for the whole product up front and the shipping charges too at the same time. How do I know this hehehe I used to work in a Sport Chalet Scuba Department.

 

[Scott]

I recently started working at sports challet in the SCUBA dpt and I am, basically for the first time, talking to people about gear.

The last thing I want to know is, where is the best place to buy them? Should I go to a specific website? Is their a shop near torrance that is good for Sherwood gear? Thanks so much

As an employee of Sport Chalet wouldn’t they frown on you buying the same gear they sell from a competitor? Surely they have an employee discount program available.

As for the gear. I have worked on Sherwood and Aqua Lung regs for a long time. There is a reason a lot of stores use Sherwood regs in their rental. The stuff is bullet proof… they just keep working, and when it’s time to rebuild, much easier. Until recent Sherwood has stayed out of the ‘high end’ regs. I suspect the new one is just as reliable.
Aqua Lung reds are good..no doubt, but make sure your not comparing a AL Legend with a Sherwood Oasis
BCD’s. every manufacture has low end and high end. Just look at those on SC’s wall. Not all of them are 600.00 black diamonds

Maybe you should talk with your Supervisor about some equipment training.

 

[DeliciousBrownTaste]

I just realized the problem. Most people I talk to are basically... Well lets say that I met a guy who was just learning that you could get certified, so he bought at least 3000 on all his gear, before he even signed up... I think when you have more money to spend, more expensive means mo' betta... Anyways I thank everyone for all the advice, I really appreciate it! And yea, when I said I just started working there, I really meant recently... I guess it didn't register in my head that I can buy everthing from their! I'm going to need to get used to this whole discount and competitor business... Thanks again!

 

[thomjinx]

I work as an instructor for an outfit that uses Sherwood regs for their rentals, and as others have said, they are very reliable, easy to service and maintain. They support their older regs well, and I prefer their wide exhaust tees over many more expensive regs.

An Oasis might not breathe like some high end regs, but when compared to other regs in it's price range it compares very well.

If they were 'junk', do you think they would be so popular as rentals?

-thomjinx

 

[garyfotodiver]

Well, not to buck the trend of this thread but I have used a USD Conshelf 3 regulator since 1995. It always works. I used it on two dives recently after storing it, not properly rinsed, for several months. It worked fine. Afterwards, I brought it for service. I can't find the ticket, but I remember words like "corroded", "flooded" & the like.

I did own a Sherwood BC for a couple of years and liked the quality. I only sold it because I switched to weight-integrated BCs.

 

[DeliciousBrownTaste]

Thomjinx thats exactly what I was thinking... Why would it be so popular if it's junk... Well now at least I know that I'm not just trying to rationalize dead opinions!

 

[Gary D.]

One would be hard pressed to find anyone who abuses gear more than we do. Over the years we have used and tested a very wide variety of regulators and have ended up settling with one. That reg is the Sherwood Maximus. We have a couple Oasis and Poseidon regs in reserve but the responding units are the Maximus.

They are trucks designed to take a lot of abuse and not sports cars which people seem to think they need for some reason.

There are very few parts to worry about and any failures we have had have been the fault of the diver and not the reg.

We use them in hazardous materials such as gasoline, oil, sewage, septic tanks, polluted bodies of water and much more. With the dry bleed system the diver does not have to worry about ingesting any of those materials.

They stay fully set up in our vehicles 24-7-365 so they go from sub zero temperatures to well above 140df year around and never fail.

We used to be hard core Aqualung but over the past 15 or so years Sherwood proved to be the better reg FOR US. Aqualung makes very nice equipment and should be considered by everyone. But for what we do we need what works best FOR US.

Gary D.

 

[scubadiver888]

I just realized the problem. Most people I talk to are basically... Well lets say that I met a guy who was just learning that you could get certified, so he bought at least 3000 on all his gear, before he even signed up... I think when you have more money to spend, more expensive means mo' betta... Anyways I thank everyone for all the advice, I really appreciate it! And yea, when I said I just started working there, I really meant recently... I guess it didn't register in my head that I can buy everthing from their! I'm going to need to get used to this whole discount and competitor business... Thanks again!

Shop around and find out what the employee discount is. I used to work at a small computer shop that did warranty repairs for the large department stores. All the large store employees bought computers from us because our best price was lower than their employee discount. In other words, don't assume your employee is better than someone else. Especially if you go with Sherwood. A Sherwood only dealer will probably sell more Sherwood that your store and get a better discount.

By the way, my dive shop is run by a woman who bought the shop because it was cheaper than buying retail. It is not her main source of income and she is always telling me stuff a real retail store owner would not. She told me she sells a lot of Sherwood and the distributor cuts her a deal if she orders a package. So the reg/bcd/computer/etc. package is a lot cheaper. If I mix and match it costs more. Most stores put a package and pocket the profit. She actually discounts the package.