Should a Vacation diver own or rent equipment...?

[MikeFerrara]

I never understood vaction divers either. Well if you take lots of vacation it might be different but I've known divers who do a few dives on vacation every few years.

I only golf a couple times a year and if they dive the way I golf they may have real trouble. You have to do it to be any good at it and diving isn't as forgiving as golf.

Also my poor golf gane doesn't hurt the environment or other people (well they have to careful walking or driving past the course). I have lots of video of divers just neating the daylights out of reefs. I really don't know how there's any left at all.

Oh, I forgot...the gear...
The less experience you are the more you'll benefit from diving the same equipment all the time. An experience diver can fake it to the satisfaction of most with poor or unfamiliar equipment but a novice just isn't going to perform consistantly using different equipment every time they dive. The less they dive the worse it gets.

So...The less you dive and the less experience/skill you have the MORE important I'd say it is to use the same equipment all the time.

 

[firedogut]

when i first got my OW i thought i would only dive 1-2 times a year. Then i spent $1000 and got my own gear, everything but a tank.

for me to rent everthing for a weekend it would cost me $100. now its costs me 10 for the tank. by buying my gear i can now make a week trip to florida to dive everyday. If i needed to rent everything that would have cost me over $250 in rentals alone. i'm very happy i bought me gear.

at the very least i say buy the mask, fins, and wet suit set up. that way you know you like them and know the fit is perfect.

Also put a post in the texas swamp divers http://www.scubaboard.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34

and ask for diving sites around you. i

 

[Damselfish]

.

I never understood vaction divers either. Well if you take lots of vacation it might be different but I've known divers who do a few dives on vacation every few years.

I only golf a couple times a year and if they dive the way I golf they may have real trouble. You have to do it to be any good at it and diving isn't as forgiving as golf.

Also my poor golf gane doesn't hurt the environment or other people (well they have to careful walking or driving past the course). I have lots of video of divers just neating the daylights out of reefs. I really don't know how there's any left at all.

Oh, I forgot...the gear...
The less experience you are the more you'll benefit from diving the same equipment all the time. An experience diver can fake it to the satisfaction of most with poor or unfamiliar equipment but a novice just isn't going to perform consistantly using different equipment every time they dive. The less they dive the worse it gets.

So...The less you dive and the less experience/skill you have the MORE important I'd say it is to use the same equipment all the time.

It depends on how you define vacation diver. Vacation diver is not necesarily the same thing as casual or bad/unskilled.

I'm a vacation diver and it's pretty simple why. We used to dive local but driving a couple hours to hassle with parking in towns that don't want you, sometimes haul gear a long way to the water, tussle with a heavy suit, put on a pile of lead, so I could see 10 feet in the cold grey - a couple years of that and we decided we'd seen and done quite enough of it. Yes there were some neat dives when everything came together, but overall it just didn't seem worth the trouble. To each their own. I now do 2-3 trips a year and get in 20-30 dives per trip, have around 500 dives. I don't think my skills are rustier diving every 6 months than they would be if I dove every month or weekend. (Someone is bound to disagree, but I think the phrase "like riding a bike" starts to apply after awhile.) I've owned all my gear since early on and wouldn't do otherwise. Though I did use rental BC/fins a few weeks ago on my last trip while they lost my luggage for a couple days and it wasn't a problem.

I have friends who have gone the same path (started local and gave it up), only they now do a major dive trip every 5 years because that's what fits into their life. When trip time comes they recognize they're rusty and do some kind of refresher. I don't see them banging into any reefs either (actually, I'm always impressed how well they do for the time in between trips.) In their case the $ obviously don't work out, but they still own all their own gear.

 

[Wijbrandus]

I'm a "vacation diver" as well, but that's only because I'm recently certified.

I've got two dive trips planned for this year already, in addition to some additional training. I'm also assembling my own gear as the dollars permit.

Once I've got the experience and the equipment, I'll be one of the lunatics I've seen walking into our cold water reservoirs every couple of weekends.

For some people, it's hard to get going on this hobby. It takes money to assemble your gear. It takes time to get in the dives and the practice. These are all more difficult when you are inexperienced and loathe to just buy whatever you see instead of trying out rentals first, and renting costs way more money over owning.

So that's why I'm still easing into it. OTOH, I certainly don't intend to be just a "vacation diver" when I grow up!

 

[pasley]

There is an annual cost to owning your own gear in that it must be serviced at least once a year. Well, you could skimp on that like the guy in "lessons For Life" a few months ago. He serviced his gear, did a couple of dives and put it away for about a year and then saved money ($60-$100) by not having it serviced before he went diving again. After all it only had a couple of dives on it. A flake of rust cut his first stage o-ring on the piston to shreds and long story short - funeral was several thousand dollars.

So moral of true story is, you need to service the gear once a year before you dive it again to check for internal rust etc. So reanting is probably best for a once a year diver. But a divier who knows their own gear is safer. Counter argument is that diving once a year, even our own gear is unfamiliar to you.

 

[DandyDon]

I think most of y'all are supporting my initial summary...

It'd only take one drowning (to decide to not renta again). Even one trip to the chamber because of a malfunction, or one night in a hospital because of saltwater aspiration. With the rental gear I've seen people using, and the problems I've seen firsthand as well as read about here, my suggestions will be more like:

"If owning your own gear is not for you, Scuba just might not be either...?!?"

Rental gear is probably a lot safer obtained in the U.S. than outside - where U.S. rules and regs don't apply, and perhaps one can even find dependability renting from one's hometown LDS and taking the equipment with them? It'd be best and safest all the way around, though, if the diver would at least buy, own, and maintain his/her own:

(1) BC-Device;

(2) Octo-Reg with Safety Second;

(3) Safety Sausage; and

(4) Storm whistle.

Plus, if your BC is not weight integrated, and you'll use a web belt, at least own and take weight keepers.don

thanks, don

 

[gj62]

Also my poor golf gane doesn't hurt the environment or other people (well they have to careful walking or driving past the course). I have lots of video of divers just neating the daylights out of reefs. I really don't know how there's any left at all.

Well, I golf 2 or 3 times a year, and usually shoot high 70s, low 80s. I score better than many who play everyday. I think the same applies to diving:

- If you at one time were a good diver, doing just 2 or 3 dives a year, while not improving your skills, certainly does not make you unsafe for most vacation-type diving.

- If you took your diving lessons 10 years ago, never dove much, and are looking to dive 1 or 2 times a year, do yourself a favor and take a refresher or check-out dive at the resort you're going to. Dive within your limits...

 

[DandyDon]

Well, I golf 2 or 3 times a year, and usually shoot high 70s, low 80s. I score better than many who play everyday. I think the same applies to diving:

- If you at one time were a good diver, doing just 2 or 3 dives a year, while not improving your skills, certainly does not make you unsafe for most vacation-type diving.

- If you took your diving lessons 10 years ago, never dove much, and are looking to dive 1 or 2 times a year, do yourself a favor and take a refresher or check-out dive at the resort you're going to. Dive within your limits...

Okay, fine - but, any address to my equipment question...

thanks, don

 

[gj62]

Okay, fine - but, any address to my equipment question...

thanks, don

Sorry to be off topic...

Actually, I'm probably one of the few people who do both. If I am going for a *dive* vacation, I take my own gear (all but weights and tanks - I leave those home).

However, I travel alot for business too, and occasionally I will find myself with some extra time and the chance to dive nearby. If that is the case, I don't hesitate to rent gear (everything, including mask). I give it the "once-over" and I can get picky on regs, but I've never not dove due to the gear, and I've never had rental gear experience a significant problem.

In general, I would say if you are a "rental diver", at least own your own mask. If you want to go with a reg setup you like, that's fine too. Beyond that, it is more about what the indvidual is comfortable with... That's just my 2psi worth though...

 

[DandyDon]

However, I travel alot for business too, and occasionally I will find myself with some extra time and the chance to dive nearby. If that is the case, I don't hesitate to rent gear (everything, including mask). I give it the "once-over" and I can get picky on regs, but I've never not dove due to the gear, and I've never had rental gear experience a significant problem.

Yeah, renting within the U.S. is probably a lot safer.

don