With that little amount of diving you have planned get a wrist computer and a BCD. The BCD so you know that it fits you and the weight integration and the computer so you will know your diving status.
Should I buy my own equipment???
- Thread starter adam61
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Aqua-Andy
Contributor
Where do you live? Do you have diving near by? If the answer to the second question is yes, I would say purchase gear and dive local and not just on vacations.
Adam 61, I totally endorse owning your equipment. First, it is always the same, purchased to suit you, and you will comfortable using familiar equipment. Secondly, you know how it is treated, how much and ho it is used, and you can be sure to have it serviced regularly and properly. Knowing those things is also one less thing to stress about when diving- at least the equipment is ship shape. Finally, if you buy you own equipment, I guarantee you will dive more, locally or on destination vacations. It always happens. So my vote... Go for it! (plus owning your own gear is one requirement to qualify as a Scuba Snob ( see our books )
DivemasterDennis
DivemasterDennis
lets rev this up a bit more and see who else chimes in..... okay, since you are already discussing that it is possibly costly:
Look for some tenderly used gear, like from someone who just knew they will love diving.......
Or see if the LDS is doing their periodic upgrade (they have to in order to sell the newest line to the new divers).... serviced, and perhaps some form of warranty/guarantee...
This whole "you just can't trust the rental equipment" is a half truth bunch of crap. Did the stuff you certified in kill you? Was it unsafe? Could you rent it from the very same shop?
Hmmmmmm.......
Yes, there are places you don't want to rent from, but likely you should be able to identify those......
Look for some tenderly used gear, like from someone who just knew they will love diving.......
Or see if the LDS is doing their periodic upgrade (they have to in order to sell the newest line to the new divers).... serviced, and perhaps some form of warranty/guarantee...
This whole "you just can't trust the rental equipment" is a half truth bunch of crap. Did the stuff you certified in kill you? Was it unsafe? Could you rent it from the very same shop?
Hmmmmmm.......
Yes, there are places you don't want to rent from, but likely you should be able to identify those......
SouthFLDiver89
Registered
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I agree that if you have local diving and good shops, invest in your own gear for sure. BUT, if you only dive on several occasions a year, best to rent where you go. If at all, buy a "second hand' regulator set and use the rental BCD. Either way, you have to dive 
Exactly! Find good quality used gear at a good price. Do your research on eBay or Craigslist and take your time to learn the market. Look for Aqualung Legends or a Scubapro Mk25/s600. I am sure others will add to this list. eBay and Craigslist are full of people who thought they were going to love diving bought a ton of gear and then never used it. In the event you become one of these people you can sell your gear and not get killed on it. Just remember you have to know the difference between good gear and garbage and there is a lot of garbage out there just search Dacor.
Papa3
Registered
I always find it interesting to read the different opinions regarding equipment. At the level of diving you mentioned it is unlikely that you will ever balance the financial equation in favour of purchasing. Don't forget to include maintenance costs when counting the £££'s, it all adds up.
15 dives after qualifying (11 months ago) I bought BC, computer and regs. I have now accumulated 4 sets of regs, BP/w, twins, 2 comps, and the usual assortment of useful (and otherwise) kit. I am fortunate to have easy access to warm water diving at very reasonable prices so I dive frequently. For me the financial implications were only part of the story.
I am a big lad with a long back so standard rental kit tends not to fit well, nothing worse than ill fitting kit.
As you mentioned it is MY kit, I know it and everything is where it should be. It took a while to get right but now I can't imagine using another kit.
My kit can be configured to cover every kind of dive I have yet needed and can be added to easily where required.
Like most things it will be a personal decision made after considering lots of options and opinions. My only other advice would be to try everything out before parting with your hard earned. The first reg I bought cost twice as much as my second set but wasn't nearly as good to use.
15 dives after qualifying (11 months ago) I bought BC, computer and regs. I have now accumulated 4 sets of regs, BP/w, twins, 2 comps, and the usual assortment of useful (and otherwise) kit. I am fortunate to have easy access to warm water diving at very reasonable prices so I dive frequently. For me the financial implications were only part of the story.
I am a big lad with a long back so standard rental kit tends not to fit well, nothing worse than ill fitting kit.
As you mentioned it is MY kit, I know it and everything is where it should be. It took a while to get right but now I can't imagine using another kit.
My kit can be configured to cover every kind of dive I have yet needed and can be added to easily where required.
Like most things it will be a personal decision made after considering lots of options and opinions. My only other advice would be to try everything out before parting with your hard earned. The first reg I bought cost twice as much as my second set but wasn't nearly as good to use.
Good advice from flyin01 and others. I am firmly in the buy your own gear department. I had some pretty poor experience with rentl gear from a "good shop that maintained their gear". Made my course pretty difficult until the instructor tried breathing off the reg, shook his head in disgust and got me a different one.
When I splash in conditions or locations I DON'T Know I want to be using gear I DO KNOW! I keep my regs serviced and breathing adjusted the way I WANT them. Another advantage of having your own gear is before a dive trip, you can take it to a local pool, play around, refresh skills and get comfortable everything is working fine. You don't have to waste time at the site sorting how the rental stuff is while doing a bit of a self refresher.
If conditions change or turn out to be rougher than you expect having well maintained gear you are familiar with can make a huge difference!
When I splash in conditions or locations I DON'T Know I want to be using gear I DO KNOW! I keep my regs serviced and breathing adjusted the way I WANT them. Another advantage of having your own gear is before a dive trip, you can take it to a local pool, play around, refresh skills and get comfortable everything is working fine. You don't have to waste time at the site sorting how the rental stuff is while doing a bit of a self refresher.
If conditions change or turn out to be rougher than you expect having well maintained gear you are familiar with can make a huge difference!
Hmm there's 2 issues I see here.
- Get your own decent regs, saying rental isn't crap, well, I dare you take a rental mares rover down to 40m as is often done in some countries (Vanuatu for instance, where you can even go further down without any legal issue). I have tried them here in Sydney in 5m of water, had we been going to 15 I would have called the dive. If you're renting really good, well maintained gear, sure! But I've yet to see a shop that has mk25, xtx50, DR, etc on usual OW rental.
- Get your own fitting harness/jacket. I simply don't fit in a S jacket style at my local club (or maybe they're meant to be loose everywhere and not hold your tank to your back), I can't even imagine how someone would fit in a random jacket.
A bp/w or jacket doesn't add any cost later on, as long as there aren't any breaking parts (who said plastic?).
Regulators are another issue. Some will want to service them every year because "if you have been using them for 366 days, you'll die in terrible agony", while others will just have them serviced when they notice an issue. With your kind of diving, I, for ME, would probably do the latter. But keep in mind that switching from your own reg to rental is a pain if you happen to get an issue with them during a trip.
A simple question, do you live in the middle of the desert to have absolutely no local diving?!
- Get your own decent regs, saying rental isn't crap, well, I dare you take a rental mares rover down to 40m as is often done in some countries (Vanuatu for instance, where you can even go further down without any legal issue). I have tried them here in Sydney in 5m of water, had we been going to 15 I would have called the dive. If you're renting really good, well maintained gear, sure! But I've yet to see a shop that has mk25, xtx50, DR, etc on usual OW rental.
- Get your own fitting harness/jacket. I simply don't fit in a S jacket style at my local club (or maybe they're meant to be loose everywhere and not hold your tank to your back
), I can't even imagine how someone would fit in a random jacket.A bp/w or jacket doesn't add any cost later on, as long as there aren't any breaking parts (who said plastic?).
Regulators are another issue. Some will want to service them every year because "if you have been using them for 366 days, you'll die in terrible agony", while others will just have them serviced when they notice an issue. With your kind of diving, I, for ME, would probably do the latter. But keep in mind that switching from your own reg to rental is a pain if you happen to get an issue with them during a trip.
A simple question, do you live in the middle of the desert to have absolutely no local diving?!
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