Sign here if you have never breathed on a used regulator

[TMHeimer]

These are the fun toys you get to have as a young, successful bachelor

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They're fun for people like me as well.

 

[Laurie S.]

I did my research and bought all new gear right at the beginning. I've never used anything but my own gear. It's not because of any fear of germs or whatever, I simply wanted my own gear.

 

[scubafanatic]

Not sure if this is intended to be as snarky as it sounds but to me, it was a mutually beneficial situation. A local small business gained a customer and I got quality gear with all of my questions answered and a bunch of freebies and discounts thrown in, not to mention total peace of mind. I look at it as the cost of entry to scuba because that is what I wanted, all of my own stuff. If I were to do it all over again I wouldn't change a thing. These are the fun toys you get to have as a young, successful bachelor

...if you REALLY were successful, would you still be a bachelor ? ....just sayin......

 

[dlofting]

I rented for just over a year before I bought a set of regs.....I've got to say though, that using a reg that a smoker had very obviously rented before me certainly accelerated my decision to buy.

 

[ScubaDoo83]

I rented for just over a year before I bought a set of regs.....I've got to say though, that using a reg that a smoker had very obviously rented before me certainly accelerated my decision to buy.

lol YUCK! See, it's less about germs and just more about the yuck factor. That sir, is nasty. I'll bet your first breaths on the new reg were like heaven!

---------- Post added April 12th, 2015 at 11:39 AM ----------

...if you REALLY were successful, would you still be a bachelor ? ....just sayin......

A bachelor relationship status is a sign of non-success? The reason I put the "bachelor" part in there was to say I don't have to ask permission to make big purchases ....... me like that.

 

[drbill]

As a young girl once asked Jean-Michel Cousteau after one of his talks "Mr. Cousteau, how can you swim in the ocean with all the fish poopies?"

I usually carry my own gear if I'm diving just one or two locations on a trip, but if I'm on an extended (1-3 months) multi-destination trip, I rent gear. I've never worried much about using a rental reg (other than its maintenance). Most good operations will rinse the regs in a solution that kills the kooties.

 

[CT-Rich]

Disgusting thoughts associated with Diving...... Let count the ways...

• Rental wetsuits... need I say more?
• I used to clean boat hulls for extra money. every thing that got knocked off the hull would swim frantically to the next available surface. My hair, my beard, every seam on my wetsuit. Nothing like a half million copepods wriggle in you hair...
• Every been diving and find evidence of effluent in the water? Like a tampon applicator?
• How about mold that might be growing in your damp regulator? The spores you would be inhaling?
• What about the mercury or PCBs in the fish you eat?

Don't get me wrong, if you want to buy gear, awesome, I hope you are supporting your LDS. Diving is a leisure activity, do it the way that gives you the most enjoyment, but worrying about germs falls into the same category as worrying about sharks. Worries are usually disproportionate to the risk.

---------- Post added April 12th, 2015 at 01:53 PM ----------

...if you REALLY were successful, would you still be a bachelor ? ....just sayin......

If he was a young failed bachelor, wouldn't that be called....

married?

---------- Post added April 12th, 2015 at 01:57 PM ----------

I rented for just over a year before I bought a set of regs.....I've got to say though, that using a reg that a smoker had very obviously rented before me certainly accelerated my decision to buy.

I trained with a guy that was a 240 lbs football player. In those days you learned to give mouth-to-snorkel respiration. He chewed tobacco. I had tow him down the pool and he just kept breathing.... tobacco..... I still gag at the thought...

---------- Post added April 12th, 2015 at 02:03 PM ----------

I'm one of those people who, on land, go by the principle that ingesting the odd cooties here and there help my body resist maladies by building up antibodies. It doesn't seem to hurt me, as I seem to never get sick. I don't see where its all that much different when it comes to scuba gear.

I did 10 years of immunology research, I am all for not worrying about keeping everything from my immune system.... That which does not kill us makes us stronger (or can hopefully be treated with a topical ointment.)

 

[agilis]

There is not much hygienic difference involved in eating in many restaurants, using utensils and plates, glasses, tables, tablecloths that have at some point been exposed to unspeakable things. Movie theaters are another interesting place, especially when you dare not look down at the slippery spots. I flown on some very dirty airplanes with food carts to match.

All of this pales into insignificance when I consider the various and frequently intense intimacies I've shared with strange women in every sense of that word. From a strictly hygienic perspective, better a thousand times a nicely rinsed regulator than some of the places and things ...

I think I'll stop here. Whatever you may imagine, my reality is almost certainly worse.

A yellowed rubber mouthpiece with dental impressions from probably carious teeth embedded in infected gums that may have been oozing noxious fluids is no big deal, in the grand scheme of things. A touch of wabi sabi lends a certain flavor that factory fresh items do not possess.

 

[redacted]

All of this pales into insignificance when I consider the various and frequently intense intimacies I've shared with strange women in every sense of that word. From a strictly hygienic perspective, better a thousand times a nicely rinsed regulator than some of the places and things ...

So, you are saying it is OK as long as the regulator is also treated with alcohol?

 

[agilis]

So, you are saying it is OK as long as the regulator is also treated with alcohol?

Alcohol? Saliva will do. An excellent mask defogger as well.

On the down side, I've been told that saliva is a carcinogen, but only if swallowed in small quantities over a long period of time.