Supporting my local dive shop(s) is frustrating

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What I don't understand is the ratio behind the equipment choices
Let's say one wants the very best regs for cold waters, that could be an overkill, but ok still makes sense. But why purchasing a tech computer if one is just a beginner recreational diver?
Why do people buy a Jeep Wrangler when they never put a tire off-road or a Mercedes AMG E63 when they'll never drive over 80mph (130kph)?

At least the Garmin and Shearwater have features that are directly relevant to non-tech divers. The Shearwater arguably has the best screen and UI of all dive computers and the Garmin has all the topside features for people who are already invested in their fitness/boating/aviation ecosystem.
 
And at the opposite end of the spectrum from the $300 titanium knife (that I would be afraid of losing) there is the DIR "steak knife" (that is almost disposable). It doesn't get cheaper than that. Knives have a way of getting lost.
Yep. That was my biggest concern with spending that much money on a knife. A friend of mine is as cheap as they come, but got a fancy titanium knife. Of course, he didn’t pay for it, he just found it on a dive.

On a dive about a year ago, I spotted something shiny in the sand, so I went over to look. It was a dive knife that looked to have been recently lost. That turned out to be true. It belonged to my buddy. Had the sun not caught it at the right angle, it would not have been found.
 
I'm not sure where folks got the idea that I'm buying a $300 titanium knife. I actually listed the exact model of dive knife I purchased in the gear list (Fox Tecnoreef.) The knife I purchased was $139, and it's made from steel (I would never buy a titanium knife. Titanium is a crappy material for knife blades.)

Lots of folks have chimed in on this thread with advice on how to save money when buying scuba gear in spite of the fact that at no point did I ever ask for advice.

Maybe there's enough opinions that someone should start a thread on that subject. Then people who are looking for the absolute cheapest possible dive gear options can get pointers on how to buy cheap gear at bargain prices. The advice regarding how to tell if the used regulator you bought on eBay is actually safe to dive with will be super popular, I'm certain.

There is sure a lot of angst on this thread regarding how other people choose to spend their money. If I don't care that I'm spending too much money on an Atomic regulator when I could have purchased something else for less money, why should anyone else get so worked up about it? As I pointed out before, I never once asked for advice on how to purchase scuba gear at the lowest possible price. In this thread, I never asked for any advice at all, for that matter. If I had said that I have decided to jump right into solo cave diving, I can understand why people might get excited and proffer a lot of unsolicited advice. All the concern over how much money I could have saved is misplaced, however.

As for the whole "you need to rent gear first" thing: There seem to be a lot of folks who believe in some unwritten scuba law that beginning scuba divers should be required to put up with rental gear for some unspecified amount of time before they should be allowed to buy their own gear.

I'd just as soon skip the crappy rental gear apprenticeship. I'd rather not struggle with an ill-fitting wetsuit that a hundred people have pissed in. I'd rather not try to figure out how to use a rental dive computer for the first time while I'm on a dive. I'd rather not have hoses on my regulator kit that "are only leaking a little bit, so it's ok." I'd rather have my gauges in familiar places, my hoses all the right length. I'd rather dive in a BCD that fits me well, that doesn't have velcro closures that don't stick to anything any more, and that I am comfortable with. I'd rather be able to know approximately how much weight I'm going to need and where it should be located, and not have to figure out my weight and trim from the beginning every time I dive with someone else's rental gear. I'd rather know the history and service condition of things that I'm using.
If you rented gear for a long time before you decided to get your own, that's fine. Whatever worked for you is great. I'm sure that because you followed this path you never ever bought anything that turned out to be unsuitable.

So many folks are certain that a new scuba diver is going to buy all the "wrong" stuff. The fact is that most of the gear out there is pretty similar. If you buy a (new) regulator from a reputable company, it's going to perform well for just about any recreational diving situation. The same with most other equipment, provided that it actually fits your body. The BCDs seem to be the most different, but even between back inflate and traditional vest designs, they perform the same functions. The differences are at the margins.

At this point, I've spent enough time in the water with my new gear that I am pretty sure that I'm going to be happy with just about all of it. I've been playing with my hose and regulator configurations to see which configuration I like the best, so I have wasted some money on flex hoses. Hoses aren't that expensive. I also bought a gauge console set for my wife, and I assumed that I could remove the computer so she could use it wrist mounted if she wanted to. Turns out the computer "puck" is not removeable. That was a $60 mistake. (I know. HUGE newbie mistake. I could have bought an entire used scuba kit on eBay for the $60 I wasted on that console.)
 
So you only posted to dis dive shops and their business model and we should ignore the specific parts of what you want to buy, got it, just venting.

by the way I really like titanium for a dive knife, I use one that cost less than $20, they do tend to get lost easily yet I’ve had this one, dive it all the time, for 12 years, it not a filet knife or a pry bar, just a little 4” ti tool.
 
Hey, @ssssnake529 , please take no offense. We all need to keep in mind that a little thread rambling--and I don't mean veering way off topic but rather just tugging at the edges of a question--may be helpful to people who are later in a similar position and come across a thread. When we post a question, we may be asking primarily for ourselves but secondarily we are asking for posterity here on the internet. There ARE in fact old threads discussing how to save money on dive gear, including by buying used off ebay, so I agree we don't need to delve into that in depth here.

And I believe not one person has suggested using a rental wetsuit. Everyone has suggested buying that new.

Glad you have tried out your gear (in class?) and like it.
 
I'm not sure where folks got the idea that I'm buying a $300 titanium knife. I actually listed the exact model of dive knife I purchased in the gear list (Fox Tecnoreef.) The knife I purchased was $139, and it's made from steel (I would never buy a titanium knife. Titanium is a crappy material for knife blades.)
That was my fault. I googled it and the first link was for the Tecnoreef 2, which has an MSRP of $320 and a real world price around $290. I never said it was titanium, people just assumed that from the price.

That said, even at $139, the Tecnoreef is still a poor choice for a dive knife, especially for a new diver. No line cutter notch, no guard (both of which the 2 has) and a very sharp point. You don't realize how much harder it is to safely draw, use and sheath a knife while diving.

Tecnoreef
Tecnoreef 2
 
The "steak knife." Ten bucks from DGX, or make it yourself from a ... steak knife. Okay, the steak knife is only popular among a certain subset of divers into the minimalist ethos. But I also carry a Trilobite, which is very popular with all divers. EMT shears are also popular, though the rivets tend to rust. I don't know what the point of a pointy knife is unless one plans to poke things, which is not a common need. And a pointy knife near my BC or drysuit would make me nervous. I shall refrain from the old jokes about stabbing Sea Hunt villains, sharks, one's buddy, etc.

More on topic, few dive shops push these cutting devices. I think many dive shops would rather sell a new diver a $100+ knife that looks like the kind of knife people are used to seeing. But from discussions here, we can learn about the cutting devices that work best for real divers and save you money to buy other things.
 
For the sake of everyone you will ever dive with, please skip the camera until you know what you're doing.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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