ERIC.K
Contributor
I've had several loves in my life, One is scuba and the other is skiing, for years the ski industry has set up a program at most ski resorts where you can rent top-of-the-line equipment as demo skis and I would believe that this has increased sales for the industry four-fold. I always get this story when I ask my LDS why the dive industry isn't the same and they always tell me that the market is not big enough, well I'll tell you in Cincinnati, Ohio there are many more dive shops than ski shops and during the winter it gets pretty cold here, cold enough to ski. I'm asked by my dive shop many times over when am I going to buy gear? My reply is when you rent out some of the BCDs I would want to buy. Really, why doesn't Scubapro or seaQuest go around to some of their best LDS clients and hand out a few Top-of-the-line regs and BCDs and have the shop rent the gear at a higher price and if the customer likes the gear then apply that extra rental fee to the cost of the same new gear? With companies like DiveInn and leisurepro can Scubapro and the gear manufactures afford not to adopt a program like this. I've heard that if I buy quality equipment that I'm assured to like it....I say Phooey! thats not true. I would love to take out quality gear and give it a test dive before I buy! Nothing worse than spending thousands of dollars and not like the equipment you bought! especially after a couple of salt water dives! "but I have the reciept! can't I just return it and buy another BC?" yeah right, i'll be laughed right out of the shop........Thanks eric