thinking about buying my first gear

[mlat]

i am what they call a desert diver, which means i was trained how to dive in the desert. I have been on about 5 freshwater dives and 2 saltwater dives. I dive on a avg of onyl once a year because im in college and money is tight. though i have been saving up money, enough to buy all my gear...so here are my questions'
1. Since i dont dive that much but i do love should i buy my own gear?
2. What do u think about the gear i am buying
Zeagle Brigade bcd
Zeagle ZX 50D
Zeagle Envoy Octo
Tusa SCA-343 Nitrox Computer
Thanks you...

 

[jonnythan]

Put the money toward college loans and keep renting if you only dive once a year... it's just not cost effective with yearly servicing and so forth.

 

[jonnythan]

That gear sounds fine, btw.

 

[hdtran]

I would say a wrist computer first; rent the rest. Depending on where you dive, equipment rental will run, say, $15-$20 per day.

Let's say you were average-sized, and went to places where 3mm full was the appropriate exposure protection. You'd pay about $120 for an inexpensive 3mm+booties, $50 for Jet Fins off of e-bay, $40 for a decent mask, $5 for a snorkel off of e-bay (don't flame, please ), then, add the BCD/Regulator/Octo. You've listed some really nice gear there. How many days of rentals will you need for your investment to pay for itself? (Not including time cost of money or depreciation on the equipment, or the knowledge that it's yours, etc.)? Looks like at least 50 days of diving before you've paid for the equipment in rental charges...

 

[Parrothead_Diver]

i am what they call a desert diver, which means i was trained how to dive in the desert. I have been on about 5 freshwater dives and 2 saltwater dives. I dive on a avg of onyl once a year because im in college and money is tight. though i have been saving up money, enough to buy all my gear...so here are my questions'
1. Since i dont dive that much but i do love should i buy my own gear?
2. What do u think about the gear i am buying
Zeagle Brigade bcd
Zeagle ZX 50D
Zeagle Envoy Octo
Tusa SCA-343 Nitrox Computer
Thanks you...

Sounds to me like you are looking at the Everything is Special Zeagle and Tusa Package from Scubatoys.com. I purchased this same package, but I opted to upgrade to the Flathead VI. I absolutely love this package and cannot say anything negative about it.

Now the real question is whether of not you should buy your gear now. My $.02 is that you should wait. The reason I say this, is that you are only diving once or twice a year. So you won't get much of a return on investment if you buy your gear. So that would be $1200 worth of gear just sitting in your closet gathering dust. Plus, you will still have to perform annual maintenance on all of that gear to keep the warranty intact.

So IMO you should take that money and put it into a CD (Certificate of Deposit not Compact Disc) or some other type of investment and let it grow. Then in a few years you will have that original money plus a little more and you can buy your gear then. That way you will hopefully be able to use it on more of a regular basis. Plus, you will be able to benefit from all of the technology changes that take place between now and then.

Regardless of your decision, I would highly recommend Larry and the guys at ScubaToys.com.

P.S. Welcome to ScubaBoard....

 

[gfisher4792]

Well, the answer to your first question depends on your priorities. Money's always tight in college, but if you can truly say that you'd rather have a new reg set than go out to the bars every weekend, then nothing's stopping you. If I was interested in scuba during college as I am now, I'd probably just rent most of my gear until I got out of school (just a couple of years, at most).

Buying, I would probably just buy one piece at a time, rather than the whole shebang at one sitting. If you go this route, I'd suggest getting either your regs first or your BC.

As for your gear choices, nothing wrong with them as far as I know (having never dove with those particular pieces of equipment), but do you really want your new pieces of gear sitting around 364 days out of the year until you get out? I don't think I would.

 

[simbrooks]

Now the real question is whether of not you should buy your gear now. My $.02 is that you should wait. The reason I say this, is that you are only diving once or twice a year. So you won't get much of a return on investment if you buy your gear. So that would be $1200 worth of gear just sitting in your closet gathering dust. Plus, you will still have to perform annual maintenance on all of that gear to keep the warranty intact.

This was my thought too, maybe save the money and dive a little more with rented stuff if you can rather than buy something that will gather dust until you get the kind of money where you can use it regularly. If you can afford it, i would suggest buying the whole thing when you feel the time is right, you usually get a bit more of a discount for getting a bunch of stuff together than piece-wise, but this is only really an option when you can afford to buy it together.

 

[Shasta_man]

Having your own gear is the way to go, but if you only dive once a year, then it doesn't make sense to have 3 grand worth of beer money sitting around.

IMHO, I'd say the things that need to fit right would be your first choice. You can always rent gear but fit can easily be a problem wrecking your vacation. That means mask, boots/fins and BCD to me. You're looking at about $650. For cold water diving, that would also mean a hyperstretch type suit. Infinitely more comfortable than most rental suits. That's another $350.

The reg has to be reg and computer so that quickly gets steep. However, you can rent a decent reg and computer, so that would be second to me.

Without looking at the BCD you reference, think about the BCD before buying. I have a Zeagle Ranger back inflation one and many people think it's right, but in warm water diving it's overkill and talking with divers on my last trip, I would rather have one that has air bladders around your body rather than all in the back. I found I had to arch my back a lot to dump air and all that bouyancy makes it more difficult to make the subtle changes you do in warm water. It's a top quality BCD, and is good for my local Monterey diving, but I will be looking for another for warm water in particular. Again, some people feel it's a matter of technique or skill, so you'll get strong opinions.

You can make better decisions on what gear to buy after you use it in practice.

i am what they call a desert diver, which means i was trained how to dive in the desert. I have been on about 5 freshwater dives and 2 saltwater dives. I dive on a avg of onyl once a year because im in college and money is tight. though i have been saving up money, enough to buy all my gear...so here are my questions'
1. Since i dont dive that much but i do love should i buy my own gear?
2. What do u think about the gear i am buying
Zeagle Brigade bcd
Zeagle ZX 50D
Zeagle Envoy Octo
Tusa SCA-343 Nitrox Computer
Thanks you...

 

[airsix]

Random thoughts:

1) You might dive more if you have your own gear.
Counterpoint: I drug my gear around with me all through college thinking I'd dive but never had time (or $).

2) You might want to just get some used gear for now. If you get gear that works and fits you'll be safe, happy and enjoy the dives. That's the objective, right? A year into your post-ed career you can reward yourself with the new fancy gear.

3) Piece by piece. No need to go all-or-nothing. Start with the piece of equipment that will make the biggest impact on your diving enjoyment/safety. This could help the wallet, while still giving you the pleasure of getting to enjoy something new periodically.

-Ben M.

 

[miskatonic]

SCUBA certs=College Credits!