A close friend and longtime OTS user “in recovery," recently purchased a complete Poseidon Atmosphere Full Face Mask, which also included the MK3 Xstream first stage, having borrowed one of mine on a few occasions — though had always balked at the ridiculous US prices, which had ranged anywhere from between 1700.00 to 2300.00 for both first stage and mask, which also included an integral Jetstream PP second stage.
We tested the gear upon its arrival and everything was as described and up to specifications; and only slightly tweaked the cracking effort, so that it breathed a bit more like mine.
His purchase price had been 699 euros, new, from a German dealer, out of Hamburg, which amounted to around US 738.00 — less than the ScubaPro FFM at 838.00, which is sold with neither first or second stages; less than the OTS Guardian, also without a first, at 900.00 (and whose proprietary second stage work-of-breathing absolutely sucks in any current); less than the Interspiro "AGA" Divator, which doesn't deign to include its "proprietary" LP hose (at 99.00, thank you very much) for 975.00; or a first stage, for that matter -- and easily less than a third of what most US dealers are currently charging for the Atmosphere.
The MK3 first stage, itself, currently retails for about 600.00.
He also could not resist a fancy, schmancy Poseidon Blackline Gewichtsgürtel (weight-belt), for 19,90 euros (US 21.33), from the same vendor, which currently retails in the US, for a large-sized version, between 120.00 and 145.00.
Even with DHL International shipping, that Vollgesichtsmaske und Gewichtsgürtel (heh, heh, heh) came to just over 800.00 — somewhere in the ballpark of what I had originally paid some twenty years ago for the FFM -- without either VAT or increasingly usurious CA sales taxes.
For a just a bit more planning and a bit of a "Macintosh Workout," he managed to save a maximum of 1635.00, not including taxes (just add about 207.00 in CA), on that single order, had those items been purchased domestically . . .
We tested the gear upon its arrival and everything was as described and up to specifications; and only slightly tweaked the cracking effort, so that it breathed a bit more like mine.
His purchase price had been 699 euros, new, from a German dealer, out of Hamburg, which amounted to around US 738.00 — less than the ScubaPro FFM at 838.00, which is sold with neither first or second stages; less than the OTS Guardian, also without a first, at 900.00 (and whose proprietary second stage work-of-breathing absolutely sucks in any current); less than the Interspiro "AGA" Divator, which doesn't deign to include its "proprietary" LP hose (at 99.00, thank you very much) for 975.00; or a first stage, for that matter -- and easily less than a third of what most US dealers are currently charging for the Atmosphere.
The MK3 first stage, itself, currently retails for about 600.00.
He also could not resist a fancy, schmancy Poseidon Blackline Gewichtsgürtel (weight-belt), for 19,90 euros (US 21.33), from the same vendor, which currently retails in the US, for a large-sized version, between 120.00 and 145.00.
Even with DHL International shipping, that Vollgesichtsmaske und Gewichtsgürtel (heh, heh, heh) came to just over 800.00 — somewhere in the ballpark of what I had originally paid some twenty years ago for the FFM -- without either VAT or increasingly usurious CA sales taxes.
For a just a bit more planning and a bit of a "Macintosh Workout," he managed to save a maximum of 1635.00, not including taxes (just add about 207.00 in CA), on that single order, had those items been purchased domestically . . .
