What order did you buy your first set of gear?

[Masterphil]

Obviously, your personal gear needs to be bought all at once. I'd rather buy good gear the first time around than have piss-poor gear, upgrade to better gear, then finally get the gear I should have bought the first time around. Having said that, here is what I am looking at for personal gear. Most of my diving will be done in lakes/rivers/quarry's around southern indiana.
Mask: Atomic Frameless
Fins: Apollo Bio XT's
Snorkle: cheapest plain one I can find
Boots: Henderson gold core 7mm boots

I think after I get that stuff, I'll get a skin, suit, gloves and hood. I figure there is a greater chance of me diving in colder water than warmer water, so I chose some 7mm gear and a skin that I can dive with in warm water, or wear under a thinner rental suit.
Skin: Akona polyolefin skin (I can also use this if I dive in warm water)
Suit: Bare velocity 7/6 full suit
Gloves: Hyperstretch 7mm
Hood: Hyperstretch 7mm

After that stuff, it starts to get expencive. I still need a BC, Regs, gauges, a computer. I've always believed that, when your life depends on it, you should buy the best gear you can afford, within reason. Since I'll likely be diving in cold and will surely be using nitrox in the future, I chose a reg that is ready to handle all that. Same for the computer.
Reg: Atomic M1 cold water and nitrox 50 ready
Octo: Atomic M1 octo
Compy: Aeris Atmos 2 wrist computer
BC: Zeagle Brigade
PSI gauge: Oceanic pressure guage nitrox 50 ready

By the time I acutally get enough money to buy the reg/bc/etc. I may have a different set of gear picked out. What do you guys think about this setup? Did you buy your gear in the same/different order as I am planning to? (assuming you aren't rich, which I'm not)

 

[spectrum]

It's a nice idea to buy once and buy good. That's the easy part. Getting what really works for YOU is the trick. Be sure to test dive stuff as much as possible. This may delay some purchases but that's OK.

I have a Bare 5/4 Velocity and the 7mm Arctic. your choice sounds like the best of both worlds however for cold water diving I'm hesitant to go with lighter sleeves which I assume is where the 6mm is. Even the Arctic is an entirely comfortable suit and you save some $$. There are 4mm football patches inside the elbows to ease elbow flex.

If you intend tto be going below fresh water thermoclines you will want 2X (14mm) on the core. The Bare hooded step-ins are great layering items. I use the 7mm for my coldest wet dives. The 3mm hooded chicken vest for milder 7mm dives.

Try to avoid the 7mm gloves. The Bare 5mm gauntlet keep me good down into the 30s F.

We like our Atmos 2s. Being a runout model the $$ should be attractive.

Can't argue with your air delivery. Have you considered DIN vs Yoke?

I came from skindiving roots so I had my basic and some wetsuits a year in advance. I got into 7mm the spring before certification so it was a phased thing for me.

My wife and I certified in entirely our own gear and it's worked out well. You must do your research to de-risk going that way. It sounds like you're on top of it.

Have you considered cylinders?
http://home.gwi.net/~spectrum/scuba_al80.html

In summary getting your personal rubber up front is hard to argue with.

If the BC and air delivery don't happen at the same time you need to balance your comfort with rental regulators against owning the one item that is central to mastering your buoyancy and configuration, your BC.

As for instruments don't forget a compass. Then you have the wrist, console, retractor, hose mount consideration which has been beaten to death 100 times in the archives.

Pete

 

[mred]

I think your order sounds fine. Here is what I did:
first bought mask, snorkle, fins, and booties.
Second bought gloves
third bought wet suit
fourth bought bcd, reg, gauges, computer
fifth bought light
sixth bought knife, reel, backup light
seventh bought camera

As for the kind of stuff ... most scuba gear now days is of a reasonable quality ... you can read the mags, look at the reviews ... and spend TONS of money on really really good equipment ... but I am not sure I want to spend a thousand dollars US on a reg ... or 10K dollars on a camera ...

You can check with your lds and see ... sometimes they can make good recommendations, and will be able to service what you are buying ... often they can give you a "package deal" on your equipment and be able to save you some money ...

 

[Masterphil]

I didn't really put much thought into the suit only having 5mm sleeves. I guess I'd be better off with a full 7mm suit, thin dive skin, and an additional 7mm over the body core for going below thermoclines. Not having tried on any gear yet, I wasn't sure if the 7mm's may be too bulky of a glove or not. I'll keep the 5mm's in mind when I get gloves.

I wasn't too sure of arctic's quality, but I'll take your advice on them. The boots I was looking at were either the henderson 7mm's or Arctic's 6mm "ice boot".

I like that the Atmos 2 has nitrox capabilities and the price is very reasonable compared to other computers. As far as compass and manual depth gauge goes. I don't want a console. I believe that I should be using the pressure gauge soley to determine tank pressure, I'd rather have a compass/depth gauge clipped onto the BC.

I have considered DIN vs. yoke. I like the DIN style mounting, but since most cyl's that I'd be using during travel will be yokes, my reg has to be able to do both or I have to get tanks with yoke. I've been looking at worthington HP X7-120 steel cyl's. They are 3440PSI tanks that use yoke instead of DIN. I like what I have read about their buoyancy and I'm big enough (6'2" 200lbs) to be able to handle a larger heavier tank. Not to mention that I'll be using a 7mm suit most of the time around here and will need all the help I can to sink it.

I'd probably go with the BC before purchasing a Reg. The reg seems to be the most important, expensive single part in the whole setup and I'd rather be 100% sure of what I want when I'm going to drop 500+ on a cold water nitrox capable reg.

I will be checking with my LDS, but I know that the only place I can get the Brigade(if that's the one I really even want) is scubatoys.

 

[TheRedHead]

You can buy a DIN regulator with a yoke adapter and going from DIN to yoke won't be a problem. You should be able to order a Worthington with a DIN valve too. Are you sure you like the 120 compared to the 130? Have you dived with it?

 

[Fordan]

I'm starting out with the BC, but that's because that's the piece of scuba gear that will make the biggest difference for me in terms of comfort in the water. I have limited mobility in my left shoulder from a motorcycle accident. I can get the inflator hose above the BC, but with an awkward bend of my arm. I'm probably going to go for a BC from Mares that has Airtrim like the Dragon AT, assuming it fits ok when the LDS gets it in, so I don't have to deal with the hose anymore.

After that, I'm not sure. I need to get a better understanding of where I want to dive, and rent around to see what works.

 

[spectrum]

I have well over 100 dives on my Arctic and it's doing just fine.

I believe the X series cylinders have the DIN/yoke valve like my PST-E780s. That would let you run DIN at home with an adapter for travel or run yoke all of the time. I can't say enough good about either of those cylinder lines especially for single tank cold water diving.

Don't jump to the 120 too quick. Depending on how your air usage evolves, the diving you do and your buddies that may be a big cylinder to lug around for nothing. I dive the E7-80s and can't remember the last time I was the one turing the dive for air. I too was longing for bigger than big cylinders when I was in yor fins. Making 70+ minute shore dives and coming out with 1000+ PSI is not uncommon. YMMV My point would be to dive rental cylinders until you get a sense of what will suit you best.

Oddly the regulator is the least likely purchase to go wrong on. Start with cold water capability, then what can be serviced locally, availability of vacation servicing and how much you want to spend.

Retractor mounting your analog depth and compass instruments is a perfectly viable way to go.

The BC is the one where selection of fit and features is critical. It you can test dive or borrow rigs that's the way to weed things out. Owning this items will let everyting about diving gell for you. In all likelyhood rental gear will be a big cut below the brigade.

Keep churning. Becoming gear savvy is in many ways more difficult than getting certified!

 

[Masterphil]

Keep churning. Becoming gear savvy is in many ways more difficult than getting certified!

That's why I'm trying to learn as much as possible before I need to buy anything. So far, this site has been an invaluable resource.

 

[k4man]

While buying right and once is ideal, it's not always financially practical.

When I started, I had my own mask, fins, snorkel, boots, and a knife. For several years I carried this gear around and (unfortunately) rented gear on vacations, etc. It's true that I didn't dive much in my first several years of certification.

When I did start diving more, I actually feel into good deals, first a BCD for $75 and then purchasing a reg/octo set and tank from someone getting out of the sport. I followed this with 2 different wet suits, weights, hood and gloves (which in Ohio I have to wear sometimes, unfortunately). Finally, and probably my best purchase, was a dive watch/computer.

I now own all my "own" gear. Probably within the next year or so as I move over to the professional side of diving, I will be able to justify new and top of the line gear--and maybe use part of it as a professional expense for tax purposes.

Kevin --unless any IRS type are lurking--then my name's, eh, er, Joe--yeah, Joe.

 

[snhrph]

I started with BodyGlove mask, US Divers fins, and a snorkel. Next was a 3/2 BodyGlove wetsuit. Then a DiveRite RG-2500 reg with octo and 3-gauge console, almost at the same time I purchased a used Seaquest Balance BCD.
As far as colder water diving, I recently purchased Henderson Semi-Dry Gold Core 7/5 for diving in NE (prior to this I did most of my diving in warm waters with 3/2 BodyGlove). I use the Henderson with 5mm Mares Trilastic Boots and 5/3 Mares Trilastic Gloves (I chose Mares instead of Henderson because of the price).
Latest purchase was OceanMaster Primero mask.
Zeagle Brigade sounds like a very good choice, especially considering the price of under $400. I would suggest looking at Seaquest Balance. Last March I upgraded to a brand new Seaquest Balance. My friend dives Ranger, I dive Balance, we can argue the benefits of each till we turn blue... In my opinion, the main benefit is that with Balance, you can dump one weight pouch at a time, whereas with Ranger you dump ALL you weight at once.
Try several different rigs (if your buddies will let you borrow theirs) and see which one is mor comfortable for YOU!!!