What should i be looking for?

[driftwood]

??? Now I don't know...

I had no idea suits were so pricey ... I thought most of the cost would come from the BCD and the Regulater set up.

I sell appliances and electronics for a living so I now that good price is not the same as good gear but I'm afrade of over buying ... I'm starting to think I should just buy what I need for the deeper dives now. For deeper dives should I be expecting cold water? Do I need to start looking for gear that is cold water rated? I"ve been reading alot a bout wreck diveing and most of what I would like to see is about 120ft or so. Do I need a two tank set up to go this deep? I'm not sure what a BP/W is but I gues I can google that and see whats up.

Thanks for the help.

Hi Randy,

I think that you are beginning to get an idea of just how expensive a hobby scuba can be. The first thing I would do is talk to your LDS and explore all the options for local diving. That will tell you what degree of exposure protection you need. It may be a 7mm with vest and hood or you may be able to significantly extend your diving season with a dry suit. For something like a wet suit or dry suit you need to try it on before you buy it. Personally, I have a Pinnacle suit with a couple hundred hours on it that I love but what is right for me is unlikely to be right for you.

 

[randybperry]

Well thanks for all the help .. It was al good stuff. I think what I need to do is put it off a few months then buy for the now and let the future take care of itself.

I'm glade I ask this ? because I hadn't even thought about suits and what tipe of gauges.

So thanks for all the help everyong.

 

[Scott]

1) the above mentioned group of like minded individuals, who dive every week. you go too, dive dive dive, ask questions, have drinks after & ask questions, laugh & learn.

A couple of us are leaving at 9:30 AM Monday for a few hours in the warm waters up north. I don't have a spare BP&W for you but you could rent one from Dive Atticts or any regular BCD from any LDS.
You have Dive addicts as I mentioned in Draper, Scuba Utah in Sandy, Sport Chalet in West Jordan. Those are the closest to you.

Call in sick at RC Willey and come with.

As for exposure suits. Around here you will want a 7 mil or dry suit. Mid summer you can get by with a 3 mil but you won't go very deep and enjoy it.
Unless you're diving the geothermal ponds, then a 3 mil or shirt and swim trunks is it.

 

[randybperry]

A couple of us are leaving at 9:30 AM Monday for a few hours in the warm waters up north. I don't have a spare BP&W for you but you could rent one from Dive Atticts or any regular BCD from any LDS.
You have Dive addicts as I mentioned in Draper, Scuba Utah in Sandy, Sport Chalet in West Jordan. Those are the closest to you.

Call in sick at RC Willey and come with.

As for exposure suits. Around here you will want a 7 mil or dry suit. Mid summer you can get by with a 3 mil but you won't go very deep and enjoy it.
Unless you're diving the geothermal ponds, then a 3 mil or shirt and swim trunks is it.

You shouldn't temp a man like that ... I would love to come but rc is an every halliday and every weekend kinda job and i just took a week off for the bahamas..

I did my ow at scuba utah ... never been to the other places but will check them out... I rented gear from a place on redwood and it was scarry stuff so I manly stay with scuba utah.


thanks for the invite and advice ... where do you guys dive this time of year?

 

[fnfalman]

I will be diveing a few times a year and most likely will be traveling to the ocean ones or twice a year. I would realy like to do some cave diveing and some deaper wreck dives. Do i need special equipment for this ... should i buy seprit equipment for cave and deap dives ...

Any advice?
Thanks for the help...

Well, like others have said, you are a long way from cave diving and wreck diving. HOWEVER, the good thing is that some gears are great for both recreational diving and technical diving. Nothing wrong with buying them now and use them for technical diving later.

A backplate/wing BC is essential for technical diving because its modular design allows you to change components out as needed (bigger air bladder for diving with multiple tanks and smaller air bladder for diving with single tank/recreational diving). There are many companies that offer this sort of BC. In alphabetical order: Apeks (Aqualung), Deep Sea Supply (DSS), Dive Rite, Halcyon, Ocean Manage System (OMS), Oxycheq, Zeagle. I'm sure that I've missed out on a few other small/specialty manufacturers.

My recommendation is the Dive Rite TransPac BC. The TransPac acts like a backplate system but it's soft instead of having a hard metal/plastic backplate. It's versatile as heck - double tank mount/single tank mount, side mount, rebreather mount. I'm pretty new to diving and I'm fairly certain that I'll go tech sometimes in the future - it's good to know that I don't have to buy a brand new BC to accomodate my newer needs. Why Dive Rite? Their guarantee is that if you claim that you can't do a dive with their TransPac BC, they will either show you how to do it or actually come and do the dive with you. Their founders and head honchos dive their own gears all over the world - everything from deep diving, wreck penetration, cave diving, exploration diving, rescue diving. If they do that with their own gears (not just BC but regulators, drysuit, fins and computers as well), then it's more than good enough for me. They put their own lives on the lines with their own gears. no better endorsement than that.

Regulators wise, I'd recommend the Atomic Aquatics M2. All of the Atomic Aquatics are superb regulators but the M2 is made out of monel stainless steel and rated for up to 80% O2 right out of the box. All of the AA regulators can be environmentally sealed for cold diving (40-something F and below) to prevent freezing. What's so great about AA regulators? They're built like tanks, breath effortlessly at all depths and positions (you can swim upside down and it still breaths dry instead of leaking water), if you swim against a hard current, it doesn't purge.

These two items can be used by you as both a novice rec diver and later on an experienced tech diver.

Don't waste your money on a fancy dive computer yet until you know what you're going to dive. Rec dive computers are not translatable to tech diving. Tech diving computers are way too overkill and complicated for rec diving.