Cost of Shipping Equipment vs Renting It

[maat1976]

I am definitely a warm water diver, and intend to stay that way for the foreseeable future, doing a few solid trips each year. By the end of my next trip I'll have 45-50 dives logged within 12 months. I own a wetsuit / mask / snorkel / computer, which get wedged into a smallish bag.

I read the new diver "what equipment should I buy" debate each time it comes up. I appreciate that if you do a lot of local diving, it makes sense to own your own equipment. But for people like me out there who are holiday divers, don't you pay more in excess baggage and servicing than you do to rent? I am not a big person and the idea of lugging around a dive equipment bag with a BCD / fins / regs just seems like a major hassle. And lost luggage could be a nightmare!

And just to contradict myself here - I do now own a photo rig rather than renting a camera, for which I could have bought all my own gear for the same price. I was more willing to spend on that because it's not a pain in the ass to take along.

 

[victorzamora]

Well, I'm glad you've got your priorities right. If I were truly interested in photography, I would've bought a camera before the rest of the gear as well. However, there are a lot of debates about how early you should start using your camera. The idea is that too early can lead to task loading a new diver can't cope with in case of emergency, poor buoyancy control contributing to damaging reef and wildlife while trying to get a good picture, increased air consumption, and missing the "proper etiquette" for photog dives with non-photogs. That's not the point of this thread, and should be ignored from here on out....but I consider you look in the photog area here for that.

If you are interested in photography, it's good that you got your own camera. You know how to use it, you don't have to worry about finding the dive op that rents good cameras (VERY rare in my experience), and you can really work on perfecting your technique. Buying dive gear is very much the same. For example, one of my favorite dive destinations is Roatan. Renting dive gear is typically $5 per dive, free if you do more than ten dives. I always do more than ten dives, but even if I didn't....I'd be "saving" $45 by taking my own, and paying ~$100 in airline fees.

The parallel between cameras and the rest of your gear, and why I brought it up in the first place, is that by bringing your own gear you know what you're getting. You're diving good gear, that you've used before. You know its quirks (or you will). You know how it reacts to you, to depth, to being in poor trim. Once I get my setup right, I don't like messing with it. The majority of my dives right now have ZERO change in configuration, and that makes my life easy. Some dive destinations are known for particularly rough gear, and they're my favorite to frequent as they're the paths (slightly) less traveled. I'm more than happy to pay to make sure I get great gear. Having said that, I've rarely had a "bad gear" experience with rental gear, and I've had hundreds of dives in rental gear. So it's not just the price of it, or the price of shipping, it's also (mostly?) the convenience of having your own gear that works as you expect/remember so that you can get used to it and make diving that much easier, and that much more enjoyable. Practicing for diving is the only way of getting better, and by constantly changing variables you handicap yourself a little bit. The better you are at diving, the more fun and enjoyable it becomes.

 

[dfx]

Between me and my wife, we have two complete sets of gear and a bunch of camera stuff (nothing excessive though). We never had to pay any additional baggage fees. The trick is to pack light when it comes to clothing (and even then we end up taking too much), to weigh your luggage before taking it, and to make good use of your carry-on. The only times where we had to be somewhat, um, creative with the luggage were with a silly local airline that places ridiculous restrictions on carry-on luggage (5 kg) and actually enforces that.

The decision to go for owned gear over rentals came after repeatedly being faced with low quality rental gear. For BCDs it was BCDs without weight integration (we both hate weight belts) and for regs it was regs that breathed wet or hard, mouthpieces coming off and things like that.

 

[Kharon]

I bring all my own gear including pony. I want everything exactly the same on every dive. The only things I rent are tanks and weights. Never had a problem with weight or volume. However my camera is micro size and I need very little in the way of clothing.

 

[poomero]

If you don't mind rented gear them rent it. It's much easier to deal with from a travel standpoint. I would buy a regulator because I don't trust rented ones. It's small enough to fit on any bag and you know is service history.

 

[claymore]

I can get my whole warn water kit, regs, BCD, mask, snorkle, 3mil shorty, small camera (GoPro) and light in one carry-on. Fins go in my suitcase.

 

[diver 85]

Not us(wife & I)...We carry all our 'stuff'(for 2 divers)---BC,masks, regs(in carry ons), fins, shorties, booties etc etc in 1 large hard suitcase---totals ~40 lbs...That has worked in over 60 overseas trips.....1 'extra' suitcase--of your own 'stuff'--has been worth it to us...

 

[Searcaigh]

All my dive gear plus a few T-shirts and a pair of shorts all fit in a suitcase weighing in at around 22Kg. Camera gear in a Lowe Pro backpack with Mac, and the housing, strobes and arms in small wheely Pelican case (1510 I think) carry on, plus a few more T-shirts for padding.

Some airlines such as Silkair and Malaysian give 10kg baggage allowance for dive gear.

 

[rivers]

I took my entire single tank set-up (minus tanks and weights), including drysuit on holiday. no excess baggage fees.

 

[PatW]

I think that it is worth it to dive with my own equipment. I am familiar with it. Also, it is virtually essential for me to take my own fins and boots because of my enormous feet. All my gear and clothes fits in a dive bag.