Aqua-Andy
Contributor
It all depends where you are from. If you have local diving near you I would suggest purchasing your own gear. The fact of the mater is you will dive more if you have your own gear. Most dive shops around my area charge around $100 a day for rental gear. You will be more apt to go diving if you don't have to shell out $100 every time you go. There is nothing like getting that call after work from a buddy and all you have to do is throw your gear in the car and go. I went out yesterday and before I go to bed tonight all my gear will be repacked and ready to go for the next time I get the last minute call. I would start with a simple BP/W rig. Why a BP/W you ask? Well just do a search here and you will see. One more nice part about a BP/W is if you don't like it the resale value is much better than a traditional BC. Regs, any middle of the road reg will do you good for many years to come, I prefer the HOG brand but that is just me. computer, Leisure pro has the Oceanic Veo180 or the Hollis DG02 for $180 from time to time. If someone tells you you need more computer than these offerings, they are full of it. For a compass DGE has an unbranded Suunto with DSS boot for $59. As for cutting tools, cutoff steak knife, EMT sheers, or a Trilibite cutter will do more good than any of the high priced SCUBA branded products. SPG, simple brass and glass. All this can be purchased for probably 1/3 the price of the "package" the dive shop will try to sell you and will perform as good or better. As far as exposure protection. Don't skimp!!!! This does not mean purchase the most expensive, just the warmest or warmer than you think you will need. There is nothing more miserable than being cold on a dive and just praying for the time it will end. You need to be comfortable/warm in the water or you will not want to dive. My last suggestion is to join a club or try to form a large group of dive buddies. From what I have gathered from all the divers that don't dive anymore is they stopped due to lack of buddies. Diving is a HUGE pain in the butt! You have to get up really early in the morning, drive for god knows how long just to lug around all this heavy gear just so you can spend the afternoon rinsing the salt water off all that heavy gear. Oh did I mention you will have to get up at some ungodly hour on your day off to go diving? You will need those buddies as moral support, trust me. Once all the work is done and you are floating weightless just above the bottom all the worries you thought you had will go away. Some people go to a church that is in a building, mine is under the surface of the ocean. This is probably more than you wanted to know but it is raining out and I am too beat from work to do anything else anyway.