As a New Diver, Where to Invest Money First

[Jonn]

Rent the stuff that is easy to rent, buy the stuff that needs to fit right or is unavailable. If you dive cold (and you should!) buy a drysuit right now. Rentals never fit, always leak, and when they say "elastic band around the neck" just run away! Then get a flashlight; can't rent them and will enhance your enjoyment of all but the very clearest waters. Think 'magnetic switch', 'LED', and 'regular batteries'. Computer next; if you can rent it at all it will have a weird interface and be very conservative. Cheap one for now; if you upgrade later keeping the old one as backup can save your trip. Having my own pony with my own air in it makes me feel much better about sketchy rental regs, and is a good idea anyway. BCD, wetsuit, regs, tanks, and weights are all nice to own but they all work the same and every shop has them.

 

[scrane]

Go out and dive on rental equipment. Talk to the other guys on the boat and see what they are using. The first piece of equipment I bought after renting for for 10 years was a basic computer.
Craigslist is littered with equipment people bought without knowing better.

 

[dmaziuk]

Question for more seasoned divers:
Where should I spend my first thousand dollars?
Where will I see the most noticeable improvements in comfort and enjoyment that will go beyond rental gear?

That depends: where do you plant to dive next?

If you're going on Caribbean vacation, computer and a wetsuit. If you plan on diving in The Lakes, invest in drysuit course.

 

[Pawel G Majkowski]

Having my own gear freed me up to go diving at any time, at a moment's notice, anywhere. My friends and I would dive most any local lake, or quarry, or mud hole that we encountered here in central Missouri and southwest Missouri/northwest Arkansas. We did a LOT of diving!

What a great point, thank you for the perspective! Wife and I have no kids and are very prone to leaving for each weekend to random locations to kayak, fly fish etc. I think having our own gear would through another awesome activity into our weekend trip mix. Will be seriously considered.

 

[Pawel G Majkowski]

That depends: where do you plant to dive next?

If you're going on Caribbean vacation, computer and a wetsuit. If you plan on diving in The Lakes, invest in drysuit course.

I think we are planning a mixture of vacations, but I really like the idea of getting out to local areas and diving, just to stay active.

I am also a huge fish nerd...no naturally, I want to explore the environments of our local lakes and possibly rivers (once I am more comfortable).

 

[dmaziuk]

A computer and a dry suit course, then.

My understanding is a lot of wrecks in the lakes lay below the basic rec limits, if you think you might want to venture there: skip over the basic rec computers like zoop or leonardo, and go for ones next level up, something like hollis dg03.

 

[agleroni]

A computer and a dry suit course, then.

My understanding is a lot of wrecks in the lakes lay below the basic rec limits, if you think you might want to venture there: skip over the basic rec computers like zoop or leonardo, and go for ones next level up, something like hollis dg03.

Wife here! Pawel told me about his post, which is very awesome to see all the input - I know he's talking gear, but if we're talking wreck dives would be a safer assumption to look in doing some rec dives first then attend a wreck/tech dive class prior to dry suit investment?
Thanks!

 

[dmaziuk]

Well, if you don't actually go in, about the only thing about wrecks is rusty iron bits my be sharp and may cut you and/or your gear. Getting in does require quite a bit of extra training, yes.

Point #1 is that "local" wreck dives tend to be: get way out on a boat, go down, swim around, go back up. Go home and not dive until the next weekend. That's square profile dives for which dive tables will be perfectly adequate, and so a computer is not a priority. A week of 3 tanks/day splashing around Caribbean reefs, OTOH, is where you really want a computer first because keeping track of your gas loading with pen, paper, and tables, gets very old very fast.

I believe quite a few wrecks in The Lakes lie below the 130' rec. depth limit. If you think you might go there (extra training required), and are choosing a computer, you might want to invest in a computer that is not limited to 130' depth or 40% oxygen from the start.

Edit: point #2 is the lakes are cold. If you're going to Caribbean, you can dive in 3mm wetsuit or swimsuit dep. on your cold tolerance. You're not going to use that In the lakes, you'll need 5 to 7mm, gloves, hood, and booties to match. There are advantages to not bothering with those and going straight to drysuit instead.

 

[iamrushman]

ooops.........caught...Just joking..(grin)

 

[kelemvor]

Wife here! Pawel told me about his post, which is very awesome to see all the input - I know he's talking gear, but if we're talking wreck dives would be a safer assumption to look in doing some rec dives first then attend a wreck/tech dive class prior to dry suit investment?
Thanks!

That depends on what you mean by wreck diving.

There is recreational wreck diving, which many people do. You swim down, around the outside. If it's a small boat, it may have a swim through where you can go through a room with plenty of exits. For example on the USS Mohawk wreck you can swim through a room on top of the wreck.

Techical wreck diving is more like going inside a large wreck where you'd need a light. You're also going to need a lot of extra training and gear. Similar to cave diving, it's dangerous; hence the training and gear.

Don't let that put you off of recreational wreck diving. There's plenty to see and enjoy on a wreck even without going inside.

If you're going to be diving in Michigan you'll probably want to buy a thick wetsuit or a drysuit first. There's just no substitute for being warm when it comes to enjoying a dive.