As a New Diver, Where to Invest Money First

[Spearsley]

I would look into regs and dive computers for my next choices.

And it is the cost of equipment, as investment implies a return on your money.


Bob

I agree. This is what you should be investing in at this point.

 

[Luke Fosburg]

BEST REG YOU CAN BUY.... I sure am glad I got a good one. A wiser man (many) than myself once said, as long as you have air you can deal with any problem.

 

[Tony66]

I'm pretty much a novice, vacation diver. I've found that I only dive on vacations and taking my own BCD and Regs is a pain. I would much rather rent than carry/check them on a plane. I usually take my own mask, fins, snorkel, computer and sometimes a wet suit. I've sometimes left my fins at home, depending on where and how much we're diving.

That being said, if I go back to Cozumel for the deeper drift diving, I would probably take all my own gear. Bahamas, I would probably rent. If I were to buy gear all over again, everything would be "geared" toward plane travel.

 

[TMHeimer]

I may have mentioned way back that I've heard that some divers actually wear their BCs onto the plane to avoid packing them and even more baggage charges. Haven't seen this yet, but my flying is not usually to dive destinations.

 

[Mitch H.]

Another vote for a computer. You don't have to spend a lot of money for one. It will pay dividends on the extended length of your dive time vs. diving tables.

 

[USdiver1]

A good environmentally sealed regulator and a thick wet suit (you are in Michigan). I would hold off on the purchase of a computer for two main reasons: 1) dive the tables for a year or three to get familiar with how to plan a dive and dive your plan, it becomes invaluable when your computer fails during a dive; and 2) Computers have been getting better and cheaper year after year, so that in a couple of years you should be able to get more bang for your buck, regardless of your price range.

Just my $0.02.

 

[divad]

A wiser man (many) than myself once said, as long as you have air you can deal with any problem.

The obverse works as well...

 

[mainedvr]

Spend it on dives and rental gear.

When my wife and I started diving we bought decent masks and cheap fins and snorkels. Then after about 20-50 dives and a ton of research we bought the rest of our kits. Now after years of diving we have upgraded our fins & masks to better but still use the same computers, regulators & BCDs. By doing a bunch of dives we had a much better idea of what we wanted in our more expensive dive equipment.

As Colo just stated my wife and I also did close to 25 dives after our OW course renting gear. Our local shop had a nice variety of rental gear and various tanks that we tried. We finallly settled on some gear we liked. But then we switched to BP/W so the only thing we changed whas that and did not lose much on the purchase of it by selling our BCD/s which we bought used. Not that you should not buy a package deal that is your choice but my experience and what I have seen they can be a good price point but you may find you like one thing by one manufacture and something else from another. Just take your time but you will go through some gear at first till you find what you like.

 

[kelemvor]

I may have mentioned way back that I've heard that some divers actually wear their BCs onto the plane to avoid packing them and even more baggage charges. Haven't seen this yet, but my flying is not usually to dive destinations.

I bet you'd have a hard time getting through security like that if you're traveling to or from the USA.

 

[bkilleen]

Everyone experiences things different ways, and has different priorities for dive gear, especially new divers.

I bought mask/snorkel, fins and boots first. Mainly because this is the core gear required for scuba and snorkeling, and because the rental masks didn't quite fit my face right.

Then I moved to wetsuit/hood, because do you really want to dive in a rental wetsuit that's been peed in by someone else?

Then I bought computer, regs, and BCD to complete my basic kit. Compass, knife, light and other trinkets came later.

This worked well for me, and I'm happy with the route that I took.