Beginner looking for advice for new gear and dive buddy

[babycover]

Hi all,

Just got my OW last month and now i'm looking to buy some gears.
the way i dive is just for fun, exploring, will be frequently dive - at least 1-2 /month, will stop at 30m depth ( that what i think at the moment)

I have been looking for Dive shop ( Extreme water, scubadoctor) but all the gear are really really expensive.
i have a list in my mind but not sure about the brand, or the order of gear that i should buy. Could you please help me out, i kind of confuse at the moment.
Any comments /advice would be greatly appreciated.
1 - Prescription mask - Apollo SV2 - it the only 1 that come with a prescription lens( i got Asian nose, so it been hard for me to find a mask that let me easily squeeze my nose. Last resort i have to try and plug the nose from under)
2 - Dive computer - i know i want a wrist type ( doesn't matter about size)- i just want a basic type that can help me planning, depth, safety stop, compass. i was looking at Cressi leonardo but it does not have safety stop. any idea for the same price and have safety stop?
3 - BCD - I know i want a wing type BCD and a colour one ( not black). that's all i know
4 - Wetsuit - Scubadoctor was telling me that Probe idry 7mm is the best selling - cost 555$ ( IMO, i'm not sure about the brand, but isnt 555$ a bit expensive? and the brand is not as good as Cressi or Scubapro or Mares? please correct if i'm wrong ) there also some one suggest Seatec but there are so many variety as well as options within each suit. Can you please advice which one is worth ?
5 - Regulator and tank : for these 2 i really not keen to buy any time soon. would probably leave for later.

my budget around 1k or bit less if i can help.
My plan is to buy mask, computer in this month. then BCD next 2 months, Wet suit next 2 months, and so on.

Also i am very keen to go to dive ( i can only do weekend), anyone interested for a beginner buddy, please feel free to in box.
i also keen to dive deep, but would need some experiences to show me the rope.

Thank you for reading such a long post and please pardon my English.
Thank you you all again.

 

[timz]

1- there are other brands like TUSA, cressi, mares etc which can change the lenses to prescription lens. I don't only have asian nose. I'm an asian. So far TUSA fot me quite well except for not being close to my face enough to see my chest when I'm diving.

2- compass on a write dive com might not be something cheap. For the Leornado's price range, u can check out Suunto Zoop and Mares Puck.

3- Most BP/W bcd are about the same in my opinion. Some might have better padding on the shoulder and waist strap.

4- 7mm?? Are you diving 18°C?? If you are diving tropical water, u may need something thinner. I only dive with top suit so far.

5- regulator and tank. U might skip the tank. But a good set of reg might be a good investment if you are going to dive regularly...

Extra.
-What about fins?

 

[WetPup]

1. Can't help you there.

2. Most of the console computers can be converted into a wrist mount easily enough.

3. You will find that nearly all BCD's on sale in Australia are black. I don't know why. I also don't know why you care. Nobody gives a toss what you look like underwater.

4. If you're in Victoria (spelling mistake on your profile?), I can understand the desire for a 7mm. However that is roughly what they cost in Australia. The cheapest place to buy wetsuits is from Adreno Scuba Diving who have stores in Brisbane or Sydney (and a massive online shop). You'll still be looking at close to $500 for anything half decent to be honest. Probe is fine by the way. Don't get too obsessed over brands, you'll want to find something that's a good fit. Scubapro may be "zomg! best evah!", but they're a horrible fit for me. The last thing you want is for brand vanity to take precedence and have an ill fitting and uncomfortable wetsuit.

5. Regs can wait - get your personal software out of the way first. I have Oceanic regs and SPG, a fairly basic set, but they suit their purpose for my recreational diving. Tanks I wouldn't even bother with here. The cost of fills on top of the required annual servicing and maintenance of tanks isn't worth it unless you're out every weekend. Cheaper and easier to just hire tanks as needed.

Honestly, $1000 should buy you a basic computer, wetsuit, booties, fins, prescription mask, snorkel. If you want a BCD, you should realistically be budgeting an additional $500 for a BP/W setup. Seriously - I think you underestimate the cost of purchasing dive gear in Australia. There's a reason so many of us wait until we're overseas to buy stuff. It's the "Australia tax" - you get used to learning how to avoid it.

 

[babycover]

1- there are other brands like TUSA, cressi, mares etc which can change the lenses to prescription lens. I don't only have asian nose. I'm an asian. So far TUSA fot me quite well except for not being close to my face enough to see my chest when I'm diving.

2- compass on a write dive com might not be something cheap. For the Leornado's price range, u can check out Suunto Zoop and Mares Puck.

3- Most BP/W bcd are about the same in my opinion. Some might have better padding on the shoulder and waist strap.

4- 7mm?? Are you diving 18°C?? If you are diving tropical water, u may need something thinner. I only dive with top suit so far.

5- regulator and tank. U might skip the tank. But a good set of reg might be a good investment if you are going to dive regularly...

Extra.
-What about fins?

Hi, thank you for the response.I 'm Asian too but living in Australia hence the 7mm. when i dive in tropical water i just wear short and t-shirt unfortunately, the shop in Aus does not stock those. They very limited and if you want a the presciption len fit to the mask you want, it cost around 350$

 

[kelemvor]

They very limited and if you want a the presciption len fit to the mask you want, it cost around 350$

Have you tried contacts and a regular mask? My girlfriend spent a lot of money on a prescription mask. Then she used it once or twice and decided the contacts were preferable.

 

[babycover]

1. Can't help you there.

2. Most of the console computers can be converted into a wrist mount easily enough.

3. You will find that nearly all BCD's on sale in Australia are black. I don't know why. I also don't know why you care. Nobody gives a toss what you look like underwater.

4. If you're in Victoria (spelling mistake on your profile?), I can understand the desire for a 7mm. However that is roughly what they cost in Australia. The cheapest place to buy wetsuits is from Adreno Scuba Diving who have stores in Brisbane or Sydney (and a massive online shop). You'll still be looking at close to $500 for anything half decent to be honest. Probe is fine by the way. Don't get too obsessed over brands, you'll want to find something that's a good fit. Scubapro may be "zomg! best evah!", but they're a horrible fit for me. The last thing you want is for brand vanity to take precedence and have an ill fitting and uncomfortable wetsuit.

5. Regs can wait - get your personal software out of the way first. I have Oceanic regs and SPG, a fairly basic set, but they suit their purpose for my recreational diving. Tanks I wouldn't even bother with here. The cost of fills on top of the required annual servicing and maintenance of tanks isn't worth it unless you're out every weekend. Cheaper and easier to just hire tanks as needed.

Honestly, $1000 should buy you a basic computer, wetsuit, booties, fins, prescription mask, snorkel. If you want a BCD, you should realistically be budgeting an additional $500 for a BP/W setup. Seriously - I think you underestimate the cost of purchasing dive gear in Australia. There's a reason so many of us wait until we're overseas to buy stuff. It's the "Australia tax" - you get used to learning how to avoid it.

Hi,
thanks for your advice and i will fix my profile )))
ye i dont care how i look whether or not underwater or above, i just like a different color than black. that's all
i agree with you about the fitting though. but just want to spend the money in the right place. Basically, i just want to look for a good decent semi dry ( i dont mind paying 550$ for a good one)
Do you mind talk a bit more about wetsuit? what brand you recommend ? and what option that you recommend? for eg: the seatec predator got lots of option i.e. zip, T-zip, pocket, and so on.




---------- Post added December 2nd, 2015 at 10:45 AM ----------

Have you tried contacts and a regular mask? My girlfriend spent a lot of money on a prescription mask. Then she used it once or twice and decided the contacts were preferable.

I got the contact lens but i cant really get use to it. and my eyes got really really dry and uncomfortable if you did repeated dives. i might just have to stick with it for a bit and see if i can get use to it. cause at the moment i cannot find a suitable mask with prescription lens for me.

 

[WetPup]

I can't tell if you're male or female from your profile, but I actually wear surfing wetsuits 90% of the time, not diving wetsuits. Why? I'm female, and I find the design of the surfing wetsuits to be more flexible and more manouverable than the diving wetsuits. You can easily pick up 3mm to 5mm surfing wetsuits in Australia just about anywhere, but a 7mm would probably have to be custom made, which puts you back to needing to buy a diving wetsuit at that thickness. I do actually have a 5mm Mares flexi wetsuit which is a great fit for me. If I'm diving in cold water, I actually just throw my 3mm West (surfing) wetsuit over the top of the 5mm. I did own a 7mm Scubapro semi-dry at one point, and while it technically fit me size wise, I was so uncomfortable diving in it due to restricted movement because of its design, that I sold it on Gumtree after about 4 dives. T-zips are a pain in the arse in my experience, as you require someone else to zip you up. I prefer the standard back zip so that I can do it myself. Personal opinion of course! Pockets help, but again, that's a personal preference, and I don't especially like them. I prefer to have things attached to my bcd as it's easier to access.

I think you will struggle to find a bcd in any colour but black. They're all black as far as I've ever seen, but some have a coloured trim on them, which is probably about as colourful as you'll get

 

[MA]

Wetsuit: Melbourne temps get down to 9 or 10 celcius in winter and up to 22 in the peak of summer. A 7mm is definitely recommended. Now for example it is 17.

As is suggested don't go by brand but fit. This will mean going to the various dive shops and just try them on. Most will have what you need in stock. As different shops will stock different brands, make sure you got to a few. Then just goes with what fits you best.

Take a look at ebay/gum tree if you want to save some money. or various facebook groups such as buy sell scuba gear Australia.

To find buddies, the absolute best place to start is a dive club. Most of the shops will run a dive club. whilst your trying out wetsuits have a chat. see which you like best. Or try pop along to a club night and see what feels best to you.

Also if you plan on going to 30m you will need to be qualified to that depth, the boats in melb won't let you otherwise.

Have fun!

 

[ScubaForScience]

1. I know some who have liked the prescription mask and I know others who payed a fortune and then they broke or got lost after little use. Either way (prescription or regular mask with contact lenses), this is the most important piece of dive gear to invest in and you're right to make this a priority.
2. Dive computers have come a long way and the base-line models these days do all that you'll need them to do. I would suggest one with at least two buttons because navigating the menus with the one-button models can be frustrating (personal preference).
3. If you want to pay for cheap dive gear, you can: if you will not do much diving, it's probably the better way to go to save money. However, if you are looking for a BCD that will pretty much last for life, be rugged, have very good construction, and have a very wide range of custom colors (you can do up to three different colors on a single BCD), I suggest looking into Halcyon. They are definitely on the expensive side but in my personal honest opinion, you get what you pay for.
4. If you decide that you do a lot of diving and you find a bunch of money lying around one day, a custom-fit wetsuit will be much better than anything off the shelf. Mine has out-lived all of the off-the-shelf suits by two or three times because it's made with better neoprene, plus it fits perfectly which means it's warmer than its standard retail counterparts since there's hardly any water flow in or out. If you don't think you'll dive more than ten times a year, do not consider this as an option. If you believe you'll be doing more than maybe 50 dives a year, I would strongly recommend it. Anything in between, and I suggest at least looking into it and weigh the costs. Cost varies from country to country so I don't know how expensive they are down there.
5. Waiting to buy this is probably a good choice. The cost many people overlook is the service cost every 1-2 years or so. This is the only piece of equipment that guarantees a continuous cost after you purchase it. Here in Florida it's about $100-120 for every service which is generally either once a year or once every two years depending on the brand.

Use caution when diving deep. As an instructor I get nervous when new divers get excited about deep diving and want to continue going deeper than they've been before, measuring how good they are by their deepest depth. I'm not saying this is you and it's a little comforting hearing you recognize that you need experience. Just be careful, that's all I'm saying.
Good luck with the gear purchases and happy diving!

 

[WetPup]

I have to respectfully disagree with some of the above.

A lot of new divers have grand plans about how much diving they're going to do. The reality is often very different. I think it is wasteful to spend over $1000 on a custom wetsuit and upwards of $750 for a Halcyon if you're not going to be using them regularly. Take a year or so, and see how much diving you actually do (compared to how much you thought you were going to do) before spending that kind of money. Unless you're rolling in it of course - but given the fact that you have a $1000 budget, I'm guessing that's not the case.