Buy a BC or get AOW/Nitrox???

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James Goddard once bubbled...


Simple. Sounds like you and your b/f are getting certified together. Just tell him you want both and he can wait till there is more money available....

:wink:

LMAO -- why is it always the simplest answers that are least obvious.

Yipper... a good case of puppydog eyes should do the trick just fine ~grin~
 
I always preach the "buy your life-support equipment first" sermon since my experience has not been great with rental gear.

I had rental regs crap out on me twice (different sets) at depth so I immediately bought my own regs. Renta regs are not top of the line stuff and who used them before you? Did they abuse them or take care of them? Have they been cleaned since the last guy puked in them??? This equipment is responsible for your survival underwater. I personally, don't want to risk any failure of gear at depth. Particularly at deeper depths than BOW allows.

I'd then go for the BC. Get used to your own stuff so that you will be as comfortable as possible doing your AOW. Trying out different BCs will give you more diving experience anyway.

With respect to the AOW. What's the rush? Get the experience first. I think I had about 40 dives before I did my AOW and was glad to have taken that time. Others in my class were doing it right after their BOW and were still struggling with buoyancy let alone taking a camera with them or using a compass effectively. I think AOW should have a 20 dive min requirement after BOW.

I'd place the nitrox course low on the list.

Diverlady
 
Thanks all for the responses!! Looks like there is a consensus!!!

I have to say I like the one James Goddard wrote! The puppy dog eyes do work! LOL But in the case of ALL of our SCUBA spending so far I he's the one making the desicions (I figured he should since he's doing all the spending hehehe) and I have to say he is like a kid in a candy store!

You all have given me plenty of info to relate to him. I think he has certification stars in his eyes. I do plan on getting my Rescue Diver as soon as I am confortable in my own wetsuit. That is top of my list.

Thanks again all!!!

Laurel
 
FLArmyBrat once bubbled...
My b/f posed a hard question last night. Because money is an issue....would I rather go ahead and take the AOW/Nitrox course offered immediately after our OW ceritification OR buy our BCs and regs?

I am leaning toward more training....any thoughts from those who are wiser and more experienced than me???

Thanks in advance!!!

Laurel
Working on getting my avitar LOL

:eek:ut:

Renting gear is expensive and a hassle if you dive much. If you get the training now you might find that you get trained and then have to wait to dive. I thought I was being smart by combining getting trained with going diving but in the end I didn't start diving actively until I scraped up enough money on my starving-student budget to buy a set of gear second hand. The rental costs were just too big of an issue.

AOW is also a pretty "thin" course and not really good value for money unless your instructor is outstanding. As a stepping stone to Rescue it's important and you *do* learn some good stuff about night diving and basic navigation but you should really set your sites on Rescue. Nitrox can wait. If you have budget limitations you'll probably be diving with air anyway for the time-being. For now if you want longer dives then go shallow.

R..
 
At least as far as purchasing a BCD is concerned ... ask the LDS if you can try it out in a pool first. If they refuse, thank them for their time and go find another LDS.

Most LDS will try to steer you toward one particular style of BCD or another (as will many in here). The fact is that all have trade-offs ... and what's important to you may not be what's important to the person who's trying to sell you the gear.

Some things to consider ...

Fit and comfort are important. That's why you want to try the BCD in the water before purchasing. See how it feels with a tank and regulator. Make sure the shoulder straps don't ride up around your ears when you're sitting inflated at the surface. Make sure the tank feels secure on your back ... roll around in the water and see how it feels. A tank that wobbles around back there will make your buoyancy control much more difficult, and your diving less fun. Make sure that when you inflate the BCD it doesn't feel so tight that it restricts your breathing (only really a problem with jacket-style BCDs). Make sure the inflator/deflator buttons feel right for you ... some models just aren't that intuitive (to my concern), or may not feel right in your hand. Make sure you can get the air in and out of your BCD comfortably ... or try another model.

Where you'll be diving determines how much weight and exposure gear you'll need. That, in turn, will determine how much lift you need in a BCD. Don't buy something with way too much lift. You only need enough to get you, your gear, and your weights, to the surface and keep you there comfortably. Unless you're planning to dive doubles or are simply a huge person, you won't need something with more than 30-35 lbs of lift ... and probably somewhat less than that unless you're diving in cold water. Too much lift means bulk you don't need ... and that's just going to make you work harder in the water.

Jacket style? Back-inflate? Hybrid? Backplate? These are all valid choices that will be determined by the kind of diving you plan to do. A jacket style is probably what you used in OW class. It's easiest to keep you vertical on the surface, but underwater it's more difficult to learn good orientation (possible, mind you ... just not as easy). A back-inflate is the reverse ... it tends to want to push you face-forward on the surface (something that's easy to learn how to overcome) ... but it's much easier to learn proper orientation underwater. The reason is due to where the air goes when you hit your inflator button. Hybrid models basically offer a jacket style with a small integrated wing ... they're a compromise on the advantages/disadvantages of each. Backplates are the high-end performers ... but many folks just don't need high-end performance. You have to decide what's important to you.

Weight integrated or not? The advantage to weight integrated is convenience and comfort. For the warm-water diver, it means no weight belt. For the cold-water diver, it means less weight on your hips, and a way to distribute your weights for optimal trim. One disadvantage is that a lot of lower-end BCDs rely on a simple velcro closure that, as the BCD ages, wears out. Then your breakaway pockets turn into fallaway pockets ... likely to come out when you don't intend them to ... and that can cause a runaway ascent if you don't react quickly enough to recover your weights at depth. If you choose to go with a weight integrated BCD, make sure you choose one that has a mechanical release system, rather than just a velcro closure holding your weight pockets in place.

Padding ... many BCDs come with a lot of padding. It's comfortable, but it comes at a price. The more padding on a BCD, the more weight you're going to have to wear to sink it (padding floats). Also, consider that a BCD with a lot of padding is bulky, and that might matter if you plan to travel a lot. Generally speaking, unless you have a bad back or something, the less padding you get on your BCD the better off you'll be.

Hope that gives you some ideas about how to shop for a BCD ... I'm sure you'll get some other ideas as well ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
Diver0001 once bubbled...
Nitrox can wait. If you have budget limitations you'll probably be diving with air anyway for the time-being. For now if you want longer dives then go shallow.

R..

Besides, since shallow depths have the greatest bouyancy changes, it will give you that much more practice getting your weighting, trim and bouyancy skills nailed down.

When you do begin to dive deeper, bouyancy tends to get easier to control at depth BUT those bouyancy skills you develop in shallower diving become much more important at the end of a deep dive as you approach the surface again so you can more easily do your safety stops and such without any problems. :wink:
 
NWGratefulDiver once bubbled...
<snip>

Padding ... many BCDs come with a lot of padding. It's comfortable, but it comes at a price. The more padding on a BCD, the more weight you're going to have to wear to sink it (padding floats). Also, consider that a BCD with a lot of padding is bulky, and that might matter if you plan to travel a lot. Generally speaking, unless you have a bad back or something, the less padding you get on your BCD the better off you'll be

<snip>

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

One more thing, more padding takes longer to dry and makes the BC heavy when first taken out of the water...

If you are traveling, you have to consider that the weight of the BC for the homeward leg of the trip may be higher due to not being fully dry.

Or it may simply be inconvenient to wait for it to fully dry out before storing it ff you don't have a secure place to let it hang out.
 
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