Buying gear before dive class or after

[was_one]

if you can use the gear from your brother and your friends if it is diffrent. try diffrent gear before you buy it if you can. know were you are going to dive and were you want to dive and also how you want to dive. were will tell you type of gear , what {wreck, deep, cave} wiil tell you what kind of gear.

 

[nemo06489]

I couldnt weight. I bought my gear this sat. I used rented gear on my first pool dive and wasnt to happy. My second pool dive i used my brothers gear, what a difference. The instructor gave me a little proplem with using someone elses gear until he learnd the gear was purchesed at his shop and i was going to buy the same gear if i liked it. After my second pool dive i went right down to the dive shop and bought the same set up my brother had. Its funy how nice someone treats you after you dump a lot of money it thier store. I priced out the equipmet on the internet and could have save about $150 or more but it realy didnt bother me because i know the gear will be set up right. I though about what some of you sad about renting gear for a while an you may have been right but only time will tell. My open dive is next week and i cant wait.

 

[blackice]

cudachaser once bubbled...
Mask, Fins and Snorkle a must...wet suit possibly...Other stuff, shop around and tanks should be the lowest of the priority list

I would say borow everything if you can, the dive school should be able to rent you most of the gear. Learn with this equipment and take the time to find out if you like SCUBA (hard to beleive but some people don't). So it makes good sense to try before you buy.

Also at the begining you may not know where you want to go with you diving and may not have an understand of how things work underwater, it's quite different that above it. Different things are important.

If you have to buy some equipment then the mask is the main thing to buy, snorkle is optional, I never used one after my first was lost as sea.

Fins I would suggest that you try the standard ones for now. All other gear - BC, Regs, Computer etc can wait.. you never know you may want to dive Nitrox later and the computer you buy now may not be able to do it, or you buy a multi gas computer and only ever dive air.

Think before you shop, it takes long enough to earn it....

 

[blackice]

I take back what I said above ... seems I was too late.

Good luck with it, have a great time

 

[pjdc1]

There are so many options in regards to diving
equiptment.

Advice or guidance from the LDS is nice but you
have to figure out what equiptment will make diving
enjoyable for you.

If you have more than one LDS near you, go visit
as many as you can. The more options you have the
easier it will be to find out what you DON'T WANT.
Then its easier to narrow down the choices.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Gator Diver]

with your gear and out of curiosity, what did you end
up purchasing?

 

[Jambi]

I hope that you will be happy with the gear you bought because when I first started I only wanted the most expensive equipment. My thinking being that it must be the best. After finding this board I am now capable of making decision based on knowledge and reasoning not impulsivness. FWIW I sure wish I had the money to spend on all the SCUBA gear I want .

Jambi

 

[nemo06489]

I ended up buying the same equipment that my brother his friend have. aqua lung titan reg with aqua octo, sea quest pro bcd suunto cobra computor and compas xcell tri polar semi dry wet suit. My bother and his friend have been diving for a long time they both started out with other gear and ended up with what i bought. I dont realy care if thier is better or cheaper gear out there. I m going to be diving with my brother and it makes me more confident knowing that he knows the gear im going to be using. I hear a lot of coments about buying gear first or after but most of your replies didnt answer my question which was did you own your gear during owc or did you rent. I hope i made the right choice. Any way i cant wait to start diving.

 

[Jambi]

Just remember rule 1 of diving, Have Fun!

Jambi

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

Rule #1 is dont hold your breath on scuba

Rule #2 is always to have fun, and if your not having fun, something is wrong with your dive.