victorzamora
Contributor
No "normal" scuba gear is complicated to use. I highly recommend taking your class, trying out a bunch of stuff, figuring out what you like, and then determining IF buying scuba gear is right for you. If so, THEN worry about what to buy.
However, if you're required to buy Mask/Snorkel/Fins for your class...I suggest
Mask: Try getting in the pool with the mask before you buy it. They fit differently on different people and can leak and be annoying if they don't fit right. If you can't dive it first, you CAN do a dry fit that is close. DON'T smush it on your face and suck in really hard. Look up, place your mask GENTLY on your face, inhale GENTLY through your nose (just enough to feel the mask suck onto your face), and then look straight ahead. You should be able to feel the mask "leaking" air. If it does, try another. If it doesn't, you're likely good. Do NOT get a "fancy" one. Anything with extra "features" like a nasal purge valve is a failure in wait. I like a low volume, black-skirted mask.
Snorkel: Any "features" are just unnecessary and just waiting to break. The cheapest, simplest snorkel you can find is your best option. First of all, you're likely to never use it (regional differences, but I haven't used one while SCUBA diving except for my OW cert 12 years ago). Secondly, look at what the pros use. The world's most serious freedivers use really boring snorkels....no extra floats or balls or cages or purges. Flexibile hose near your mouth is about as "fancy" as they get.
Fins: I'm starting to sound like a broken record, aren't I? Don't get anything fancy. Anything with rubber bands and slingshots and "vortex-producing, vision-correcting, manhood-enlarging" characteristics is pure marketing. I'm an Aerospace Engineer, specializing in Fluid Dynamics. I have yet to see one piece of marketing actually provide me some useful information. All of that extra crap is for people that don't know any better. My favorite fins to recommend are Jet Fins or Hollis F1s. Boring, simple, impossible to destroy, will work forever. Some people like split fins, which I don't. Generally: split fins trade strength for cardio. With a split fin, you kick more often. With "paddle" fins you kick harder. Now, there are stiff splits and floppy paddles....but my statement is a VERY wide brush, and typically true. Not that it will really matter for you as a new diver, but split fins also tend to limit your types of kicks. They're really designed almost exclusively for the basic flutter kick.
Having said that, let me explain some of the motivations here. Dive shops make money. They need to to stay open. Very rarely do they make much. Many shops try gouging you for every penny they can, which costs them in the long term. One of their gouging techniques (that has become super common and almost an "industry standard") is to prey on new divers that don't know any better and sell them things they don't need so they can get the margin. Masks/snorkels/fins have the largest margins. The fancier and more ridiculous the design, the higher the margin. Dive shops often sell them as better, because they're better for them. Heck, many dive shops probably BELIEVE that it's better. But, if you look at the people that have hundreds and thousands of dives....you'll see a common theme (not 100%, but common): Simplicity.
However, if you're required to buy Mask/Snorkel/Fins for your class...I suggest
Mask: Try getting in the pool with the mask before you buy it. They fit differently on different people and can leak and be annoying if they don't fit right. If you can't dive it first, you CAN do a dry fit that is close. DON'T smush it on your face and suck in really hard. Look up, place your mask GENTLY on your face, inhale GENTLY through your nose (just enough to feel the mask suck onto your face), and then look straight ahead. You should be able to feel the mask "leaking" air. If it does, try another. If it doesn't, you're likely good. Do NOT get a "fancy" one. Anything with extra "features" like a nasal purge valve is a failure in wait. I like a low volume, black-skirted mask.
Snorkel: Any "features" are just unnecessary and just waiting to break. The cheapest, simplest snorkel you can find is your best option. First of all, you're likely to never use it (regional differences, but I haven't used one while SCUBA diving except for my OW cert 12 years ago). Secondly, look at what the pros use. The world's most serious freedivers use really boring snorkels....no extra floats or balls or cages or purges. Flexibile hose near your mouth is about as "fancy" as they get.
Fins: I'm starting to sound like a broken record, aren't I? Don't get anything fancy. Anything with rubber bands and slingshots and "vortex-producing, vision-correcting, manhood-enlarging" characteristics is pure marketing. I'm an Aerospace Engineer, specializing in Fluid Dynamics. I have yet to see one piece of marketing actually provide me some useful information. All of that extra crap is for people that don't know any better. My favorite fins to recommend are Jet Fins or Hollis F1s. Boring, simple, impossible to destroy, will work forever. Some people like split fins, which I don't. Generally: split fins trade strength for cardio. With a split fin, you kick more often. With "paddle" fins you kick harder. Now, there are stiff splits and floppy paddles....but my statement is a VERY wide brush, and typically true. Not that it will really matter for you as a new diver, but split fins also tend to limit your types of kicks. They're really designed almost exclusively for the basic flutter kick.
Having said that, let me explain some of the motivations here. Dive shops make money. They need to to stay open. Very rarely do they make much. Many shops try gouging you for every penny they can, which costs them in the long term. One of their gouging techniques (that has become super common and almost an "industry standard") is to prey on new divers that don't know any better and sell them things they don't need so they can get the margin. Masks/snorkels/fins have the largest margins. The fancier and more ridiculous the design, the higher the margin. Dive shops often sell them as better, because they're better for them. Heck, many dive shops probably BELIEVE that it's better. But, if you look at the people that have hundreds and thousands of dives....you'll see a common theme (not 100%, but common): Simplicity.