Help with buying BP/W & gear in Australia

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

The biggest issue right now is the exchange rate.

Shipping is not always based on weight. Since I use USPS there are flat rate boxes that can save a customer money.

Several things come into play when shipping overseas using them. If the rig is assembled (harness threaded on plate) the flat rate box will not work. Not assembled - no problem. That is for up to 20 lbs.

Typical steel plate with harness and hardware, wing, and plastic buckle cam bands comes in at around 13 lbs packed up. Steel buckle cam bands add 1.5 lbs to that. Still well under the 20 lb limit.

Where costs get just plain silly is with UPS and FedEx. As much as 3 times the USPS price when they add in their customs, brokerage, and handling fees. I have shipped BPW set ups to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Scotland, Germany, England, Spain, Canada, Guam, Okinawa, Ireland, and Dubai. Not had a problem with any.
 
Hi Jim,

I have read a few posts from you and others about buying gear from outside OZ. I am not having a shot at anyone or have any vested interest in gear supply, just a diver on a tight budget.

Unless the item is not locally available or the sales service is beyond what can got locally then most of the time the cost savings are not worth importing dive gear into Australia.

Because any item demand high value- over $1000 AUD the import taxes are killers. 15% tax and duty. Customs clearance fees of $40 and freight. Ends up around $250. UPS takes about 3 weeks to get the items to the door despite their claims. Add gear hire for 2 days whilst you wait and the OS purchase has to be $ 400 AUD cheaper.

Then add in a factor to allow for no local support as no one will help with setup and warranty issues. Pay full cost of help or return to place of purchase is the standard response.

I would love to have available the likes of yourself support local diving here. But the cost out ways the savings.

Paul



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Sadly a very true problems we face here DBF :doh:
 
Completely agree. Would have some one like Jim should make a different.
To be honest i am super disappointed with most of dive shop in Mornington, Rye, Rosebud. Their price are way way expensive. Helpfulness is ok but at the end always pointing to the expensive equipment anyway. Any one try to get into diving with a tight budget will bounce off right away, unless they do some research and actually order something international or other states or buy second hand which most newbie do not like ( just like me).

would recommend Chris at divetub if you want to get gears.
 
This might be too late, but I bought my gear from Dive Tub. Chris sent it over for me (assembled) to try and said if I didn't want it, I just had to pay the postage and send it back. I dive the LightMonkey Single wing and have been happy with it. It took me a couple of days diving to get used to it and to make the adjustments so it fitted just right. I bought DiveRite regs about the same time from OS (when the dollar was riding high). There serve me well, but are becoming a pain to get serviced.
 
In addition to DRIS mentioned above, Dive Gear Express & Scuba.Com do business in OZ.
I know that Dive Rite has a handful of dealers down under as does HOG Edge. You might want to look them up and see what they can do for you. I've got bpws from both.
 
You need to realise something about a back plate and wing. They are not the cheapest style of BC. They are made of high quality materials with lots of R+D going into their production. A BP+W is the top end style of BC. The positive to this is they will last a lot longer than a cheap jacket style BC. I have a Halcyon single and twin setup and they are extremely robust, tough, reliable and efficient...were they cheap no, but I know that I will only ever have to buy once.
If you are worried about cost then first off...dont get into scuba, like most adventure sports it is very equipment intensive. If you want to get into scuba but want cheap then buy a low end jacket BC. Will it work, most likely yes. Will it be comfortable, probably not. Will it last 20 years, definitely not.
And support your local dive shop, I guarantee you'll crack it when you can't find one for an air fill, spare part, mask, etc. Paying that extra $100 or so will be worth it in the long run, plus you'll have that no questions asked warranty.
 

Back
Top Bottom