LDS recommendations for certification

[OE2X]

On a bit of a side note, I'm suppose to buy (as opposed to renting) my "Personal Snorkeling System" to get the discounted class rate. I asked and they mainly carry Scuba Pro and Aqua Lung products. Any general recomendations on what to look for or avoid from these two mfg's? I'll need to buy a mask, snorkel, fins, boots, gloves, regulator mouth piece, mesh bag, SSI log book, and defog. Not that I think they'll steer me wrong at the shop, but it's always nice to get unbiased opinions. I know Scuba Pro is suppose to be top rate, but that's about the extent of my knowledge.
Jason

Here is my $.02
Scuba Pro makes some great stuff. I love their regulators and jet fins. The best around. Brand loyalty is o.k., but as you get into the sport and become more knowledgable you may find that certain items, from certain companies work best for you and you won't be brand loyal.

Get a mask that fits your face. You may have to try a lot on. Best way to do this is to keep the strap off, press the mask to your face and release your hand. If it stays sucked onto your face then you have a good fit.

I'm inclined to agree with Lamont on Scubapro Jet fins. They are cheaper than splits and I personally find that I have better control and power with them despite what reviews state.

Mesh bag? Yeh whatever! If you have a duffle that can get wet gear put in it, then save the money.

Snorkel - If you go the long hose route you won't use one. I agree with Lamont. They don't cost an arm and a leg, so no worries.

Anti fog - good old spit and a rinse works very effectively. When you buy your mask, use some toothpaste and clean the inside with it, by rubbing it with your hand. It may take 2-3 applications.

Are you going to do the openwater portion in a drysuit? If so then see you can't get a pair of dry gloves added on. Ultimately this will be what you will do when you get a drysuit and you don't need to waste the money on wetsuit gloves that you won't use in the future.

 

[geraldp]

For a mask you want pretty much whatever fits your face...

If all you're going to be using a snorkel for is scuba diving, I'd suggest getting the cheapest one you can find. If you swim on your back you shouldn't be using it much. I should mention again that to-snorkel-or-not-to-snorkel is another of the fairly religious debates. I use a long hose regulator setup and a snorkel will actually impede my ability to donate air in the case of an OOA, so I don't wear a snorkel. I own a scubapro flip snorkel that i could put in a pocket, and might take it with me on a trip to the tropics so that I could sit at the surface at look at all the purty fishies without using air, but around here there's not a lot of point.

For fins I'll recommend scubapro XL jetfins...

You seem to imply that if you don't get the "discount" class rate that you might be able to rent first. I think it might not be a bad idea to ditch the "discount" class and rent. You could easily sink $100-$300+ on gear which you wind up replacing. I've got a pair of Tusa splitfins, a mask, boots and gloves that I bought which are just sitting in my attic right now. The boots did come in handy when I had a class with pool sessions, but the rest of it was kind of a waste.

Good suggestions on mask and fins from Lamont (especially the fins). One word of caution on purchasing a flimsy stow-away snorkel. I realize that a lot of folks don't use them, but here's one reason to get a "decent" snorkel: If you ever decide to go on and take the SSI Stress and Rescue specialty you're going to have to do a surface snorkel-swim for 800 yards or so (depending on the teacher). I know from experience that doing that with a flimsy, open-topped stowable snorkel (in semi-rough water) is a sure way to get to do the test over again. You don't need to go and buy a $150 snorkel, but you might want to get one that at least attempts to keep water out. I still use my snorkel on almost every shore dive - especially if the water is rough.

Another point to add to seabats comment on gloves. You'll be using your gloves in the pool, and of course you'll be needing to use gloves in your open-water sessions (and beyond). I purchased a 3mm set to start out with, which was pretty bulky for pool work. Then I went and bought a 6.5mm set for my Open-Water sessions. Later (some time after I purchased my drysuit) I purchased dry gloves. So now I have 3 pairs of gloves, and only use 1. I guess if I had to do it over again I would have gone with less expensive thin (1mm) pair for pool work and occasional warm-water diving, then just rented a thick pair for my open water sessions. Either that or simply bought the thick gloves first. Similarly for boots - most boots that they'll sell you for your OW class probably won't work with a drysuit. You may not know right now what your long term plans are visavis local diving and a drysuit, but you should start thinking about that. Do you know yet if you'll be taking your OW cert in a drysuit?

... Not that I think they'll steer me wrong at the shop, but it's always nice to get unbiased opinions.

They probably won't steer you wrong, but then again remember that there in the business to sell gear - they might not tell you everything up front, and it could end up costing you more in the long run. Like Lamont said we all have gear that sits in our attic.

Good luck with your class and keep us posted. It may sound funny but the 5-6 weeks I took getting my OW cert was a highlight in my life.

Jerry

 

[lamont]

I think one that we should really ask before offering advice is what kind of diver you want to be? Are you going to be diving locally? Are you going to be diving in the winter? How good are you with cold?

Depending on the answers to those question, the gear advice will be different. Thats why I think renting for OW would be a really good idea. Figure out if you really want to keep diving in the waters around here, and see how you feel about how cold the water is. If you think that you're diving up here then you probably want a drysuit (although the $$$ for a drysuit could keep you in a wetsuit for awhile -- so that's another parameter we need to know about you) and if you're buying a drysuit you probably don't want to bother with boots and gloves -- or you want to gear your boot/glove selection to pool work and tropical vacations.

At the same time, *everyone* has gear in their attic they don't use. At some point you just gotta buy something to start and try it out...

(and yeah, i was going to mention that making you buy a mesh bag and defog is really kinda silly...)

 

[JasonH20]

At the same time, *everyone* has gear in their attic they don't use. At some point you just gotta buy something to start and try it out...

Ahh shucks, thanks for all the advice. Off course I posted and ended up promptly going to the dive shop and buying the stuff before reading your suggestions. :shakehead

The dive shop is close to my son's daycare, so we stopped by after I picked him up. I intended to just drop in, check it out, be on my way, and wait to buy everything tomorrow before the class (and after reading any advice here). My son ended up having a blast playing with some of the demo fins, masks, gloves etc (he's 2), so I ended up spending nearly 1 1/2 hours talking to the the sales guy (actually he said he mainly serviced the equipment) but seemed pretty knowledgeable and showed me all the stuff. He'll also be the assistant diver for most of my pool and OW dives.

So anyways, I've basically now bought all the stuff (including the mesh bag :sorry19z: ,but it is pretty cool looking!) He said if something didn't work out, I could of course exchange it after I tried it out in the pool.

Above, several of you recomended the Scubapro Jet fins, but he recomended to pay a bit more for the Scubapro Twin Speed fins. He said they were more effecient than the next step down, which I'm assuming were the Jet fins. I guess I'll just have to wait until I get them in the pool. I also got their recomended 5mm gloves and booties. Normally I'm a pretty warm blooded guy and don't get cold easily so hopefully they'll serve me OK long term in the sound. I did sign up for the additional dry suit class, so all my OW dives will be in a dry suit.

I'll talk to the instructor tomorrow about some of the stuff you suggested above and adjust my purchase accordingly. Though like Lamont said, I just gotta start somewhere....

Can't wait for tomorrow!
Jason

 

[JasonH20]

Oh and to add for the type of diver I think I'll be...

When I first started looking into this my goal was just to get certified and use on my vacations. I keep kicking myself when I'm at some tropical location, and can't go SCUBA diving. The times I have been able to do introductory dives they have been the hilights of my trip.

I kind of wrote off PS as too cold, low visibility, too many currents, etc. But after pooking around this board the past couple weeks, I'm coming around a bit. Everyone has such great things to say about PS diving, so I guess I'll have to give it a fair shot.

So assuming I get certified, and enjoy the dry suit dives in PS, my goal will be to average a dive day each month in PS, and then get as much diving in on vacation that my wife will allow. It'll be hard to get out much more as my wife likes me to stick around with her and my son on the weekends. I'm still on the fence about buying any additional equipment besides maybe a dive computer. If I only dive say 10-15 times at most a year does it make cent$ to get your own stuff?

I read my first chapter of the SSI book last night (my homework before class today) and it mentioned that the type of fin best for divers depended partially their strength. If it makes a difference, I'm 6'1", 175lbs, 34yo, and do a fair amount of running. I'm not like power lifter strong, more like marathon runner strong.

Anyways, back to work...
Thanks,
Jason

 

[Camerone]

Before you go all-in and buy other stuff - relax Take the class and enjoy it. Have some fun. Rent some gear for a weekend or two. Do Silent World's Sunday group-dives a few times. Do a Banditos boat. Talk to people you meet and ask them what they're using for gear - all of it - and how they like it. Then make your own buying decision.

I think you're either going to really like the Puget Sound, and be fairly active, or you'll think that it's cool, but you're pretty much going to go on vacation and just enjoy the tropics now and then. While everything that works in cold water is excellent for use in the tropics, that kind of diving is a lot easier and less equipment intensive than cold water diving...and that kind of diving can be significantly less expensive if you decide you're never diving up here again.

It's a lot cheaper to rent a few times, borrow a few times, and think about it, than it is to buy something that's a mistake for you. There's no rush - any good dive store will be there next week or next month or whatever, and would rather sell you the right piece of gear to keep you a happy customer who'll come back for more than sell you the wrong one and leave you disgruntled.

I would caution you to wait specifically on the computer until you have a few dives under your belt. That's an expensive purchase to get wrong, and it's a hard one to get right. I'm changing one of my two out (my primary, my backup works fine for me as a backup) because I got it wrong a year ago, though it was no fault of the dive shop. They steered me right for what I told them I was doing. I just changed what I wanted to do... That's a good $1000 mistake for me. Live and learn...

 

[JasonH20]

I would caution you to wait specifically on the computer until you have a few dives under your belt.

Yea, at this point I don't plan to buy anything else until after I'm done getting OW cert. The reason I mentioned the computer as my next purchase is because on my dives on Kaui, I basically only had a working SPG (hehe, learned that acronym last night in my homework). On two of the dives I had a depth gauage that didn't really work, and the other two had no depth guage at all. Plus I don't have a watch that would pass as a "diver's watch", or a compass for that matter. I guess for intro dives that's OK since I was following the instructor fairly closely, but is that typical for rented equipment? It would suck big time to notice my depth guage wasn't accurate after starting a dive.

Is it 6:30 yet, I can't wait for class tonight! It's fun, I've had that new giddy feeling the past couple days, like when I first met my wife. Hopefully she won't get too jealous of my new mistress!

 

[geraldp]

Is it 6:30 yet, I can't wait for class tonight! It's fun, I've had that new giddy feeling the past couple days, like when I first met my wife. Hopefully she won't get too jealous of my new mistress!

Oh she will be

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Be aware that scuba diving has been known to cause AIDS ... (Aquatically Induced Divorce Syndrome) ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[lamont]

Also, Aquatically Induced Bankruptcy Syndrome.