LeadTurn_SD
Contributor
I am a new aow diver with 25+ dives. My 16 year old son and 14 year old daughter are also new aow divers... I want to get them equipment they can get used to. My closest dive shop is telling me that I need to purchase new dive gear because of the safety and expense. If I purchase new then I have the lifetime free parts on recommended service. It seems to me that it might make more sense to purchase relatively new at 1/2 price and have everything serviced at full price once. Hopefully the first service will be safe until the next growth spurt. Any advice on buying dive gear new or used would be appreciated.
Hi Yellowdog.
I was in your position when I returned to diving after a long absence in 2007. In my case I had 5 divers to outfit, since during one of my many moves in my youth I had lost all my original gear except my steel 72 tank from the 1970's.
I bought all new gear, for five divers. It seemed like a good decision at the time, but in hindsight I would do things quite a bit differently.
1. I would not have bought jacket BC's. Although jacket BC's are sized to cover a range of body sizes and types, this often results in a less than optimal fit... and with kids can mean that they outgrow their BC's after a couple years. The recommendation TSandM made in her post is spot on: Investigate back plate and wings with simple webbing harnesses.... the harness can be adjusted to perfectly fit a wide range of body types and sizes, and because they are truly modular individual bits and pieces can be replaced when needed. Most divers who try BP/W's are delighted, and leave their "poodle jackets" behind forever.
2. Generally the best bang for the buck as far as regulators go is found in the "mid-range" of any manufacturer's product line. This seems to hold true for most of the brands. For most regulator brands, the difference in performance between the middle and the top of their line is negligible, and usually does not justify the premium price of the "latest and greatest" reg of the brand. The skill of the tech that "tunes" your regs is more important to your diving experience than whether the reg is the bottom, middle or top of the line.
3. Used regulators can be an amazingly good deal, depending on the make, model and price. Many new divers will happily buy all the top end gear their dive shops tell them they need (the implication is that they need the high end stuff to be safe), then they lose interest in the sport. If properly cared for, a regulator will be serviceable for years and years (as long as parts remain available), and may only require an inspection and tuning prior to diving it... at worst, an annual service. You can often buy what was the top regulator in the product line a few years ago for 1/3 to 1/2 its original price. But you do need to do your homework so that you know a bit about the regulator you are considering, and also know where you will get it serviced, and how much the service will cost.
Ask lots of questions; but in the end, have fun with whatever you decided to do!
Best wishes.