Fair enough. It's just that in the past few days I have had emails and calls from a few people who were talked into something they really did not need or in one case want. When I first got certed I had all of my gear before the OW class was over. I have exactly one mask, one pair of fins, and one snorkel that hangs on my gear rack left of that. I bought what was "the best stuff that the mfg has to offer" in that line. And it was good stuff, it worked, and I spent over 2k on it. And I have none of it left because it soon became apparent that it did not fit my needs and was not adequate for my interests.
I learned the hard way. My intro to tech and helitrox classes started with the instructor having everyone bring in the gear they planned to use. He then broke it down piece by piece. I only had a few items to change because I had been reading and diving with some GUE trained divers on occaision and bought my "tech gear" based on that. But there were others in the class that had to make some major changes.
A few years ago I bought a copy of Tom Mount's "Tao of Survival Underwater." aka "Encyclopedia of Mixed Gas and Exploration Diving" or something along those lines. Don't have it in front of me now. In it are guidelines for configuring gear and while not brand specific they are very good. I use a variation of them for my AOW classes. Based on my own experience I hate to see divers spend more than they need to. You have been waiting weeks for gear and as a result missing dives, training opportunities, and some really cool stuff.
As for your dealer and ScubaPro. It may be both of them. There is a dealer near me that has been a ScubaPro dealer since 1960. He gets everything new that comes out. He had two of their regs last year that were brand new on display in his case. Don't remember which ones they were but they were like $700 each. He was enjoying telling me how his area rep came in and was surprised to see them because he was still waiting on his sample one. ScubaPro does not treat all dealers the same from my experience with this shop and one that is relatively new and does not carry near the amount of inventory.
My other issue is that unless you are in really tight with your shop it will be a pain to get kits for those regs should you want to service them yourself. Now that may be ok for you but I want regs that if I need to I can tear down and fix in the field should an issue arise. It's why I'm switching all my regs over. I have a ScubaPro Mk16 with an R190 octo as stage reg. Simple, reliable, and yet getting kits for it involves me begging one place and another outright refuses to sell them to divers. I just don't want to jump through hoops anymore like I also have to with my Oceanics. I can get kits but it's always with looks that are not appreciated.
And with 10 regs currently in my personal inventory I am not of a mind to pay someone to service them when I am perfectly capable of doing it myself. The money you've spent and are not seeing anything from to date is money that could have had you diving now. New stuff is always a crap shoot and ScubaPro is no different from many other lines. Look how long it took for the replacement for the Nitek to come out. I knew one instructor that waited for months after plunking down 1400 bucks or more. Ended up going with something else. I'm just saying that you could have gotten a BPW and regs for about what you paid for your regs alone and been diving. And later when the new gear was out and available and proven you could have moved into it. But you would have been diving and gaining experience. Not having to call your dealer only to be told "not yet". I apologize for my earlier post but stuff like this really bugs me.
Maybe it's because I have to choose carefully and don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on stuff. But I have found that going beneath the names, marketing techniques, and looking at the guts of the gear and what other divers who are really diving it say means that I have been able to get gear that is just as reliable, just as well made, and that I can service myself for a fraction of what I might have spent. And get it when I want it with no more than a delay of a couple days. As a result I am diving more and spending less, with no frustration.
