Scubapro STINKS!

[ElectricZombie]

So what, ScubaPro doesn't submit gear to Roadales anymore. If you want info on gear, Roadales is not a good source.

Personally, I would not want my company mentioned in a crappy, worthless mag like Roadales. This may be the case with ScubaPro. Roadales has reached new lows in the last year or so.

I own a bunch of ScubaPro regs and have never had any problems with them. Their regs breath as good as I would ever want and they are reliable.

 

[5615mike]

ElectricZombie once bubbled...
So what, ScubaPro doesn't submit gear to Roadales anymore. If you want info on gear, Roadales is not a good source.

Personally, I would not want my company mentioned in a crappy, worthless mag like Roadales. This may be the case with ScubaPro. Roadales has reached new lows in the last year or so.

I own a bunch of ScubaPro regs and have never had any problems with them. Their regs breath as good as I would ever want and they are reliable.

EZ......so where do you suggest that people obtain their info on gear? You offered no solution to the situation........just that Rodales is not a good source. I'm not sticking up for them I'm just curious as to where you suggest that this NON-BIASED info be obtained.

 

[Crispy]

Please forgive my ignorance, although I have read Rodale's in the past, I do not subscribe to it or have a copy handy for review.

I haven't heard anything, other than speculation, that sugests that S.P. not submitting thier equipment for review is due to poor test ratings.

I don't recall if RSD allows advertisements for online or grey market suppliers. I would find it more believable that S.P. would have a problem with that more than anything else. Here is a company taking great steps to protect their LDS buyers by controlling thier supply (seperate issue altogether, I know blah, blah, blah..) and now they support a magazine that would advertise companies that would undercut that effort??? I wouldn't think so.

And the flip side of the argument pertaining to bad reviews of S.P. equipment would be perhapse it is a protest of overly positive reviews of competitors equipment, who may have just signed a lucrative advertising contract with R.S.D.

again, I only suggest these as alternative thoughts to the whole S.P. got a few bad reviews ( I don't know of any?) and now won't submitt equipment for review.

my $.02

-Crispy

 

[cornfed]

 

[ElectricZombie]

Crispy once bubbled...

again, I only suggest these as alternative thoughts to the whole S.P. got a few bad reviews ( I don't know of any?) and now won't submitt equipment for review.

In the last reg review Roadales did, I beleive they tested every reg ScubaPro makes. Several of the ScubaPro models received a perfect score - 20 points out of 20 points. Their other models received scores of 18 or 19.

So, I don't think bad reviews were the cause.

 

[Diver0001]

5615mike once bubbled...


This might make sense if Rodales was the one who pulled the product from their tests. How does this look to SP customers? OUR mfg won't submit their products for the largest testing group in the market. What's wrong?

I agree it doesn't look very good to SP customers. Scubapro is obviously putting their money on the bet that people will blame Rodales. It's a calculated risk, a balancing act between the damage a bad review will do and the damage caused by refusing to be a party to your own bad review. Remember SP wants results from it's advertising dollar.....Add to that a bit of macho boardroom ego and it starts to make sense.

I think SL should test them anyway from the retail market.

I'm sure they would if they could. My guess is that Rodales is on contract to only test products submitted for review.

I guess you have to hope that all SP customers think of Rodales the way you do. Don't get me wrong, I don't think they are the end all rag either it's just that you make this whole thing out to an AL vs. SP fight and I don't buy that.

AL vs. SP? I guess you mean Aqualung vs Scubapro. That's right. This is the crux of it. AL and SP aren't fighting. They're just acting like normal competitors who are vying for the same market with similar products. SP wants to get the inside track and they'll fight for that. Rodales is just one of the many means the manufacturers have to get their message out there. If Rodales is displaying a bias towards Aqualung (maybe becasue they got bigger kick-backs from AL -- afterall AL are fighting for the inside track too) then Scuba-pro might get right pi*sed about that and take their ball and go home. If they make the right noises about it at the right time then it might just undermine the value of the whole review. In othre words, this whole thing could be a tactic from Scuba-pro, essentially saying "if we can't win we'll undermine the review and make sure AL doesn't win either". Once again I see this as normal competitive behaviour for a company that makes use of reviews as a form of advertising.

As for Rodales, I"m sure they're stuck in the middle. AL probably paid top dollar for a big review and Rodales can't suddenly side with Scuba-pro because SP gets in a snit about it. If they did that then AL would get in a snit and Rodales would just have the same problem. From the Rodales perspective all they can do it put a spin on it by whining that "SP doesn't want to play" and try to make it look like it's SP's fault. It's an escalation that could have repercussions down the line for how Rodales goes about it's reviews but for now we'll just have to see how it ends. My guess is that in the end they'll probably reach terms with SP and give them a nice review with a "tie" for first place together with AL. It's a compromise that won't make SP outright happy but one that doesn't give AL an out-right win either.

R..

 

[docmartin]

excuse me but this is getting a little too imaginative. you are jumping to conclusions based on absolutely nothing. while i agree that sp and al are major competitors i fail to see where sp has ever gotten a bad review from rodales. sp is about the last company with reason to complain about rodales test results. furthermore, what kind of contract could preclude rodales from buying gear through retail channels? these could only be contracts between rodales and each manufacturer. that seems silly and improbable. in any event, if scubapro just terminated their relationship rodales would now be free to buy the gear.
obviously something happened in the relationship between sp and rodales but the facts are that sp has always looked golden in rodales' reviews. any speculation about Al outbribing sp for good reviews is just that - speculation with no facts to support it.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I have lots of problems with Rodales. They essentially ran a publicity campaign for the TDI solo class. I believe it was deceptive and irresponsible. I don't care if you solo dive or not but I still think that campaign was lower than dirt. If I have to rescue another TDI solo diver I'm going to have a face to face talk with some jerk at Rodales on my way to see Bret.

For the last several years they've pushed split fins as the best thing since sliced bread. The fact that they don't test them the way most people dive is one problem. I would also like to see the statistical calculations from some of their so called tests. Like the one that claimed lower air consumption due to the use of nitrox. I no longer allow student to use split fins in most of the classes I teach because I've never seen any one display good finning technique when using them. Therefore any one whith splits will be unlikely to complete the course. Rodales praise of them is based on lower perceived effort and improved air consumption but going in a streight line at some speed (maybe max speed) who cares! Most diving involves a kick and a cost, a stop and a turn. You won't get very good air consumption while doing that in splits because of all the wiggling around you'll have to do. But...how would any one at rodales know that. They've billed these fins as a cure for a problem that's based on a lack of technique. Better technique is the cure for cramps and air consumption. Split fins only fool a new diver into thinking the problem is solved. Rodales either took advantage of that or they just don't know the difference, AFAIC.

Beyond that just read some of the articles. Like the one about the diver in the "modeling" bc who got it tore off them while using a reef hook. Read the lessons the non-diving fool learned after being rescued by other divers. Way off base. They haven't a clue and they're not doing new divers any good.
It wouldn't be so bad except some people believe that crap.

 

[docmartin]

agreed.

 

[redacted]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
Most diving involves a kick and a cost

ROFLMAO

Thanks