Should I buy my own equipment???

[RJP]

Rentals
Regulator $15/day
BC $15/day
Computer $10/day
Total $40/day x 2 = $80/day x 5 days = $400/ for 5 days for two people

Note that it can cost less - often far less - and sometimes nothing at all to rent gear.

• There's plenty of places in the Caribbean that charge $30/day for full gear rental (including wetsuit and M/F/S)
• Diving four days? A four-day rental package will be less than 4x the daily rental rate.
• Aggressor/Dance Fleet only charges $175/week for full complement of rental gear. ($25/day)
• Explore Ventures only charges $150/week.($21/day.)
• I've dove with ops in BVIs, Hawaii. and Florida that included free rental gear with boat charters.
• I just came back from a 10-day liveaboard trip on the Truk Siren that provided guests with full, high-end gear at no charge. (They provide gear free on all of their boats, in fact.)

 

[XS-NRG]

Depends on the number of vacations. Obviously at first renting is an obvious choice but then again if you look after your gear and service properly it could/should last forever therefore if every year you are going on a trip or even every other year and slowly adding up the costs then renting in the long run will likely cost you more. It's nice to have personal/reliable gear that you have control over for service and maintenance. This is a comfort thing as well as cost. If you were to buy I would at least buy your computer and regs/octo/gauge. Renting a BCD forever would be acceptable as they are bulky and not as personal (unless you're like me and hooked on the i3 inflation system). Sticking regs and computer in carry on is easy enough and most divers do that anyway because we don't trust the flunkies that work at the airport with our stuff (stuff does get kicked and dropped - especially when it has fragile marked on it)