So you think scuba diving is expensive!!

[DiveTub]

Well
I just went through the replacement costs of all my Scuba gear for my insurance
Total replacement value $18,000 Australian

Not sure where you are getting $500.00 from?

 

[Belushi]

no other sport can really come close.

Living in the UK ...
Certification - £300 - only to open water ... anything else add £250 at least to each level. So to get to where you can dive UK wrecks - £1200

Dive gear - £2500 (not including tanks)
Tanks 4 x £150 = £600
Air fills etc -

... and thats before you get in the water!

Boat Charter - £40 per day ... not too bad as most of the skippers on the south coast are SUPERB!!

ok, lets go abroad for a holiday ....

Dive trip to Red Sea (cant go alone - Scubababy would kill me)
2 x £1000 holidays
2 x sets of dive gear - £5000
2 x excess baggage allowance (no I dont mean Scubababy) - £200

Ok lets do it on the cheap ...
Getting job in Egypt - free (well, 8 years of experience and loads of BS)
Falling in love- Priceless
coming back to the UK - £1000
buying house - £100,000
getting car, furniture, cat, bills, job and the like - a bloody fortune!

Dont let anyone tell you diving aint expensive!

 

[Snoopy]

I live in Singapore and we don't have really clear vis site at our backyard like some of you do.

If I have my way, I will get 2 - 3 full-tank of air @ S$12 each (about US$8) and dive off an island to see fishes.

BUT I will also need to share-charter a boat, have my own gears (deprications counts dearly for salt water gears), food & drinks (booze optional). Plus the transport there, if you don't drive.

A typical weekends starts from about US$180 - 250 with full board and transport. Cheap you say, but dun forget my paycheck is also in local $. Not US$.

Not forgetting that the amount of prep work needed for that 45mins dive. Phew.

So who says diving isn't cheap. But I like it. The peace & tranquill u/w is unmatchable, esp when no email, fax, cell phone can reach me.

 

[radagalf]

I am going to argue that diving is not expensive, but it isn't cheap either.
I am a university student who wanted to get into diving once I moved out to Vancouver. I already had my mask, fins, snorkel, and boots from my open water class. So I had to pick up the following:
BCD
Regulator
Wetsuit (no, you don't need a drysuit)
Hood
Gloves

I picked up those 5 items for about $1000 Canadian. A local shop gave me a good price on the wetsuit and BCD (used from their rental department), I got new hood and gloves, and I picked up my regulator from e-bay.ca for $280.

Thought this was great... than got the reg serviced: ouch.
servicing the reg cost me about $200. Damn, should've just got the reg from the shop too.

So, it came to $1200, add the cost of my other dive gear previously and you're looking at $1500 minimum to get into diving, with decent working equipment. (Note: bottom timer was included on console, when it broke, just began to use the watch I found

After this I could go diving any time I wanted (that I could find a buddy, not too hard around here) for approximately $10 - $20 a trip ($10/tank) plus gas. Add on your service fees you pay every year divided by the number of dives I've done, and it would prolly work out to and I would say I spend on average $25/dive (this is gas, tank, and yearly service costs). Not bad if you ask me.

Of course, many of you are talking about a tonne of equipment which you may not always need. (You don't always need a light, sure it would be handy during the day, but not always necessary).

Skiing, cost me about $1000 bucks to get suited up (used gear), seeing as I've outgrown everything I used to use... about 7 years ago. And would cost me $70/lift ticket (Whistler Blackcomb - Grouse/Cypress are too non-extreme).

Now, I agree that suiting up in damn good gear (never mind state of the art gear) is expensive (a good dry suit and undergarments is $2000 Cnd here); nevermind Tech gear. Right now I'm working towards a Vytec air integrated computer, $1800 right there. So I'm not denying the expensive side to diving. Just that it can be done however you want it to be: moderate, expensive, or just DAMN expensive.

(Another NOTE: I can't catch any crabs for dinner whilst skiing... )

 

[gatorboy]

Last year I spent 23,000 on two sets of gear for myself and I helped my girlfriend purchase her gear about another 4,000. the price of diving is whatever you want it to be. It really depends on what type of diving you plan on doing. If you're only diving in a quarry or similar sure, you can get set up for 1,500, but if you want to dive over 100' it requires specialized gear as does any sport.

I go diving quite frequently in the canal around my area or the quarries we have here. I usually go for about an hour at a time. IT costs me $6 to fill my double 104's and I get four or five dives off one fill. To me that's pretty cheap for the enjoyment I get.

If I go out on a charter on Lake Ontario:
2 dives at 113', 1 hour surface interval
cost of charter $35 cdn / person
$6 for air or if I want to stay down longer $15 - $18 NITROX
I usually tip the boat captain about $10

To me this is a great way to kill a Sunday morning for a minimal expense.

 

[Butch103]

too the type of diving you plan on doing.

I agree that diving is expensive as you grow in the sport. Seahunter's point is $500 for traning?

Basic diving OW is somewhere around $300. US or cheaper, add your gear, used can be had for $1000. or less. I outfitted my son with good used gear for less than that. I had all the gear checked out by my LDS and it has served he and my wife well for the past two years.

Comparing it to skiing etc as he poointed out it can be done year round, incorporated with your regular trip to the south....Cost a little more.

My sonwho is 16 plays hockey.....Consider this...I have almost as much invested in his hockey gear as I do in my own diving gear. Gas to and from practices and games, hotel accomadations & meals during hockey, skate sharpening, new blades for sticks, meals ....His hockey Sept to March costs more than my diving habit April to November....

So I guess it is all relative to what level you participate in any sport.

 

[Quest]

I personally think the high cost of diving is due to the incompetency of the diving industry.

The focus of the diving industry has always been geared toward equipment sales and with little focus on being a service provider.

Look at most of the posts about what money diving instructors make! Almost everyone sales there is little money in training and most of your profit comes from selling gear.

Following this pattern only leads to equipment cost remaining high, after all you need to make money, and training remaining high because of lack of student demand.

 

[landlocked]

Mine include (listed in order of costs):

SCUBA
Elk Hunting
Golf and
Skiing

Diving is by far the most expensive for me and I run all of them on a shoe string.

All of my SCUBA classes are free as an employee benefit but you always need more equipment. This is the only sport where I feel like I need to travel a little. Total? I've only been doing it for about one year but I think that I have spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $2500. I logged 60 dives in 20 trips the first year. (Most were repetative dives.) About $125 per trip.

Hunting. Bow, arrows ($70dz.), broadheads, gas, munchies, GPS, big pistol (for big bears), tree stands, licenses and tags. Total about $950 a year. Usually about 20 trips to the hills each year. But then some of that goes back in the freezer. About $50 per trip.

Golf is a $300-$500 initial investment and about $100 new equipment each year thereafter. A season golf pass is $360 and covers both local courses. Golf balls $20/yr for 30 new golf balls. Total about $550 a year for unlimited golfing. I usually get in about 80 trips to the course each year. About $7 per trip plus 10 miles worth of gas.

Skiing, I help the local schools instruct for free ski passes to the local resort. That gets me about 8 or 9 trips to the little hill. Once a year I make a trip to the big hill, $50 to $100. Skiis $200, boots $15. Total about $300 year including gas. So about $30 per tirp.

You now know more about my personal finances than my wife. Oops, she is a member of the Board!

 

[Wreck/Tec]

..........HELLO.............

 

[Amphibious]

runvus4 once bubbled...
Kayaking - Kayak, paddle, PFD

:rofL:

Thanks! haven't laughed that hard in a long time.....

Creek Boat = $1100
Freestyle = $1600
Paddle = $380
Spare Paddle = $240
Pfd (freestryle) = $170
pfd (creek) =$90
Deck = $120
Helmet (freestyle) = $90
Helmet (creek) = $115
Drytop = $220
Throw bag = $22
Shortie top = $65

My .45-70 I have to cram in my creek boat for the big Brown hairy things that wait on shore at certain Northern Rivers =$930

Shall I go on?........

Willer