What is considered minimum eqiupment for diving.

[Garrobo]

Air tank, back plate, regulators, 'flippers' and goggles. Anything else, like a cert card, BCD, compass, computer, safety pack, etc. is unnecessary but may be obligatory to make the local dive operator happy and let you on the boat.

 

[scubasam1212]

The bare minimum you would need:
Mask
Fins
boots
Snorkel (not always but recommended)
Regulator ( First stage, 2nd stage octo, gauges)
BCD (You can get these with an Air2 that would replace the octo on your regulator)
Computer (you can go with a watch and just dive tables instead but a computer will be more benificial inthe long run)
Wetsuit depending on where you are diving but these can be rented ( Calgary might need a drysuit)
Tanks and weights can be rented a lot

 

[Hawkwood]

Hawkwood I will be in Dominican, Punta Cana. As I mentioned I should have worded my question better I will be using the Dive centre basic equipment but was curious as to what I may require optionally. Most of my diving will be vacation type diving with hopefully some cold water diving around Canada/US as well to start off with.
Thanks

Barry,

Mask, snorkel, and fins for sure! You will always have the opportunity to snorkel or skin dive when travelling, so having those basics is a given. Full foot or open heel with booties? Are you boat diving or shore diving? Do you need full exposure protection to include your feet? Those are the questions to ask yourself.

Depending on where you learned in Calgary, you learned to use tables or a dive computer. If it was a DC, you will need to have one available - either rental before you go, rental where you go, or purchase.

Exposure protection is nice to have. As to exposure protection, a full 3mm or at the very least a skin will help a long way for sun and abrasion. The water is warm, but it does get chilly after a few days of diving. Sure you can dive in board shorts and a t-shirt, but the choice is yours. You can always rent a suit, so it is not "essential", just really really nice to have. Of course, those won't do if you are going to dive in Minnie or go to the coast.

You mixed warm vacation diving with cold water diving. Depending on the extremes, you often need to have some gear specific for the conditions.

Little bits at a time. Decide what you need as you get more experience. In our own case we started with mask/snorkel/fins/boots/wetsuits for the warm water stuff - that was our initial plan all along, just vacation diving. We wanted to make sure the stuff fit and was in good shape, hence we bought that stuff first.

As we got more involved we added the DC. When we started to dive locally (cold water), we added regulators and the BCDs. Then our next choice after renting suits was to decide how serious we were diving locally and cold water - that lead us to dry suits for our conditions.

Lots to consider and think about, but that is part of the fun!

Bill

 

[DandyDon]

Hawkwood I will be in Dominican, Punta Cana. As I mentioned I should have worded my question better I will be using the Dive centre basic equipment but was curious as to what I may require optionally. Most of my diving will be vacation type diving with hopefully some cold water diving around Canada/US as well to start off with.
Thanks

Ah ok, different question altogether here now.

Your rental BC might have a puny whistle on it, but I like the Storm Whistle, along with my SMB and signal mirror just in case I need to be found at sea. Two lights if you will do any night dives. A computer will help a lot if you can afford one one. Having your own wet suit will be nice.

And I guess you know you need DAN dive insurance?

 

[Hawkwood]

DandyDon,

Crap, I left out the obvious!!! I even tell my students - $5.00 Fox40 or Storm Whistle on a clip and you take it with you. Thanks for mentioning it and the other stuff to Barry_Calgary.

 

[ben_wilson3301]

Air in your lungs, but you can't stay down very long.

 

[avatar]

Buy a wrist computer and understand it backwards and forwards. There are a number of decent ones in the $350.00 range, make sure it's nitrox compatable for the future.Concentate on gas management and depth/ deco. I've seen too many people trying to figure out their rental computers at the last minute, and then splash without a clue. After you have used rental gear for a while, you will get a better idea of what you want/need next.

 

[gcarter]

If you are at all on a budget, and if you are at all like most new divers on the air consumption front, you could easily delay the computer and get the watch as you intended. A watch is much cheaper, and it is well more than likely that your air consumption will be your limiting factor in dive time, not the conservatism of the tables.

When your consumption gets better and the tables are limiting you, the watch is always useful as a fallback when you get a computer. FWIW, I bought a watch first and don't regret it. After 21 dives I am still not near the computer NDL's.

EDIT: I should add, I now have a computer as well, but that was thanks to a generous Ms. Claus.

 

[Ricky B]

Hawkwood I will be in Dominican, Punta Cana. As I mentioned I should have worded my question better I will be using the Dive centre basic equipment but was curious as to what I may require optionally.

If by Punta Cana, you mean Club Med, then all you really need is a mask. The dive center at Club Med will supply all the essential equipment, including BC, reg, octo, weight belt and weights, exposure suit, and fins. I believe that they might even supply a mask, but even I (who likes to travel light and doesn't own any scuba gear) wouldn't use a dive center mask.

Optional equipment would be a Storm Whistle (loudest whistle I've ever heard, only around $6 or so, and adds next to no weight if you like to travel light). DAN dive insurance is a good idea too. The insurance card also adds next to no weight!

If you are diving at Club Med and going on DM guided dives, my first choice for optional accessories would be a dive computer. This would give you a chance to use the computer and get familiar with it while your not staking your life on it.

If you want a cheaper accessory, a dive light is not a bad idea. Although the water is clear in the Caribbean, a light can make colors come out more.

Very unlikely to need a knife in the Caribbean. But if you do get one, make sure the blade is at least 9 inches long. Since it's only for show, it should be big!

 

[ozzydamo]

While RonFrank's post lists what is common, it's certainly not what is a minimum set to dive. It is probably close to a minimum set to dive as modern divers do but modern diving is nowhere near a minimum gear kit.

The question I ask is: "What are you looking for minimums for--to understand or to limit your purchases on a budget?"

The minimums are a mask, fins, tank, with regulator (1st and second stage) and some sort of pressure and depth gauge. People dove for years without BCs (hell they dove for years without pressure gauges) and some people still like diving without them.

If you're looking to dive on a budget, then buy gear piece-meal or used but don't skimp on equipment that isn't "necessary". (BCs are generally considered necessary these days, for example, for a good reason. They make diving easier and more fun. Computers are far from necessary, but they do make things easier for most folks. Octos are far from necessary but a lot of operators won't let you dive without one on your kit because they make sense from a safety perspective.)

If you're looking for a different reason, there's a lot of research here on Scubaboard and in older books about diving that will be quite intriguing.

You could start a new club- hobo divers.......use a garbage can and some bricks for a tank' just got to come back to the can for a breath!