Rent here, buy here, rent there????

How about some advice?

We are taking our 2nd dive trip to Coz this year. We own fins, mask, snorkel and shorty wetsuits. For our Coz trip, I was thinking of renting gear in our hometown and taking it with us. Here's my reasoning:

- they rent Scubapro and Oceanic stuff - pretty good gear from what I undertand
- we'd be familiar with the gear before we go
- we'd be familiar with the computers before we go

The downsides are that we'd have to lug all that stuff around airports, etc.

The other option is to rent there, but we had mixed results in Belize last year doing that - even with high-end Mares BCDs (one leaked, and DM gave my wife another diver's gear once) and my wife's regulator leaked water somewhere!

We could also buy, but for two of us, that's a little more than we want to spend at the moment (Despite my name "H2ODoc", I'm not a Phy$ician!). Also, we have 3 kids under 7 years old, so at most, we'd probably use the gear once per year.

I guess we could buy regs and computers to start if that were recommended. The dive shop that we would use (Flatirons Scuba) also sells last year's rental gear in the spring, so that could be an option also.

I'm sure all this has been asked a kabillion times, but thanks for your advice anyway!

(70 degrees here in Colorado today! Don't worry, though, midwesterners, we had -18 degrees last week!)

Well lugging home town rental gear through airports is no worse than what you would be doing if you owned so it's not extreme torture or anything. Renting locally would give you the advantage of testing if they have a pool you can try it in. The downside is that if something does act up while you are away you will be paying for a repair/adjustment of shop gear or setting it aside to rent resort gear anyway.

In my brief experience around resort dive shops the care of rental gear has not impressed me. I was mocked for rinsing my BC bladder for instance. Seeing how other divers care for rental gear does not inspire faith in using it next either.

If possible it's best that you start accumulating some of your own scuba gear. That is the key to getting some mid year local diving into your lives.

If you are both comfortable in a rental BC then start with the regulator set and computer if your diving demands it. If have trouble acclimating to different BCs then start there since it's the core of everything you are trying to master.

Freshly serviced season old rental gear can be a good value. Be sure to benchmark the selling price.

Pete

Thanks Pete.

I think the shop that sells last year's rental gear overhauls everything before they sell it. At least that's what they say . We took did our OW classes at the YMCA and the instructor had nothing but good to say about this particular shop - I don't think he has an affiliation with them.

I was comfortable with the rental BCs, but maybe my wife should buy one here since she had issues with rentals before!

Thanks again...

I like having my own gear for all the obvious reasons. If you can handle the hit maybe get one set of regs and computer this time. If you buy good quality things maybe you can swing a free rental for the second set or a real good deal? Worth a shot, everything is negotiable these days.

I have rented from home (Ontario) and locally on vacation. Initially I bought into the whole "why carry gear with you when you can just rent" philosophy. I had good experiences with the former (renting at home and carrying with) but never had a 100% good experience with the latter - something was always leaking/broken/etc. The worst was when the inflator jammed on the BC and I was desperately dumping just to avoid shooting to the surface (ultimately had to disconnect the inflator tube and manually inflate which, as you can imagine, meant the end of the dive). I still get nightmares about that one. My opinion is that local saltwater rental gear is just never going to be 100% reliable. It takes too much of a beating and doesn't have consistent monitoring of performance. I would trust rental gear from a freshwater environment slightly more because I think it takes less of a beating. First choice is buying.

Mel

IMO renting from your LDS is better than renting in the Caribe. As you stated, you know the gear is solid, and you are familier with it. Just get clever with your packing for the airport shuffle!
Convenience in the airport isn't worth more than your safety!

Owning your own gear is the best. If you can't afford it right now, then its OK to wait and keep renting the familiar/dependable gear from your LDS.

me and my fiance are going to belize in april and are new to diving we decided to buy our own stuff due to the fact we could train and learn with our own equipment and be comfortable (i know it is backwards to some people)but at least you know what you have and found oceanic equipment from visibility unlimited talk with cathy it is very reasonable priced and she is a authorized dealer and knows her equipment to me this is the way to go thats just my .02

another vote for own your own. on average, most gear rents for between 5% and 10% of purchase price per day, so unless your shop offers special weekly rates you'll drop a fair chunk of change renting for a trip.

Buy here or rent here, that way you know what you are diving with, you know that it works and you know it fits.. I've seen some pretty crapy stuff as "rental" gear, nothing that was totally non functional but I never had a dive that did not have some sort of PITA issue.

My wife and I don't have any issues with the airport.. but we as a couple are pretty low maintanance... the regs and camera gear go in the carry on everything else in checked. We don't even use a dedicated dive bag unless we are looking to use the sporting goods exemption on the airline. 1 large suitcase each is the norm for charter flights. that sees us fully kitted up (less tanks and weights) Reg, BC, Mask, Fins, wetsuits, camera, strobe, shears, tool kit, lights, spare lights, signal lights .. heck even snorkles!

As a past caribbean DM upkeep of rental gear came after rinsing the boat, then happy hour for the free food then caring for my gear...

The stateside shop I worked for rented alot of gear and If someone reserved gear and it was 6 months out from service we did it anyway. If something failed during your trip if you came back with a recipet we would give you the cost of repair or rental.

If your going to by a reg system here tell the shop you would like a couple of BC rentals "on the house" as you will be buying those too down the road.

It seems that some people are more prone to dive if they have their own gear and you know how its been taken care of.

You can even use it local (pool is good practice and warm) or even shallow summer stuff down at the Chatfeild ponds or the Aurora res both have not to bad of vis.

I was impressed with Flatiorns when I stopped in there, seem to be good people.