Rental gear

[Ber Rabbit]

When you have rented a regulator what did the console contain? Pressure gauge obviously, but was there also a depth gauge, compass or computer?

Shop owners, what's on the console of your rental string? Is it unusual to rent regulators that only have a pressure gauge?
Ber :bunny:

[Warren_L]

When I used to rent, it always came with a SPG and depth guage.

[Hallmac]

SPG
Depth
Compass
contained in a piviot console

Hallmac

[jrg]

I've never seen a rental with only a pressure gauge & no depth gauge. They usually come with a compass but not always. Sometimes you can get one with a computer in it but it costs more to rent.

[SOUTH DEVON]

Yes I once had a rented gauge that only had pressure and no depth , which I wasn't very happy about as a newbe and in the UK with poor vis you can't see the surface and didn't have a clue how deep I was !!!!!! Not recommended :eek:

[scubasean]

Hallmac once bubbled...
SPG
Depth
Compass
contained in a piviot console

Hallmac

Ditto on the equipment my son gets when we rent for him.

Sean

[erwin]

SPG and Depth Gauge

Some have compasses.

[itziar]

After 35 dives, I am still renting gear. So far, I have run across two dive shops with just pressure gauges and no depth gauges in their consoles. One of them is in Elba, Italy, and the other in Veracruz, Mexico.

Now I always e-mail the shop and ask before I rent from them.

Itziar

[Gator Diver]

I have rented analog guages that have an SPG and depth guage as well as SPG only guage. Luckily that day I knew my max
depth was only 35ft so it really didnt' matter, but still
not recommended.

Now I own an analog SPG and depth guage as well
as a dive computer. (Redundant, maybe, but
gives me peace of mind in case of computer failure)

[Damselfish]

A couple times when I was renting (many years ago) my LDS tried to give me one with pressure, no depth gauge. I think that's bogus and always insisted on a depth gauge.

[chrispete]

We're starting to rent sets with computers in the console but they're slowly being integrated into the rental inventory, so it's a first-come-first-serve basis to get the computers.

[Ber Rabbit]

One of my newly certified students and her buddy met us when we went diving the other weekend and I found out after the dives that her rental gear only had an SPG. Needless to say I'm not too pleased with the LDS because the quarry we were in is DEEP and a depth gauge is a must. Luckily she is really good about staying with her buddy even more so when she had no way to tell how deep they were without looking at his computer. I don't know what the LDS was thinking but it seems like there would be some sort of liability issue involved in turning divers out with no depth gauge. This is the same LDS that rented one student a wetsuit that was 2 sizes too big and told him it would be fine because the quarry we were diving was warm. Yeah, the one we were diving the first day but day 2 was in a deeper, cold quarry. Needless to say I sent the student back to the shop after day 1 to get a better wetsuit. This time they gave him a medium, the first one had been an extra large! GRRRRR!

I guess I'm going to have to add some assertiveness training to the OW class so the students feel comfortable telling the shop when gear isn't acceptable. I will definitely change my lecture to reflect the need to rent from a place that provides a depth gauge.

Just venting!
Ber :bunny:

[nessum]

SPG, depth & usually a compass.

[cantlogon]

SPGs and depth gauges (unless they're intro/discover scuba divers who are always babysat by the instructors at shallow sites, who get SPGs only) and...sometimes...compasses.

The primary purpose of the compasses is to fall out of the console, so the DMs/instructors can later find them & begin to stock their OWN diveshops :) Basically, we lead our people (mostly non-English speaking Asian tourists) and keep them close by...and they're told, IF they get lost, don't go swimming around in the abyss looking for your guide...wait a minute or so (generally, the guide knows where you are, even if you don't know where he/she is) and if no-one shows up, sloowwwwwwwwwllllllly ascend, then inflate at the surface, and we'll come & fetch you. I've guided about 15,500 people so far, and have never had to surface to get a lost diver yet....although I HAVE occasionally had to "sprint" after a diver who forgot the above advice (they change it to: when lost, look 5 degrees to your left. Then look 5 degrees to your right. If you see no-one waving frantically to you, swim as fast as you can, straight ahead, regardless of whether that might be into a school of man-eating squid or whatever. Hopefully, the ocean-race swimming instructor will catch you before the squid have finished tentacling you to death.)

Anyhow, in general, compasses are given out when used in a navigation exercise for students. Believe me, the LAST thing we want is a lost, not very skilled diver trying to navigate their way back to safety underwater. Since we don't do deco dives with customers, I tell them, as long as you can remember ONE direction......."up".....being lost is only an embarassment and/or inconvenience....not a hazard unless you panic & make it one.

Chris.