Does gear follow training, or does training follow gear?

A question for those of you who know.
Did training follow the development of gear, or did training influence the formation of gear?
And what about these days with many different styles of diving and different gear choices, how's that working out for policy, or is policy creating a need for different gear.

Profits drives both gear and training, thus policy will dictate innovation on both ends to drive revenue.

In my case, gear followed initial training. It is only when I started Divemaster that I added Stuff on top of own mask and finns.

Training followed gear. And my "rookie" dive gear is still better at diving than I am after some years together, so it's all good, and not that expensive ;-)

I would present a different hypothesis: my gear and training followed my interests.

First there was my interest in diving. I bought basic gear and took the basic Open Water Scuba Class. As my interests developed and my broadened I took courses and bought gear to meet these new interests. While many tools can be used for a diverse set of uses, there are also specialized tools that makes doing a job much more efficient and effective, e.g. a 9/16 box-end wrench vs. an adjustable wrench for removing a LP hose from a 1st stage.

Depending upon my goals, objectives and agendas when planning a dive(s), I coordinate those with specific training I had or will pursue and specific dive gear that I have or will purchase. Example is Cavern/Cave diving; this type of diving takes specialized training and equipment and I will supplement any lapses in both before I engage in cave diving on my own.

Eric Sedletzky:

...... how's that working out for policy, or is policy creating a need for different gear.

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The Capitalist Free Market Economy brings forth successful objects, by definition thus popular. This can drive policy of training.

Observe the grudging acceptance of dive computers by Certification Agencies. There are 15 different reasons why Agencies would have cause to resist, I don't want to go into those obvious points, but suffice to say, there's a key example of gear technology being eschewed by training.

[h=2]Q: Does gear follow training, or does training follow gear?[/h]
​A: In my case, a resounding YES

Do not buy any gear till you have completed course and have decided you will want to scuba dive in the future. Only things you should possibly buy before the course are mask, snorkel and perhaps booties and fins.

Do not buy any gear till you have completed course and have decided you will want to scuba dive in the future

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nix that. where am I going to get my barely used gear at cheap prices from? haha

I have had numerous students who showed up for class with major newly purchased equipment only to find out by the time class was over that it was poorly chosen ... either because it was ill-fitting or because it was inappropriate for the kind of diving they wanted to pursue. There are many different types of equipment out there to choose from ... and all of it comes with advantages and drawbacks. The type of equipment you choose should be based on where you dive, what kinds of profiles you're interested in doing, and most importantly, that the limitations of the gear won't hold you back from progressing the skills you need to do the dives you want to do. Poor choices can range from exposure gear that's either inappropriate or poorly fitting, BCDs with either too much or too little lift capacity, and regs that are either not optimal (turret styles or not, depending on application) or inappropriate (yoke regs for overhead diving).

My advice is, when possible, rent or borrow equipment for the class and purchase after you've had a chance to try out the equipment and determine whether or not it's right for you. Making informed choices will help you avoid buyer's remorse ... used gear can only be sold at a small fraction of what you paid for it new, even if it's only been used a couple of times.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I think the OP is talking about gear innovations in the industry not necessarily about him buying gear, could be wrong but here's both.

In any case, I purchased gear before completing training but as I was in a university that teaches technical style diving at the OW level, I bought gear appropriate for that. FWIW I still have all of it years later for my singles setup.

If I read your post correctly, the answer is gear preceded training. Most gear was around long before the training caught up to it, and most training does not specify gear because it is changing constantly. Hard backplates started as a cut up stop sign, BCD's were around years before they became standardized in training *though they actually started as milk jugs, but that's another history lesson*. Very few true meaningful innovations have come about, most of them are variations on a theme or slight improvements.

The Poseidon Cyklon was the first single hose regulator with demand valve at the mouth *the standard for almost all modern regs,until last year it was the only, but the Kraken is now out* and it was invented in 1958, it is still in production today. Oceanic Omega and Hollis 500SE are based very closely on the original design of the Cyklon and are brand new regs. Don't know dates on the lever style second stage but it's been around for quite a while. Aside from balancing mechanisms, adjustment knobs, and making the housing reversible, the regulators are all about the same as they have been for years.

Scubapro invented the stab jacket as most people know it in 1971, they are still basically the same as they were 40 years ago. Some gimmics added, but that's it. DiveRite has claim to fame for the first dedicated twinset wing in the mid 80's, but even that was just an adaptation on the single tank wings that had been out for a while. Oxycheq had the first production backplate thanks to Scott Koplin IIRC and that preceded training standards requiring them by years.

Nothing else is really "required" for training that has come out. Even in cave diving the "cookies" and "line arrows" that are used by mostly everyone are only referred to as directional and non-direction line markers.

The biggest one recently is sidemount. There is still no industry standard for sidemount equipment and there likely never will be. The gear was out decades before the training, and optimized almost a full decade before. Any major gear innovations take years of trial and real world use before the agencies will adopt it.