Last night I finally ordered a bunch of gear from scubatoys. For a newbie like me selecting this gear was a serious challenge and a long laborious process that consumed three weeks of my life and, to my surprise, required more research, solicitation of advice and debate than choosing a house, a car or even a toothbrush or a tie.
It’s over now and this thread is meant to share my experiences and thank a few SB members for their help. (I started the thread on this sub-forum because most of my research was related to BCD. If it is moved I'd appreciate a PM.)
My only way of doing research is the Internet and here are my most important observations:
I. Most useful research tool is Google. It is a lot more powerful than any other engine I tried and for the most part it finds info on websites that the website-own search tools cannot find.
II. By far the largest data base on diving is Scubaboard.com. It outweighs all the other info available online added up. However, this information is poorly organized to say the least and scubaboard’s own search tools are all but useless. I had to read through thousands of useless to me posts and to use google to find info on this board.
III. Other forums contained some useful information but in general were less informative and often contained the same posts by the same people as here.
IV. Online magazines provided some useful info and have the advantage that this info is better presented and organized. Several posts on SB were critical of the articles and tests in magazines and, as far as I can judge this criticism was justified.
V. Online retailing is huge, the choice tremendous and prices comparatively low.
VI. Scubaboard community disposes over colossal amount of knowledge and members readily share this knowledge with just about anyone. Anyobody who is willing and capable of reading through all the accumulated threads on SB will learn a great deal about diving and gear. As far as the manners and ethics of the community: in general Scuababoard is above average but a lot of nasty stuff is happening here as well and particularly disturbing is the adherence to regulations of DIR, PADI etc against the better judgement of common sense.
VII.Equipment manufacturers are more useful and helpful in providing information on their and their competitor’s products than are retailers.
I would like to thank the following members for their help:
BikerManiac
bottomrunner
cool_hardware52
DA_Aquamaster
dcs917
DennisS
dkatchalov
dschulte
Ernesto
Empty V
Evil_xander
*Floater*
Henryville
JimLap
Jimmer
marksm
Narcosis_Anonymous
Nemrod
Patrick
Quero
Realdiver7
RJP
robint
paulwlee
Scubastud16
sjspeck
thien
Tiefseetaucher
timle
TN Traveler
TSandM
vladimir
WallDiver77
Waylander48
xiSkiGuy
ZzzKing
I tried to include everybody who’s contribution helped me even just a little bit. But I am human. Should anybody be displeased that a name is missing from this list, please inquire here or send me a pm and I will either explain my reasons or apologise and edit it!
My particular thanks go to:
- sjspeck and robint for their excellent advice on camcorder housing
- The omnipresent Nemrod, Patrick, *Floater*, Realdiver7 and many others whose names I cannot recall for posting loads of information on equipment
- xiSkiGuy, bottomrunner, Patrick, *Floater*, Ernesto, Quero, Realdiver7, WallDiver77, RJP, Tiefseetaucher and Joe from scubatoys for their direct recommendations
- and finally to my personal super hero dkatchalov
, who endured dozens of my questions and never lost his patience
I will add more later because I have to go now.
It’s over now and this thread is meant to share my experiences and thank a few SB members for their help. (I started the thread on this sub-forum because most of my research was related to BCD. If it is moved I'd appreciate a PM.)
My only way of doing research is the Internet and here are my most important observations:
I. Most useful research tool is Google. It is a lot more powerful than any other engine I tried and for the most part it finds info on websites that the website-own search tools cannot find.
II. By far the largest data base on diving is Scubaboard.com. It outweighs all the other info available online added up. However, this information is poorly organized to say the least and scubaboard’s own search tools are all but useless. I had to read through thousands of useless to me posts and to use google to find info on this board.
III. Other forums contained some useful information but in general were less informative and often contained the same posts by the same people as here.
IV. Online magazines provided some useful info and have the advantage that this info is better presented and organized. Several posts on SB were critical of the articles and tests in magazines and, as far as I can judge this criticism was justified.
V. Online retailing is huge, the choice tremendous and prices comparatively low.
VI. Scubaboard community disposes over colossal amount of knowledge and members readily share this knowledge with just about anyone. Anyobody who is willing and capable of reading through all the accumulated threads on SB will learn a great deal about diving and gear. As far as the manners and ethics of the community: in general Scuababoard is above average but a lot of nasty stuff is happening here as well and particularly disturbing is the adherence to regulations of DIR, PADI etc against the better judgement of common sense.
VII.Equipment manufacturers are more useful and helpful in providing information on their and their competitor’s products than are retailers.
I would like to thank the following members for their help:
BikerManiac
bottomrunner
cool_hardware52
DA_Aquamaster
dcs917
DennisS
dkatchalov
dschulte
Ernesto
Empty V
Evil_xander
*Floater*
Henryville
JimLap
Jimmer
marksm
Narcosis_Anonymous
Nemrod
Patrick
Quero
Realdiver7
RJP
robint
paulwlee
Scubastud16
sjspeck
thien
Tiefseetaucher
timle
TN Traveler
TSandM
vladimir
WallDiver77
Waylander48
xiSkiGuy
ZzzKing
I tried to include everybody who’s contribution helped me even just a little bit. But I am human. Should anybody be displeased that a name is missing from this list, please inquire here or send me a pm and I will either explain my reasons or apologise and edit it!
My particular thanks go to:
- sjspeck and robint for their excellent advice on camcorder housing
- The omnipresent Nemrod, Patrick, *Floater*, Realdiver7 and many others whose names I cannot recall for posting loads of information on equipment
- xiSkiGuy, bottomrunner, Patrick, *Floater*, Ernesto, Quero, Realdiver7, WallDiver77, RJP, Tiefseetaucher and Joe from scubatoys for their direct recommendations
- and finally to my personal super hero dkatchalov
, who endured dozens of my questions and never lost his patienceI will add more later because I have to go now.
