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Ok, so here's the deal... I just finished my OW certs and I've been pining and pining over what gear to buy (I know some of you advise against this, but I prefer to be accountable for my own gear and not rely on others to take care of my gear... I think it's a military thing). My LDS have been great, and offered tons of advice, but unfortunately, they have only the most basic of gear for rent/trial. It comes down to the fact, that I would like to take the advice from you all out there, and help use your experience to guide me to what roads I need to go down.
Here's the setup: I'm in Okinawa, Japan and will be doing all of my diving here for the next three years. I will definitely be doing the AOW, Nitrox, Deep Diver, etc courses, and would like to at least be a DM by the time I have to leave the island. I already have a Sherwood Magnum II, and a Mares X-Vision Liquidskin mask, snorkel, ScubaPro 5mm wetsuit, 2mm gloves and TUSA X-PERT Zoom Z3 fins with springs. I would like to spend around $1500 to have everything (or at least darn close) that I would need, and that ideally will last quite some time.
Now, I'm not asking anyone to go scour the internet for me and find me the best prices, but I would like to know what each of you would do in the situation provided. Approximations of prices would be just fine, but if you do know of a deal, I'd love to know that as well.
I know this might be a lot to ask, but I also know that some of the best opinions of the subject matter are right here on the board. As always, thanks in advance for all of your help!
If you are going to do all of those cert. First I would ask my insrtuctor. My 2 cents is that I would buy a back plate,wing That way you are only going to by your gear once. And it will grow with you in the sport of diving. Regs are what you want. And can get serivced where you are. Hope this helps you Red.
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Dive Safe
(Dive Within Your Training)
And only work on your gear if you are trained to do so and have the right tools.
Red Sullivan http://www.bluewaterdiving.com
The question I always ask back in this situation is, "what do you want to do?" What kind of diving are you planning to do?
As you've stated that you would like to be a dive master, is that your ultimate goal? Do you wish to do that professionally, or only as an academic exercise? If it is to work as a diver master, a BP/W might not be the best investment. Although I prefer a backplate, as do a lot of other divers, many shops discourage them for professional level staff, such as dive masters.
On the other hand, if your goal is DM now and eventually moving into tech --and the DM is just a step along the way, then I would recommend a DiveRite BP/W (probably the venture wing for what you are doing now) with a hogarthian rig. It is very expandable and can be easily modified for technical diving.
The other thing I would recommend is at least two tanks, whatever is the most popular type there. The reason for that is, if you own your tanks, you will be able to keep them ready and dive at will, as opposed to having to head to a shop to picku up rentals. I have found, those people with their own tanks simply dive more. It's not the sexiest purchase but it is very practical.
Aside from that, you seem to have a lot of gear already. One thing I've learned, if you find a piece of gear you especially like, your mask for example, buy a second one as a back-up. I do that with things like masks because you never know when the manufacturer will stop making them. Also, keeping an extra mask, set of fins, etc. handy means if you or a buddy forget something, you have a spare at hand.
Before you buy anything, ask yourself, "what is the purpose for this tool and how will it fit into my diving?" I've found that is a good way to avoid buying things I don't need or buying things that are inadequate for the job.
That's the problem, there's too much cool stuff! Appreciate all the input though, and the kind of diving is a very important question. I WOULD like to teach eventually, and as of now, the tech aspect of diving I don't see anywhere in the too near future, though I would never say it would be out of the question.
Teach, then look at what your instructor used and what is in the PADI/CMAS, etc videos
BCD, could be back inflate, as long as it looks standard, loads of lift as you will be carrying lead for two.
Short primary, long secondary secured center of the body and a bright colour.
Preasure and depth in a boot available for demonstration
etc etc, and oh yes you need a snorkel.
Now for your own diving I would recommend a completely different setup.
BCD or BP/W with minimum lift
Short hose secondary on bungee or AIR2 / Equivalent
Long hose primary (48" is long enough as you are not going tech)
NO SNORKEL (only useful for beating buddy who forgets his mask)
Wrist dive computer, maybe air integrated
Small preasure guage on a short hose, NO boot
Shears on lanyard in Pocket.
I know there are tons of regulators out there, and I don't know very much about most of them, but we bought Aqualung Titan LXs as our first regs, and that was one LDS purchase I still think was very well done. They were middle of the road on price, and they have performed entirely satisfactorily under a wide variety of temperatures and depths.
I dive a backplate and love it, but if you are going to DM for a specific shop, you'd better check with them as to whether they will permit you to use that equipment. Absurd as it is, some shops just won't allow it.
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My dive journal can be read here, and a current dive blog HERE
It's not absurb that shops require their staff to wear specific gear whether it be brands or styles, etc. Stores survive on equipment sales and if their staff isn't wearing the gear they sell it sends a clear message to the students / customers to buy their gear elsewhere.
My PADI instructor did not wear LDS specific equipment, however he was positive about the products the shop sold and I did purchase my original equipment from them. Much of which I am still using after 17 years. My BCD (92) finally died in Bali, but my 1970's mask and fins (bsac) are still going strong.
If you look after your gear it will last a very long time, however fresh water pools with clorine will shorten the life.
If you intend to teach then maybe you can persuade the shop to provide suitable equipment so you can choose your own gear for pleasure diving.
Personally I would spend some time diving, get a couple of hundred dives under your belt, before you decide on any professional qualification (DM etc), dive in tropical waters, dive your local quarry, dive on vacation.
You may decide that a professional diving qualification (DM, Instructor) is not for you.
I think you should buy lightweight travel gear, get as much diving in as you can is as many different environments, then decide what you want to do.
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