First Time Equipment Purchase

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

kmaass

Registered
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
Location
NYC
Hi,

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post but I am looking to purchase gear to get my certification and for an upcoming trip.

Would purchasing it at the same place I take lessons at be a wise decision, or should I look for equipment myself. I'm wondering if the store I'm taking lessons at will have the best equipment or if it will be marked up quite a bit.
 
LeisurePro will generally have the best prices anywhere. There are others online (Scubatoys, etc.) that are competitive, but since it's in the neighborhood, you're probably best off buying from LP. I have not taken training from them (I don't know if they even offer it), nor from their local competitors, Village Divers and PanAqua. Do a search on Village Divers--there has been some conversation about their training. I have dealt with Pan Aqua on a few occasions and they were very professional. They seem to be more oriented towards the training a new diver would be seeking. Will they be happy if you buy all your equipment from LP and take your course with them? I doubt it. The difference in price will be substantial, I would expect.

Hopefully you will get responses from divers who can recommend individual shops or instructors based on personal experience of training with them.
 
Showed up during my first pool training session with a complete set of "brand new" diving gears. Not just the basic mask, fins, snorkel, booties and wetsuit, but including the BC, regulator and a dive computer, all brand new.

After 4 years of diving, the only thing left is the mask and snorkel which I am still using at present. Except for the wetsuit that was used until it was worn out, everything else had either been donated, or sold at "dirt cheap" prices.

My advice? it would be best to get your certification first, thereafter, and in the meantime, after earning your certification, dive with rented gears so you'll be able to try out a lot of brands, befriend a lot of divers and get their opinion on the gears they own or are using. Once you have started zeroing on a particular brand, make a research in the independent forums and get as many feedbacks possible before you make a purchase. In that way, you won't be spending unnecessarily and will not be in a situation where, after buying something, you'll find out that there is another brand which will better serve your purpose and requirements.
 
Hi,

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post but I am looking to purchase gear to get my certification and for an upcoming trip.

Would purchasing it at the same place I take lessons at be a wise decision, or should I look for equipment myself. I'm wondering if the store I'm taking lessons at will have the best equipment or if it will be marked up quite a bit.

If by "gear to get your certification" you mean what's often called "personal gear" - mask, fins, snorkel, maybe booties, maybe a wetsuit if you're a tough fit - if they have stuff you like that fits and you're ok with the prices it's not a horrible thing to do. Buying from your local shop in most places will cost more. Since your local shop could be Leisure Pro and for all I know the others have to compete with it, maybe not so much. There are all sorts of arguments about supporting your local dive shop vs. possibly paying much higher prices.

But if you are talking about buying major gear like reg, BC, computer - most people shouldn't be buying that stuff before getting certified. It's hard to know what will work for you before you've even tried it, and there's a very high likelyhood of deciding in a few months you bought all the wrong stuff (which will for sure be more expensive.) You can do lots of research but that only goes so far. And there's always a chance you might have problems doing it or not like it.

The other thing is, many shops only sell a few brands of equipment. You may very well discover the best choices for you are something your shop doesn't sell, so I think starting out by limiting yourself to one shop is a bad idea.
 
Hi,

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post but I am looking to purchase gear to get my certification and for an upcoming trip.

Would purchasing it at the same place I take lessons at be a wise decision, or should I look for equipment myself. I'm wondering if the store I'm taking lessons at will have the best equipment or if it will be marked up quite a bit.

Get the mask and snorkel those are personal items and should be purchased, wait with the rest of the gear as you do not know what you will like, may be you will like a jacket BC, may be BP/W, you might like DIR setup or you might fall in love with vintage diving. There are a bunch of styles and switching from one to another is costly. Get your certification research as much as you can , try as much configurations as you can and then decide what you like.

All my gear that I have purchased before the course, except the reg is now sold and I'm now diving completely different setup, if only I had known about this forum before I would not had purchased a lot of things that I had to sell later.
 
I am looking to purchase gear to get my certification and for an upcoming trip.
This suggests you are looking well beyond the 'personal' gear - mask, fins, snorkel, boots - and includes regulator, BCD, exposure suit, etc.
Would purchasing it at the same place I take lessons at be a wise decision
It is probably wiser to work through the store where you are taking lessons, IF you plan to have a continuing relationship with them after certification. If you picked a LDS simply because they happen to offer a course at the particular time you need it, but it is very unlikely you would continue to use them (they are a 60 minute commute away from where you live/work, or you already don't care for the atmosphere, whatever), then the answer is 'probably not'. If you picked them for convenience, or their friendly, welcoming approach to you as a new diver, and you anticipate continuing to do business wth them in the future, then the answer is 'probably would'.
or should I look for equipment myself
I usually don't recommend that new / uncertified divers purchase equipment themselves, without any input from more experienced divers or instructors. You can do it, you are free to do lots of research, to consult with unknown electron emitters (like me) on SB, to spend your money as you see fit. But, I wouldn't recommend what would essentially be a blind purchasing decision. Part of the value of a LDS is supposed to be the personal interaction and, ideally, the experience and (dare I say it) 'wisdom' that you should get as part of the purchase price.

I have seen a number of cases where people bought essentially an entire rig - exposure suit, BCD, regulator, even a dive computer - along with the personal items, BEFORE strating their OW class, because they wanted to train in what they would use during and after certification, and/or they had a scuba trip planned immediately after certification. Our LDS actually discourages that at the OW level (gently, with comments such as, 'We very much want to help you with your first gear purchases. You might find it helpful to get started in the class with the equipment we use with students, and then come back right after you finish, before you take your trip, and we'll work with you to get you outfitted.') But, we will not refuse a sale to a committed customer. Sometimes, in those cases we and the customer are simply lucky - we put them in gear that turns out to be very well-suited to their post-certification needs. Sometimes, it does not work out. In one case I remember, one of two divers (of a husband/wife pair that bought complete rigs before starting training) never made it through certification, and the spouse was left with two sets of somewhat expensive, essentially new, but now 'used' gear, that would not be used by them again.
I'm wondering if the store I'm taking lessons at will have the best equipment or if it will be marked up quite a bit.
That is difficult to answer on SB, for two reasons. 1) What constitutes 'best equiipment' is quite subjective. Most shops carry several major brands, certainly not all. And, most major brands provide a spectrum of equipment choices, from simple, but functional and inexpensive, all the way to unnecessarily 'trinket-ized' and overpriced. The 'best equipment' for you is ultimately what you find to be most comfortable and functional - its fits YOU well, it provides the functionality YOU need, etc. And, as others have already said, you need to gain some experience in the water before you know what YOUR needs are. 2) Each LDS will have a mark-up. But, business practices differ substantially among shops. I would not expect every LDS to match LP or Scubatoys prices. That doesn't mean that the lowest price is the best criteria for value, either. Nor, do I expect shop prices to be 2 (or 3, or 4) times what the larger online vendors may charge. I am a LDS supporter, I have received enormous value from my association over the years, and I believe that a good LDS is worth every penny they charge. But, I know that every LDS is not the same.

A good starting point - speak to the staff in the store through which you are taking lessons. If they immediately take the 'I know exactly what you need, and we have the ideal package for you right here' approach, run away, very fast. On the other hand, if they offer thoughtful comments, ask questions about YOU, and what you think you might want, and suggest that you might want to spend some time in the water before plunging into gear purchases, then they might be a LDS worth doing business with.
elan:
All my gear that I have purchased before the course, except the reg is now sold and I'm now diving completely different setup, if only I had known about this forum before I would not had purchased a lot of things that I had to sell later.
And, this experience is not uncommon. Part of the reason is that we have little / no power of discrimination as a novice, and are led (or misled) into purchases that don't suit our needs. But, in fairness to all, at least part of the reason that our first equipment purchases often end up being sold, and new equipment purchased, is that our needs evolve as we develop as divers. My first BCD was a Zeagle Ranger, bought within 6 months of certification. I still have it 10 years later, but haven't dove it in 5 years at least. It is a GREAT BCD. I loved diving it. But, I evolved to a different rig as my diving interests expanded, or became possibly more focused. I don't regret the decision. But, if I had to do it again I might have asked about a BP/W, for example.
 
Last edited:
I think you have gotten some good advise, being newly cert. myself, I can tell you what not to do.

Do not send in your better half to represent you for purchases. I told my husband what I wanted and did not want. For the most part, he did very well with my wishes. However, he failed on my octo. I did not want a swival, the store talked him into this "really great" octo. Swival and had a magntic. Sounds great until you get in the water. Magntic comes undone and octo drags everywhere and it is diving solo. Breathes wet, "but that is how it is suppose to work." So, yesterday, I replaced it with a balanced Hollis octo. Yesterday, while in the pool, I thought I would have a melt down because of this octo. Talking through my reg. my husband understood what I was saying as I was cusing this thing. After wards went to the dive shop and bought the Hollis. They also talked him into an air2, which I told him I did not want or that he should get one. Well, yesterday, after the pool, he had his replaced with a traditional octo and inflator hose, he also picked the same octo I did. He should have listened to me in the first place.:D

Follow your own thoughts on what you want and don't let the dive shop change your mind on this great new thing they just got in. Try a few different things and see what works for you. What sounds good, is not always the case. Wait until after your class and see what you want out of diving, where you want to go with your diving. After my OW class, I quickly learned, I needed more training. I was something a long the lines of needing training wheels with a tricycle. My first thought was a bp/w but was talked out of that. Now in May I am taking my GUE Primer class and heading down that route. I would go with the wait and see mode before you buy. You never know where this will lead you.
 
My experience with my LDS must have been unusual because I did everything people here say not to do. My wife and I did end up buying all new equipment (except for our regs and my wife's BCD) from my LDS before our first dive trip, however we had the opportunity to do pool sessions in the same gear we were going to purchase. The only thing we're changing is my wife's reg (which we bought used from the shop).

I will say my LDS was amazing to work with. They didn't just put me in something they had available, they asked me so many questions I almost thought they were trying NOT to sell me the gear. In the end, I ended up with the Zeagle Ranger and my wife has the Zeagle Zena, both with the Octo-Z. We took them on a trip to Roatan and were thrilled with the performance of everything but my wife's reg.

So, I guess it just depends on luck and how much interest your LDS takes in finding out exactly what kind of diving you plan on doing. Oh yeah, as far as the LDS being more expensive, NOT true in our case. We researched online before we purchased and our local shop was either the same or less than what we found on the internet. If we did find an item or two cheaper, the guys immediately matched the price! Now that's service! Good luck and have fun!
 
Thanks for all the great replies and advice! I wasn't too clear in my original post, I am only looking to purchase the basic equipment, the place I am going on vacation to has equipment provided to me for free. I plan on bringing fins, mask, wetsuit, etc. down there but no more, nor do I plan on purchasing more. I have lessons set up for PanAqua, but plan on at least checking out Leisure Pro to compare equipment before I buy from either PanAqua or LeisurePro. Based on all the advice here it sounds like LP is the way to go, but PA also offers some discounts on equipment when taking classes there as well.

Anyways, the plan is to check out both places and buy the equipment from one of the two stores. It sounds as though I should be able to use most of the basic equipment in the future.

Thanks again for the advice!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

Back
Top Bottom