Equipment reviews

[mndolphin]

Does anyone know where to find good equipment reviews?
I am buying my first set of gear and will be trying it on in the
water before buying. I really like reading different reviews, or if anyone has oppinions out there on things you wish you had looked for, or things you liked/ didn't like?
would love to hear from you!
Lisa

[lingfish]

Hi Hi,

I would recommend rodales as they have a very good comprehensive review of equipment that's available out there.

Check out the site, i believe it's www.rodales.com.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

[GP]

Also try divernet

[large_diver]

For Rodale's scuba diving, you want this URL:

http://www.scubadiving.com/

While not comprehensive (they don't include all brands or models), this is a good place to start.

If you are interested in regs, the next print edition of RSD (October -- I just received September) will include a "biggest regulator evaluation of all time...". They supposedly will be testing 69 regs in all price ranges, with both machine breathing scores and in water testing.

[mndolphin]

Thanks. I'll have to get that.
Any personal advice???

[GP]

mndolphin once bubbled...

Any personal advice???

You can't go wrong with Apeks, especially if you're going to dive a lot here in MN, they're very good coldwater regs.

[buff]

Dive with the MNScuba club. You can use everyone's equipment and find out what you would like to buy for yourself.

[Genesis]

MN, I bought a Scubapro Mk25/S600 and love it. I've had it down over 80' and it breathes as nicely at depth as it does at the surface.

I tried a few others. Some of the "high performance" regs will tend to "shove" air down your throat, which feels weird and I don't like one bit. Others have a definitely resistance to inhalation, which I don't like either.

I've also used mine for working on my boat (underneath it), and had to exert myself reasonably heavily while doing so. No issues with overbreathing the reg either, which is very bad and can lead to panic (and all kinds of bad things).

One thing to be aware of is that your octo (or "safe second") will always be detuned to some degree, otherwise it would freeflow like crazy if you were to take it out of your mouth with the mouthpiece facing up. High performance regs are unsuitable for secondary duty unless detuned for this reason.

Rodale's is a great site for recommendations, but the best is to find people who have gear and try using it (or renting from different places with different brands and models) if you can.

[JDostal]

Rodales isn't bad - some say they are biased...but they do give some decent info.

Otherwise, just ask other divers. We will always be willing to yammer on for hours about gear