I was also recently certified at Western Divers in Casper. It's a great place and the people are very nice, but here in Wyoming there aren't many local options. I don't live in Casper, and my work schedule doesn't allow much time to get down there to get outfitted, so my only option to get what I needed before my trip was to use the internet. The internet has it's pros/cons. It's useful in researching different brands of gear and discovering things the LDS may not have, yet the downside is that you don't have direct access to the items to try on, ect... None of the gear I've ordered yet has come in, but I feel relatively comfortable that it'll all turn out ok since I spent hours researching each peice.
Buying some equipment
- Thread starter scubajb
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You can save a ton of money buying online and still get great gear with great service. If you know what you need, how to inspect and adjust it, and are willing to live with your mistakes. I doubt that you are there yet. But educate yourself about your online options to keep from getting screwed by your LDS.
I find it amusing to see so many saying most dive shops will match online prices. Maybe some will but if it was true for any significant number then there wouldn't be so many people buying online, in fact the online dealers would have never gotten a foothold. And dive shops wouldn't spend so much energy badmouthing online dealers and bullying the divers who use them.
I find it amusing to see so many saying most dive shops will match online prices. Maybe some will but if it was true for any significant number then there wouldn't be so many people buying online, in fact the online dealers would have never gotten a foothold. And dive shops wouldn't spend so much energy badmouthing online dealers and bullying the divers who use them.
jsmharley
Contributor
ShrkDvr1980:
Wow an online divelog, better not get in the water without this, you might die!
I spread my money around to a couple of the local dive shops. Its nice to have them nearby.
I do research prices on-line and will not pay a whole lot more locally than I would spend on-line. Most LDS will try to work with you after you develop some kind of relationship. But a lot of what I buy is nickel and dime stuff, and its a lot easier to go down the street and pick it up.
Jeff
I do research prices on-line and will not pay a whole lot more locally than I would spend on-line. Most LDS will try to work with you after you develop some kind of relationship. But a lot of what I buy is nickel and dime stuff, and its a lot easier to go down the street and pick it up.
Jeff
ffhamm:
I find it easier to just open my front door and take the box from the UPS guy.
halocline
Contributor
Bear in mind that many brand new divers immediately go out and buy full gear packages only to find that they replace much of the gear as they get more experience in diving and realize that they bought stuff they don't really want to dive with for the long haul. Also, as lots of people get excited about diving at first, buying the whole gear set up is part of the newness and excitement, then they don't actually end up diving much. These two things are part of why there is so much used dive gear available.
So, probably the most useful advice I could offer at this point would be for you to go slowly and really investigate different options for each part of the gear puzzle. There's a huge amount of hype in dive gear purchasing. Just a few short decades ago divers did lots of very demanding dives with gear that's considered very modest by today's "standards."
I'd start by first deciding where you're going to dive in the conceivable future, and buy exposure suits for that environment. If that's the caribbean, get 3 mil suits for each of you; fit is everything in a wetsuit, so visit some dive shops and make sure they fit you perfectly. The snazziest hi-tech titanium super stretch high end wetsuit in the world will make you miserable if it doesn't fit, while a regular no frills neoprene suit with no bells and whistles that fits great will make your diving experience much nicer.
Buying a reg is easy; any decent entry level reg by a major manufacturer like aqualung, scubapro, oceanic, zeagle, and mares will work just fine....don;t let anyone talk you into a high performance reg with the B.S. "it's your life, so spend more." The safest regs around are the simple downstream workhorses like the SP MK2, aqualung titan, zeagle envoy. One thing you want to consider is parts and service availability in the locations you will be diving.
BC purchase is much more involved as there are various styles which do act differently in the water and the only way to know what's best for you is to dive with them. I'd rent for a while, and don't spend alot of money until you have tried several.
You could buy almost any wrist computer and be fine with it...there are big differences in the way different computers calculate nitrogen loading and off gassing, with the most conservative of those touting extra safety. But, there are absolutely no statistics that support this claim. It's certainly not a bad thing to dive with a very conservative computer, but best and most important is to dive conservatively regardless of your computer's calculations, especially watching ascent rates and overall dive profiles, as well as the many contributors to DCS that computers know nothing about; hydration, physical fitness, abstaining from strenuous excercise after diving, etc. You're going to find out that on single tank rec dives (especially with the typical AL80) you'll almost never get into deco situations provided you're sensible about depth, profile shape, and surface intervals. Consequently, I end up paying attention to hard dive data like depth and dive time, and of course ascent rate, that the computer provides rather than NDL, which is any computer's "best guess." Since ALL the computers give you that data, it doesn't make too much difference what you dive with in those scenarios. Once you get into double tanks or much larger tanks with longer and deeper dives, it's a completely different story; those situations are best done with much more training and computers (or software) designed for those specific dives.
So, probably the most useful advice I could offer at this point would be for you to go slowly and really investigate different options for each part of the gear puzzle. There's a huge amount of hype in dive gear purchasing. Just a few short decades ago divers did lots of very demanding dives with gear that's considered very modest by today's "standards."
I'd start by first deciding where you're going to dive in the conceivable future, and buy exposure suits for that environment. If that's the caribbean, get 3 mil suits for each of you; fit is everything in a wetsuit, so visit some dive shops and make sure they fit you perfectly. The snazziest hi-tech titanium super stretch high end wetsuit in the world will make you miserable if it doesn't fit, while a regular no frills neoprene suit with no bells and whistles that fits great will make your diving experience much nicer.
Buying a reg is easy; any decent entry level reg by a major manufacturer like aqualung, scubapro, oceanic, zeagle, and mares will work just fine....don;t let anyone talk you into a high performance reg with the B.S. "it's your life, so spend more." The safest regs around are the simple downstream workhorses like the SP MK2, aqualung titan, zeagle envoy. One thing you want to consider is parts and service availability in the locations you will be diving.
BC purchase is much more involved as there are various styles which do act differently in the water and the only way to know what's best for you is to dive with them. I'd rent for a while, and don't spend alot of money until you have tried several.
You could buy almost any wrist computer and be fine with it...there are big differences in the way different computers calculate nitrogen loading and off gassing, with the most conservative of those touting extra safety. But, there are absolutely no statistics that support this claim. It's certainly not a bad thing to dive with a very conservative computer, but best and most important is to dive conservatively regardless of your computer's calculations, especially watching ascent rates and overall dive profiles, as well as the many contributors to DCS that computers know nothing about; hydration, physical fitness, abstaining from strenuous excercise after diving, etc. You're going to find out that on single tank rec dives (especially with the typical AL80) you'll almost never get into deco situations provided you're sensible about depth, profile shape, and surface intervals. Consequently, I end up paying attention to hard dive data like depth and dive time, and of course ascent rate, that the computer provides rather than NDL, which is any computer's "best guess." Since ALL the computers give you that data, it doesn't make too much difference what you dive with in those scenarios. Once you get into double tanks or much larger tanks with longer and deeper dives, it's a completely different story; those situations are best done with much more training and computers (or software) designed for those specific dives.
u/h2oguy
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scubajb,
If you decide to go with an online purchase my vote is go with ScubaToys, like everyone says, great service and prices. I bought a Brigade bcd from them and love it. Very versatile and something to grow into. I am in Northern California with lots of choices and still prefer online, it's easier. Like ReefHound said, "I open my front door and take the box from the UPS guy"
An FYI in regards to buying at Leisure Pro if anyone has noticed alot of their pricing is coming up to msrp. i.e new regs from Oceanic and Aqualung, does that mean they are going to be an authorized dealer soon? but that is another story (so please let's not start on that "authorized" thing again) they do have good prices for accesories and "stuff".
And I do agree with the comment about LDS pricing being higher. By the way most of the online stores are "brick and mortar" locations too, so this comment about "overhead" is bogus.
Maybe spend a little more with the idea of "growing" into your equipment.
Good Luck, I am in the process of looking at a reg/octo set-up myself.
If you decide to go with an online purchase my vote is go with ScubaToys, like everyone says, great service and prices. I bought a Brigade bcd from them and love it. Very versatile and something to grow into. I am in Northern California with lots of choices and still prefer online, it's easier. Like ReefHound said, "I open my front door and take the box from the UPS guy"
An FYI in regards to buying at Leisure Pro if anyone has noticed alot of their pricing is coming up to msrp. i.e new regs from Oceanic and Aqualung, does that mean they are going to be an authorized dealer soon? but that is another story (so please let's not start on that "authorized" thing again) they do have good prices for accesories and "stuff".
And I do agree with the comment about LDS pricing being higher. By the way most of the online stores are "brick and mortar" locations too, so this comment about "overhead" is bogus.
Maybe spend a little more with the idea of "growing" into your equipment.
Good Luck, I am in the process of looking at a reg/octo set-up myself.
u/h2oguy:
Actually, there was this thread recently that LP is in fact becoming an authorized Oceanic dealer once they are in compliance with MAP.
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