Why not just buy a sheet of neoprene and neoprene cement and make your own hood, boots and gloves like we did in the 1960s?
Concerning gear, I have a set of Fins I got from Goodwill that were Aqualung department store (probably Costco) Fins. I took them into the pool, and found that for easy kicking, they were adequate, but if any power was placed on the fin, it basically folded and provided no further kick force.
I have these masks from the same source, and had the strap buckle break with normal handling. I looked, and the bar that held the strap was made of plastic. I had three of these mask buckles break on me (I test mask/snorkle combos in the pool). Scuba and free diving masks have much more robust retention systems, many of which still use stainless steel buckle parts.
Masks-1 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
These masks are decades old.
IMG_2455 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
These two masks suffered catastrophic buckle failures.
IMG_2456 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
This is the plastic part which failed.
If you want good equipment, look to your LDS rather than a department store lookalike.
SeaRat
Concerning gear, I have a set of Fins I got from Goodwill that were Aqualung department store (probably Costco) Fins. I took them into the pool, and found that for easy kicking, they were adequate, but if any power was placed on the fin, it basically folded and provided no further kick force.
I have these masks from the same source, and had the strap buckle break with normal handling. I looked, and the bar that held the strap was made of plastic. I had three of these mask buckles break on me (I test mask/snorkle combos in the pool). Scuba and free diving masks have much more robust retention systems, many of which still use stainless steel buckle parts.
These masks are decades old.
These two masks suffered catastrophic buckle failures.
This is the plastic part which failed.
If you want good equipment, look to your LDS rather than a department store lookalike.
SeaRat