Anguish over buying gear

[laurelgsc]

I think the folks at Seaventures will price match if you see a better price on the internet. They want your business so go in and show them what you found and they will do their best to work with you. I don't work for them, just a happy customer.

 

[bruinfan]

Not knowing too much about the quality of the gear out there, but just looking at it from a cost standpoint... $1300 seems super cheap. If you factor out the cost of the class (the avg class in the los angeles area is about $400, usually inc 1 boat dive and 1 day shore dive), you are at $900 for alot of stuff. All that extra stuff after BC (knife, slate, bag, et al) has got to be at least $200 retail, no? I know alot of the packages I've seen are at least $1000, incl reg, bcd, octo, computer. Again, I am not well versed in the quality, but cost wise alone, it seems to be a no brainer. Esp if the class is included.

And it can't be good etiquette to try stuff on at the LDS and buy somewhere else.

 

[laurelgsc]

It's just the classroom and confined water training included with this pckg. Even so I paid $325 for just that. You have to pay extra for your open water dives which seems to be SOP here in the ATL.

 

[maj2]

Lots of good advice so far.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is to be sure and get gear that she will be able to use for any kind of diving she may get into.
Your fiancee is Canadian. If you will ever be doing a significant amount of diving in Canada, be sure you get regulators that will perform well in cold water. We have some great dive sites, but many can be a bit on the cool side, even in summer.
The owner of my LDS says it well- "There is no such thing as bad dive gear. Just bad gear choices for the kind of diving you may be doing."

 

[Calamari68]

excellent points everyone!

laurelgsc- thanks, I plan on bringing in my list of stuff to see how they compare. I am sure they will work with us. Sue wanted to get the package so the course was included. I was surprised that the final dive was not local! But going somewhere is fun too!

maj2 - thanks for the advice. Sue is from Windsor and we were there for Christmas! Santa brought me hockey skates! Can you believe we have rinks here in Atlanta? But I doubt we will be diving much up that way... I am a wimp when it comes to being cold. But I am sure we will do it sometime. As far a getting gear, I tend to buy the Good stuff when it comes to critical gear. No point in saving $$$ if your life depends on it! I have ppl rag me for spending $700 MSRP on a motorcycle helmet when I could have only spent $100. I just look at them and say " My brain is worth at least $700 to me. How about you?"

 

[craborn]

yearly annual service is very important when buying gear. I always advice people to buy the equipment that has to be serviced from your LDS. Keep them in business if they are reasonable with prices.

 

[Scuba Brad]

Agree with Carborn...........even through we are a web site we service everything we sell.

Happy Diving