Beginner Gear

[diverbrian]

I will rent my BC and guages till I can afford it.

Not from the LDS I frequent you wouldn't. They rent whole regs with gauges. THEY WILL NOT RENT INSTRUMENTATION ALONE. This is to prevent the possibilit of people from damaging the rental gear by taking hoses on and off. That is considered a maintenance task and customers will not be allowed to do maintenance on gear belonging to the shop. You would have to buy your gauges with the reg. or not use your reg.

 

[ScubaFishee]

Jack45 once bubbled...
I am on a tight budget and I am trying to get into the sport. This is the best I can do so if I have to be tacky then that is what I have to do. Paying for two people requires me to be tacky.

Since you're just now buying all the basics like mask, fins, boots, and snorkel, it sounds like you haven't even taken your classes yet. Perhaps you should wait to get into the sport until you can afford to do so properly -- and ethically.

One of the first things they will tell you in class is "Scuba diving is an equipment intensive sport." Translation: EXPENSIVE. VERY EXPENSIVE! And the costs won't stop after the purchases you've listed.

If you can't afford to get started, how do you expect to afford to continue afterwards? Who else are you willing to steal from to support your hobby? Surely your lack of funds will justify you not tipping the crew on boat trips, right? Annual servicing of gear can be overlooked when you're poor too, huh? And of course, insurance is definitely an expense you can do without, yes?

Quite frankly, your laissez-faire attitude is quite frightening to me. I'd suggest you put your money in the bank until you have the proper funding, attitude and maturity to venture forward safely.

And please remember, your LDS is not there to subsidize your diving. They are not the Diving Welfare Agency.

 

[Diversauras]

Well said

 

[MikeFerrara]

Diving is for people with money.

As a new diver you my find that you need more than a good price. You don't owe anything to the shop but I think you should let them know what you're planning and see what they can do. I hate it when customer just assume I can't do anything and buy someplace else. Often they find out later I could have done better for them.

Last week I had a guy sign up for a class and wanted to buy everything right then and there. As bad as I need the money I suggested he wait til after he gets part way through the class because we spend a good deal of time talking about equipment.

Another thing I can tell you is that the divers who studied with us and took our equipment recommendations into concideration can usually dave better and save money or get more total benefit for the money in the long run.

Free sample...

Assuming some prior info on bc's as to what you like...as a new diver you may have a very hard time getting any consistancy in your diving performance using a different bc every time (as when renting). The benefit you could gain from just this one piece of advice alone is worth a little extra cash.

Of course there have been plenty of people who have taken an entire day of my time and used every bit of advice I gave them and then bought somewhere else. Maybe I'll just charge a flat rate consulting fee. LOL

BTW, You never know for certain if a mask will work until you dive it (until you get some experience in fitting them). For just a couple of bucks more (if that) you could get it from the shop and if you have trouble in the water they'll likely swap you on the spot for one that works better.

 

[cornfed]

seadog once bubbled...

Try things on for size at your LDS and then ordering online is, shall we say, tacky at the least. IMHO

It's not tacky; it's bull$hit!

If you want to buy things online, then go ahead and do it. But remember that in doing so you trade price for service.

I bought my computer online but my picked up my regs in person. Why? Because I take the computer out of the box, I slap it on my wrist and off the boat I go. My regs, which happened to be my first set, were a completely different story. I spent (a lot) of time talking to the people in the shop about what I wanted and where I thought my diving was going. There are two very experienced divers there and the helped make sure I got something I won't outgrow. The assembled everything and tested. Later when I wanted to change things they helped me adjust everything and showed me quite a bit about regs in the process.

Whenever I go into the shop they are both happy to see and eager to help. If they help you get fitted properly and you then go shopping online I wouldn't expect either of these to be true, Jack.

Cornfed

 

[ouachita]

Don't feel married to someone just because you received instruction in their shop.

ALL dive shops are money hungry and don't care about anything but getting in your wallet. If you can get it online cheaper go for it. There are two dive shops here and all they care about are stabbing each other in the back and getting in your pocket. I now buy from a guy thirty minutes away just so these losers who certified us won't get a dime of our money. I hope they lost their A** on my instruction and air fills. I laugh when I go in to get airfills locally knowing that the guy thirty minutes away made a huge profit on my wifes gear.

Dadgum that feels better. Thanks for letting me vent. BTW I have bought two full sets of gear at local shops. I wouldn't buy something online and then take it to a shop for service.:wacko:

 

[PaulB]

I felt a certain loyalty to the shop where I got certified at. I bought my equipment piece by piece from them. They treat me good in return. I get free air fill cards, discount on trips, etc.

 

[aquagirl]

I'm a little surprised how hard most of these postings have been on Jack45. All I can interpret from his posting is that he wanted some feedback on gear he has chosen. Apparently there are a lot of loyal LDS consumers or perhaps a lot of LDS staff online. While I would have loved a good relationship with my LDS, I felt no camaraderie that would make me feel obligated to buy with them. In fact, when we signed up for the course and they told us we get 10% off, I never thought about buying anywhere else until I saw they had limited gear. They never had any prices listed, they just gave you a price off the top of their head (so it seemed). But what really urked me was that they had very little gear for me (a petite woman) YET they were PUSHING me to buy a larger size. Why? probably because that's all they had. That changed my impression of them. My husband bought some of his stuff there, and I bought my fins there but we then realized we should search around. From then on, anything went. We shop in different places depending on what we need. I see nothing wrong with buying something on-line if you know what you want and are sure about the fit.

 

[cornfed]

aquagirl,

I keep the "local" in LDS somewhat loose. There are three shops "near" me. The first and closest (15 min) is just like you described. They're pushy an expensive. I went in to talk to them about a regulator and they tried to sell me a BC -- a crappy over price one at that. They recently changed store brands and guess what they're pushing now.

The second shop is about a half hour away. I did my AOW with them and rented gear for a while. They don't care the brands I want and they only have one or two things from the other manufactures. The last time I was in there they had TWO BCs on display. Some of the part time staff doesn't even dive so who knows what kind of help they can provide. To top it off the owner advocates tech diving without proper training and doesn't see a problem with solo diving. These are two things I feel strongly about. All this adds up to a shop I don't feel I should patronize.

The last shop is 45 minutes away and they get all my business now. Like the first shop, they recently changed their main gear line. They didn't really change they just added Dive Rite because they got tired of special ordering it. They still carry their other line but figured that DR is good gear and if that's what people want they weren't provide much of a service if they didn't offer it. The only problem is that I can't just run in and pick something up. This isn't due to the distance from me (they are on the way to the closest quarry) but because we end up shooting the $hit for half an hour! They're a great bunch and really helpful.

If you don't like the closest shop you need to find another. There are plenty of places around so don't feel like your LDS needs to be the closest one.

Buying online may save you some money but you loose the service and camaraderie that make this sport fun. Then take a new diver that is so excited about the sport they can't wait to get all their gear and dive all the time. Online purchases seem like the way to go but they need the service and assistance that a good shop can provide more then anyone else.

Cornfed

 

[gt2003]

Wow, I'm glad I didn't start this thread! My wife and I are fixing to get certified in about 3 wks. I've been scouring the internet looking at gear and comparing prices. Of course, the online prices are much, much cheaper, as much as 55 bucks on a pair of fins, 25 bucks on a single mask compared to the local dive shop. So, it looks like a good deal but you can't replace the value of service and knowledge.
For instance, I am a bowhunter and literally drive 1hour 45 minutes from my house to get all my archery gear even though there are many archery pro shops close to my house. I won't even let anyone locally even touch my bow. WHY? Service, KNOWLEDGE, service, service, service. I literally can't walk into the shop without the owner taking my bow from me and making sure its tuned right and ready to shoot. Would I get that at WalMart? Hell NO! This guy even invited my wife and I down to stay with them for the weekend and shoot at their house because he knows I'll follow him wherever he goes because he is such an expert and is quite anal retentive about his workmanship. I appreciate him and he appreciates me. I feel confident every time I'm in my deerstand that my equipment won't fail me. Please consider this when buying your gear. I needed a little reminder to and this gave me the kick in the pants I needed. Guess I'll ask what kind of a package deal he'll give my wife and I on equipment, SUCK IT UP, and buy it from him. Hell, the mans gotta eat. Can't wait to share some diving experiences with you all. Local Oklahoma diving this summer, off to Cozumel in February. See Ya, GT