Hi Paul, I truely wish there was an anti venum. As it is my wife manages to control the disease, but only just manages. (She is still convinced we need food)
Seriously, I flopped back and forth on buying the gear before our first trip. And while I only have the one two week trip to compare to... I loved the stuff I bought except for the free rambo knife (its never seen the water).
When I compare my gear to the rental stuff, no brainer. At the very least, you cant go wrong with mask, snorkle, fins, and wetsuit. ( I am not interested at all in donning one of the rental suits. Just not sure what has gone on in them )
I loved getting familiar with MY gear and ensuring it was in working order. Yes it was new, but still a pre trip and pre dive check, made me feel confident that equip issues would be minimal. I expect to use it for a few years at least. Cant think of what I want to upgrade yet.
But here is another of my thoughts on gear.
A trip for my family of 4 to mexico averages around 12k. A complete set of gear came in just shy of $1800. We do a trip approx once per year. If I use the gear for even 5 years. that is $360 per trip. $360 / $3000 is approximately 10%. So if by increasing my cost of only 10% I get good equipment I am confident in, its a no brainer. Why risk a $3000 trip on some rental stuff that can ruin all of my plans. When its my stuff, I am in control.
Plus the upside of owning, is now that I have the gear, I need to use it right? (see my wife can only control the disease for so long...) So I am now looking to plan a trip to the Canadian west coast this summer (havent told her I might need to buy a drysuit yet, but my birthday is coming up. After all I need to get my money's worth out of my other stuff...)
?
