kfish64
Registered
Good morning all! New member to SB here, checking in from Wasaga Beach (a couple hours from Tobermory), and I'm hoping to pick the brains of the esteemed members here. I'll try to keep this short, but who am I kidding. First, a very brief history:
- I began my sub surface life in 1979, just before my 15th bday, as a certified NAUI skin diver;
- by 1991, I finished my formal training with my PADI DM certification;
- I worked casually as a DM until 1995;
- over the years, I logged WELL over 1000 dives (I stopped logging at 1000 out of sheer laziness), everywhere from Tobermory, to Florida, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and Vancouver Island (where most of my dives were);
- I eventually stopped diving altogether in 1999, mostly because my career in the army was sending me all over the place and my motivation to seek out new dive buddies every few years had evaporated.
Now, after a 30+ year army life, I've retired and my wife and I have begun our life of travelling. I taught her how to snorkel a few years ago in Mexico, and after just returning from a Caribbean cruise a couple weeks ago, she's CONSIDERING getting her OW cert -- the snorkelling in Bonaire & Curaçao clinched it for her and reignited my long-dormant passion.
IF repeat IF she gets her OW, we're going to limit our diving to warm water holiday dives (I've done enuf cold water dives, and my body's a little broken in places from the army). Problem is -- after scouring the web and checking out a couple LDS, it's painfully clear to me that ALOT has changed with the gear, especially BCs vis-a-vis BP/W setups (I started with a Dacor horse collar and graduated to a bare bones Sherwood jacket). BP/W setups had only just started coming out when I decided to stop. And though several manufacturers I'm familiar with are still going strong (Sherwood, Oceanic, USD, Scubapro, etc), there are many that are new TO ME.
I don't want to go bonkers buying gear cuz I'll just be doing warm water tourist diving, but I expect I'll want us to get our own regs, gauges and BCs (already have MFS). And it's the BCs that have me the most "confused" -- jacket or BP/W?
I'll admit 3 travel BCs intrigue me:
Oceanic Jetpack
Oceanic Biolite
Scubapro Hydros Pro
I visited a LDS and they spoke highly of a Halcyon Traveler, but when I tried it on, I found it terribly uncomfortable. The build quality seemed top notch, but what's the point if it doesn't feel good?
Advice? Suggestions? I'll take them all.
And yes, before I actually submerge somewhere tropical, I'll most definitely be taking some refresher training -- DM or not, it's been 17+ years.
- I began my sub surface life in 1979, just before my 15th bday, as a certified NAUI skin diver;
- by 1991, I finished my formal training with my PADI DM certification;
- I worked casually as a DM until 1995;
- over the years, I logged WELL over 1000 dives (I stopped logging at 1000 out of sheer laziness), everywhere from Tobermory, to Florida, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and Vancouver Island (where most of my dives were);
- I eventually stopped diving altogether in 1999, mostly because my career in the army was sending me all over the place and my motivation to seek out new dive buddies every few years had evaporated.
Now, after a 30+ year army life, I've retired and my wife and I have begun our life of travelling. I taught her how to snorkel a few years ago in Mexico, and after just returning from a Caribbean cruise a couple weeks ago, she's CONSIDERING getting her OW cert -- the snorkelling in Bonaire & Curaçao clinched it for her and reignited my long-dormant passion.
IF repeat IF she gets her OW, we're going to limit our diving to warm water holiday dives (I've done enuf cold water dives, and my body's a little broken in places from the army). Problem is -- after scouring the web and checking out a couple LDS, it's painfully clear to me that ALOT has changed with the gear, especially BCs vis-a-vis BP/W setups (I started with a Dacor horse collar and graduated to a bare bones Sherwood jacket). BP/W setups had only just started coming out when I decided to stop. And though several manufacturers I'm familiar with are still going strong (Sherwood, Oceanic, USD, Scubapro, etc), there are many that are new TO ME.
I don't want to go bonkers buying gear cuz I'll just be doing warm water tourist diving, but I expect I'll want us to get our own regs, gauges and BCs (already have MFS). And it's the BCs that have me the most "confused" -- jacket or BP/W?
I'll admit 3 travel BCs intrigue me:
Oceanic Jetpack
Oceanic Biolite
Scubapro Hydros Pro
I visited a LDS and they spoke highly of a Halcyon Traveler, but when I tried it on, I found it terribly uncomfortable. The build quality seemed top notch, but what's the point if it doesn't feel good?
Advice? Suggestions? I'll take them all.
And yes, before I actually submerge somewhere tropical, I'll most definitely be taking some refresher training -- DM or not, it's been 17+ years.