Help me spend my money on dive gear :)

[James R]

I live in San Antonio - I have no desire to be stimulated towards local diving I'm a tropical kind of gal :cool2:

That's a shame...you are within an hour's drive of some nice, relatively warm, clear-water diving. Practicing & diving locally will make your dives in the tropics a good bit better.

 

[knowone]

I'm just happy your pear tree has borne fruit
without the apparent necessity of explanation

 

[FireInMyBones]

Glad to hear about the class. Save money on the computer and get a simple Bottom Timer. It will be a little more work to use but will save you money and make you more conscience of how you dive.

 

[driftwood]

That's a shame...you are within an hour's drive of some nice, relatively warm, clear-water diving. Practicing & diving locally will make your dives in the tropics a good bit better.

I already mentioned the Diving for Science class. Clear water, 72 degrees year round, lots of fish and plants, no admission fees and free air fills after your dive.

 

[Amphiprion]

Since you live in San Antonio, there are a lot of lakes nearby to practice. A tank might be a good choice. Renting always seems like a good idea on saturday morning but having to return it after work on monday evening is a pain.

Other suggestions would be to get a nice LED light or to purchase a second regulator with SPG, no octo. This way, if you break something on a dive trip, you will have spare parts.

 

[markmantei]

If you don't plan on doing much local diving, then don't bother with the tanks. I'd go for the computer, wouldn't want to (although could if I had to) dive without one.

 

[scubafanatic]

being in San Antonio, you might consider using that $ to cover most of the cost of a weekend liveaboard trip to the Texas Flower Gardens (FLING or SPREE). It's an relatively undiscovered very pristine dive site in your own backyard (road trip), where you can make new local dive buddies, gain awesome real world experience.

Most dive ops/liveaboards who ask you about your dive experience, if you tell them you dive the Flower Gardens, they have immediate respect for you...it's considered 'big boy' diving...and you will gain far more usable/real world diving experience than taking any number of classes in your local pool/quarry....plus, again, it's awesome diving!

(the Texas Flower Gardens are the only place I've ever seen Whale Sharks, and only the 2nd place where I've ever seen Giant Mantas!)

 

[theskull]

being in San Antonio, you might consider using that $ to cover most of the cost of a weekend liveaboard trip to the Texas Flower Gardens (FLING or SPREE). It's an relatively undiscovered very pristine dive site in your own backyard (road trip), where you can make new local dive buddies, gain awesome real world experience.

Most dive ops/liveaboards who ask you about your dive experience, if you tell them you dive the Flower Gardens, they have immediate respect for you...it's considered 'big boy' diving...and you will gain far more usable/real world diving experience than taking any number of classes in your local pool/quarry....plus, again, it's awesome diving!

(the Texas Flower Gardens are the only place I've ever seen Whale Sharks, and only the 2nd place where I've ever seen Giant Mantas!)

FLower Gardens is one of the best buys in dive trips! My trip there ranks among my "Top Ten Dives" list. We did go during the coral spawning season!

theskull

 

[TexasKaren68]

Good grief, my dive shop was wonderful about letting me return the slightly used Slingshots which I hated, but now I have another $190+ in store credit. Sigh!

My dive shop doesn't carry Oceanic dive computers which I was interested in based on my research. They do have Aeris so I'm off to do a little more research.

 

[Bratface]

Nothing more annoying than a newby with a camera. I say put it towards a computer.