scubadudeaz
Registered
Hi! I'm pretty new to scuba diving - my only experience so far is an introduction to scuba dive off of Catalina Island at Camp Emerald Bay with my son who's a Boy Scout. We're both great swimmers and love the water, and we loved that experience so we're working on an Open Water certification right now.
We completed the online training this past weekend, and are getting ready to do the pool portion and the open water portion in Lake Pleasant.
We headed down to the dive shop and had them look at the gear we already had. We each have a 7/5 wetsuit and they said those were good. They took one look at our 'us divers' mask, snorkel, and fins and said these were ok for skin diving but not good enough for scuba. This didn't really surprise me, and they recommended a $150 package for my son which has gear that will work but isn't great - but on account of the fact he's growing it would probably be good enough. But then they went and showed me $270 atomic fins, $100-$200 masks, $70 boots, $60 snorkel. So were talking $400-$600 for mask, snorkel, fins, which kind of surprised me. It all looked like serious quality gear so don't get me wrong - for the gear they were selling their prices look good compared to what I'm seeing online. But... I know things aren't cheap but dang.
Wondering what the 'minimum' required level of gear really is for scuba, so I can figure out some sort of middle ground.
Also, I went on craigslist and people are selling full sets of gear (including wet suit, mask, snorkel, fins, bcd, tank, dive knife, etc) for between $500 and $1000 for what they claim is $2,000 to $3000 worth of gear. Looks like I could get a full setup for about the cost of new mask/snorkel/fins! And I can see by the pics that a lot of this gear is in great condition, probably only used a couple times until the person lost interest in scuba. So, I guess I'm wondering what people's experience is with buying used gear. I figure even if some of it isn't up to snuff I'll still have most of what I need and can purchase any missing or bad pieces new or what not.
Anyway, those questions were what brought me to this forum and I'm sure they're not unique. Was very happy to find this place and get plugged into this awesome dive community. Looking forward to meeting you in the water
We completed the online training this past weekend, and are getting ready to do the pool portion and the open water portion in Lake Pleasant.
We headed down to the dive shop and had them look at the gear we already had. We each have a 7/5 wetsuit and they said those were good. They took one look at our 'us divers' mask, snorkel, and fins and said these were ok for skin diving but not good enough for scuba. This didn't really surprise me, and they recommended a $150 package for my son which has gear that will work but isn't great - but on account of the fact he's growing it would probably be good enough. But then they went and showed me $270 atomic fins, $100-$200 masks, $70 boots, $60 snorkel. So were talking $400-$600 for mask, snorkel, fins, which kind of surprised me. It all looked like serious quality gear so don't get me wrong - for the gear they were selling their prices look good compared to what I'm seeing online. But... I know things aren't cheap but dang.
Wondering what the 'minimum' required level of gear really is for scuba, so I can figure out some sort of middle ground.
Also, I went on craigslist and people are selling full sets of gear (including wet suit, mask, snorkel, fins, bcd, tank, dive knife, etc) for between $500 and $1000 for what they claim is $2,000 to $3000 worth of gear. Looks like I could get a full setup for about the cost of new mask/snorkel/fins! And I can see by the pics that a lot of this gear is in great condition, probably only used a couple times until the person lost interest in scuba. So, I guess I'm wondering what people's experience is with buying used gear. I figure even if some of it isn't up to snuff I'll still have most of what I need and can purchase any missing or bad pieces new or what not.
Anyway, those questions were what brought me to this forum and I'm sure they're not unique. Was very happy to find this place and get plugged into this awesome dive community. Looking forward to meeting you in the water