This nonsense about regulators being "life support' really is getting tiresome. First and foremost, any recreational diver who's life is in jeopardy due to a reg failure is doing something very wrong. If reg failure were truly life-threatening, there would be a lot of dead divers, lots of lawsuits, and actual licensing for reg technicians. I'm sure you realize that diver training is based partly on how to handle a reg failure so that you don't die.
Alright, i was just trying to offer some advice, but now I have a few more counterpoints. I agree with you that buying your own wetsuit is a good buy, but not necessarily a top three purchase, and I wouldnt be buying a BC before regulators.
You said calling regs life support systems is tiresome? I would have thought that as a Divemaster you would have definitely called a regulator a life support system. If it stops working underwater, it's not supplying gas, therefore it's not facilitating breathing is it? That tends to shorten your underwater life expectancy a little.
Reg "failures" happen, and divers HAVE died because of that, and gear service techs have been sued... even if this is a relatively rare event. If this is new to you, you need to go back to school. You might say "Well they've got their buddy there, why the hell would they die?" Have you ever seen a new diver use their primary purge button and end up with a freeflowing reg? Trust me, they aren't calmly signalling their buddy or looking for their AAS as trained. They usually freak, or try to bolt, or try to pull their buddy's reg, then THEY freak, and then you really have problems.
Sure, as professionals we're trained to deal with freeflows, but no matter what happens in an ideal world, a poorly maintained/cheap regulator can mean the difference between an uncontrolled ascent and stabilising a panic situation. A wetsuit that doesn't fit you properly isn't necessarily going to make a new diver bolt to the surface, but a hard breathing reg will if they start to panic for whatever reason.
And reg techs do take licensing courses. A dealer representative has to sign them off to say they can service gear in a basic way, in house for the dive shop, or on a personal basis to the public. It costs money and it makes them accountable for any equipment malfunctions should it come back to them that they didnt change a poppet pad or an o-ring or such.
I really wish people would stop whinging about badly fitting wetsuits. Toughen up a bit! If you make sure you pick the right one to start with when renting, you should be fine. Do five or six dives a day in any temperature of water whilst working and it might put a bit of steel in your resolve as to what is acceptable/not acceptable in terms of being a little chilly. What sort of dive operation constantly rents out wetsuits that are going to make their divers cold? I've rented loads of wetsuits when travelling and never had a problem.
-- Nemo
Just use the "search" function here and you'll have pleanty to read for over a year.
