I agree and disagree with rivers. If you acquire your own gear, it makes going diving SO much easier and, although you had to jump the financial hurdle of buying stuff, you don't have to tell yourself it will cost you $200 every time you go diving . . .
You probably already own your mask, fins and snorkel -- at least all the shops where I live require you to buy them. So really, you are looking at exposure protection, regulators, and a BC. Exposure protection for Florida spring open water basins and salt water will be a wetsuit, but how thick a wetsuit depends on how much of a cold wimp you are. Wetsuits have to fit to work well, so recommending a particular brand is difficult, since they are cut differently.
There really are no bad regulators out there (liability pretty much ensures that) but be aware that you probably don't need the top-of-the-line, most expensive, most bells and whistles reg. Check where you live to see what is sold there, because that will give you an idea of what you can get serviced locally. You can buy a lot of brands on line, and some of the places from which you buy them will provide service, but then you have to budget a couple of weeks to get work done -- which is not prohibitive, just something of which you need to be aware.
BCs are the most controversial and probably the most frustrating thing to look at. First off, unlike other dive equipment, there are some really poorly designed BCs. In particular, integrated weight systems can be either very difficult to load, insecure at holding weights, or difficult to pull weights from. In addition, there are very definite individual preferences in BC design, and some designs work better for certain body types. For example, I am a small-framed woman, and had trouble finding a standard BC that fit me well and held the tank stable on my back, but the first time I dove a backplate and harness, I was SOOOO happy. Other people prefer jacket style BCs, where the air bladder wraps around the body, because they like the effect of sitting in a life ring on the surface. You can read a ton of stories of BCs people have bought and liked on SB . . . and sometimes, if you take a look at that person's subsequent posts, you'll find out that six months later, they changed their mind . . .
If you have some more experienced divers who can give you a hand, buying a used BC can be a very good option. I know that, when we sold the ones we originally bought, we took a HUGE loss on them, and they were still in excellent condition and quite usable. You SHOULD have the inflator on a used BC serviced after you buy it, which will add to the purchase price, but you can still do very well with used gear. (Same with regulators, but the service costs may be quite a bit higher -- in our area, you would need to budget about $125 for service, which will often destroy much of the price advantage of buying used.)
Accept that, if you turn out to really love this sport, you may well replace a lot of what you buy now, just as anyone who becomes passionate about an activity will generally end up upgrading the equipment they have. But buying gear now will get you in the water, and getting in the water is how you build skill, and diving, like many other things, is much more fun if you are reasonably good at it.