Overwhelming gear choices.

[aquacat8]

I noticed you said Fl...and I noticed you said rock climbing. I don’t even have one yet and I’d recommend a BP/W for you. It is like a climbing harness, soon you will understand it and customize it and happily screw around with it and reconfigure it and order parts for it and drop into a cave country dive shops and pick up little stainless thingies for it, or figure out how to carry a pony bottle on it, and geek on variations of it, and you won’t be embarrassed by it when you meet your new cool Florida dive buddies. Rock climber type is different than your average Rec diver, even if new to the sport.

 

[Centrals]

"Killer deal on regs and it came with an Uwatec transmitter"
I hope the "killer deal" has nothing to do with the inclusion of the transmitter. And what regs did you buy in the end?

 

[84CJ7]

Something I repeat whenever the frequent topic of too many differing gear opinions on Scubaboard comes up.
Don't look at WHAT a person is recommending, look at WHY they are recommending it and decide if that's a good reason that applies to you.

Also on the topic of a back plate and wing only being for technical diving, most technical diving gear works far better and often costs about the same as regular recreational gear, so you might as well get the tech stuff from the start. The disclaimer there being understanding why someone would choose something, you don't need a wing with 50lbs of lift and redundant bladders for a single tank tropical dive for example.

I have bought every piece of gear I own at least twice because I didn't understand at all what I needed or wanted to do in diving.
Its best to optimistically decide where you will eventually want to go in diving and buy based on that. You want to be training with the same package you will be using in the long run because gear changes suck when you get back in the water. Just a simple change of fins from my Volo Race recreational fins to some HOG tech oriented ones which were much shorter and heavier totally destroyed both my trim and buoyancy and it took flailing around like an idiot in the water and then some careful shifting and dropping of trim weights to get things sorted. Now I love the fins and wish I had started with them as the short rigid fin makes a massive positive difference in tight maneuvering.
But I digress.

I ended up with an air integrated computer in the end because it allowed me to ditch a bunch of hoses and other crap and put all that data on a bungee wrist mount that I can always see (compass on wrist now too). I don't care about redundancy because its not decompression or overhead environment diving, so if it craps out (never happened) I just abort the dive and start my ascent. I carry my old 3 gauge console and dive table (and actually my old non integrated computer) in my dive back to be quickly reinstalled for dive 2 in that event. I also have spare batteries which are easy to change on site and warn you long before they die.

Another few bits of truth: unless you are amazingly lucky you WILL buy mostly the wrong gear for the future you early on and you WILL spend a ton of time fiddling with it changing out pieces and reconfiguring the setup after finding out how it works and feels in water.

 

[RayfromTX]

I bought an Aqualung Zuma as part of a package and soon upgraded to a backplate and wing that removes the few limits that the Zuma forced on me. Based on your post, if you were here and were a friend of mine, I would sell you the Zuma for 1/2 of what I paid for it and you would be set for the near future with a back inflate bc that is good enough. If you later decided to make a change, you would recover most or all of your money on the Zuma because you got it cheap. They and others come up for sale here on a regular basis. I didn't like the BCs that wrapped air cells around my body.

Good Luck.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

If you’re on budget I would buy cheap used BC’s on craigslist or eBay. When that one wears out get another used one and wear that one out. You’d probably be at the 20 year mark by that time. At some point you might look into a plate and wing, but for now don’t let that hold you up.
For computer I would only buy a new one. Get a wrist computer for $300 or less. That will be fine.
That’s just me, I don't mess with used electronics. New is new with warrantee.
If buying computer is more than you can deal with right now then use tables with depth gauge and watch/timer. But honestly, you can get a cheap computer for less than those two things combined. I see Mares puck going for $159.
The algorithm might not be ideal but for simple recreational dives they work just fine.

Get in the water and have fun.

 

[aquacat8]

Yeah what @Eric Sedletzky said! In the water you go

 

[Prostardiver]

Good luck with your FIRST set of gear. More will come later.

Once you have it all sorted out, you must put it all on and do the happy dance in your living room.

That must be in the book somewhere.

 

[Centrals]

Overwhelming gear choice? I was in the same situation.
Take your time and don't rush. Make your first purchase last and try not to fall into the trap of "upgrade".
Fins is the most difficult and tricky.
Good luck and shop smartly.

 

[Littlerayray]

Good luck with your FIRST set of gear. More will come later.

Once you have it all sorted out, you must put it all on and do the happy dance in your living room.

That must be in the book somewhere.

I believe it's on page 83 right before the requirements of doing your 100th dive

 

[Nathan Doty]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've made my choice and they are set in stone. Until I change my mind :laugh: I've decided to go with a back inflate to get the trim characteristics and still be using gear similar to what I've used in the past. Specifically I'm looking at the aqualung rogue. The dive shop has 1 in their rental line up, will let me play in the pool with it before I rent it as well. And in Sept they sell and replace all their rental gear, so if I do like it I can get a deal in the not too distant future.

I'm taking my daughter in for a "discover scuba" session next week and I'll try it out in the pool while we're there, get to breathe through my regulator for the first time too

"Killer deal on regs and it came with an Uwatec transmitter"
I hope the "killer deal" has nothing to do with the inclusion of the transmitter. And what regs did you buy in the end?

I found a shiny and new looking scubapro mk25/s600 combo with the transmitter buried in a pile of old and nasty regs at a pawnshop. Old sherwood regs and older than dirt computers they had priced for way too much money, and the sp set under it all priced at $150. I ended up talking them down to $100 I'm pretty sure someone really didn't practice their google-fu before they priced it.

I sold the transmitter on ebay for $50, so I'm into my regs for about a tank of gas. I also picked up a mares puck pro and spg for $130, $180 total in my rig. I know the computer is basic but it will do nitrox and I'm not going to be doing anything fancy for quite a while.

I took everything in last week and had it serviced and inspected. There are a lot more o rings in those things than i anticipated. The tech says it doesn't look like it was ever used so big wins for me!