What is everything I need?

[TSandM]

I don't know a lot about the Edge regulators. I don't know anyone who uses them, but the HOG regulators are very popular in our neck of the woods, and they're good regs. I can't tell from the page about the package whether the regulator will come assembled, or whether any hoses are included -- and you will have to buy at least a pressure gauge and HP hose to go with that setup, so you are probably looking at over $400 by the time you are done. Check out Dive right In Scuba and see what they have in that price range.

My friend Dan Volker swears by his free diving fins for scuba, but for most of us, they are too long to walk in and very awkward on a boat. There ARE inexpensive paddle fins to start with, like the Deep See Pulses I use in the pool. For my taste, they are too flexible for ideal power, and if you are interested in spearfishing on scuba, you might want to post in the spearfishing section here, or on Spearboard, to see what people prefer. That's a totally different kind of diving from what I do.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I recommend to anybody who is willing to listen to take up freediving for a couple years before starting scuba.
The watermanship skills, ocean acclimation, and freediving dynamics makes for an excellent scuba diver later.

I'm going to tell you what is the standard and what serious freedivers use.
To freedive you will need:

Two piece beavertail skin in wetsuit w/ attached hood (needs to be lubed up to get in)
Some good brands are Omer, Picasso, Yazbeck, Cressi, Riffe, and there are many others.
Freedive socks
Full foot freediving fins - I like Picasso Black Team
Fin keepers
Gloves
Weightbelt - rubber w/ weights
Low volume mask
Large bore straight freediving snorkel - no valves or gizmos
Speargun appropriate for type of fish targeted and location.

Where I dive we use shorter powerful guns for shooting lingcod and rockfish. The vis is low enough at times that a longer gun would not be practical.

It's also nice to have a float tube or boogie board as a platform to work from and put fish etc. and a place to put stuff like a bottled water and a fishing license in a water tight case.

Taking a performance freediving course is a bonus too, although not necessary to get started.

Find some good buddies to go diving with.


For scuba:
The only thing you will be able to use would be the mask, gloves, and maybe the weightbelt.
Everything else in the above list is just for freediving.

Enough people have already posted about the rest of the scuba stuff so it's pointless for me to repeat it.

 

[beaverdivers]

Don't forget your airplane!

 

[SolarStorm]

All I know is that, I thought this was an answerable question at one time. Now I realize, YOU NEVER HAVE ENOUGH!

There is always one more light, filter, wetsuit, drysuit, noisemaker, SMB, knife, fins, gloves, save a dive kit, log book, lubricant,... etc.

Oh, yeah, not to mention another closet to store it all in.