When To Buy Equipment ?

[masizemore]

What affliction? I'm certainly not addicted to buying gear. I only have a dozen or so regulators (I haven't counted them lately), five pairs of fins, six masks, eleven tanks, three wetsuits, three BCs...

Thanks Paladin, I am only on my first set of all the above and you are telling me this disease just gets WORSE! For us, it was the comfort/familiarity factor. We used rental gear during our first attempt at OW.. It was an disaster for us (we had other issues but easier to blame the gear lol). During our second and successful attempt, we were at a shop that had a pool onsite and could try everything in their inventory during our training to see what worked for us. Because of that, we had bought BC/Regs/Computer/Lights/Knives/Gloves/Hoods from them (Already had mask/snorkel/boots/fins from first attempt) before our cert dives. Was better to know by instinct where everything was when we hit salt water and actual depths. I understand the budget issues though, we certified as a family so it was hit x 3 but has been a great investment as we are already diving/planning more than we would have if we hadn't bought the gear.

 

[tengsr]

I bought my reg new, and everything else was second hand. My reg is an Apex XTX50, and I'm happier than a pig in s--t every time I get to use it. The day I went to buy it I only planned on spending half as much, but when I got to my LDS and they were supposed to be closed 2 hours prior they let me in, then the owner went on a forty five minute speech about different regs, I decided that I don't want to be back within a year looking for a better reg. I think the reg was 650 or so and everything else together was about five hundred bucks. I've been considering a zeagle sar or 911 BCD for my next purchase, lots of the reviews say its overkill but who the hell knows what I'll be doing in the next ten years. I was bs'ing with a cop one time and he was telling me how hurting they were for divers

 

[tengsr]

My used BC's a peice of s--t. It has a leaky inflator, I took it apart and fixed it once but it didn't last long. I'm not spending any money on that old thing, so for now I manually inflate, I just leave the whip tucked in behind my tank