Personal Equipment

[Mndiv]

Hello,

I am signed up to take my open water certification on the 25th-26th weekend at Aquaventure Dive & Photo. (I am 15 years old)

Like many (I assume) I am very anxious to buy my own gear, but my budget is $1200 tops. I have gotten several good prices (online) and am looking forward to looking into my own gear at the dive shop (which I fear might be more expensive)...

When did you guys get youre gear? Do you advise getting it right after OW certification or to wait a little while to gain expirience/preference?

Anything helps! Thank you!(:

[jasondbaker]

Welcome to mnscuba and good luck with your open water certification.  I'm sure you will do fine.  You are embarking on an amazing lifetime journey which you are so lucky to begin at a young age. 

I recommend waiting a bit to buy most of your gear.  First, it's a sizable investment for a 15 year old and you want to make sure that you actually like diving before buying a full set of gear.  Sometimes people's perception of what diving is like doesn't match up with reality and they give up the sport after a short time. 

Second, you may not know what type of diving you would like to do.  Gear that is suitable for warm ocean diving is not necessarily suitable for our regional cold water diving.  If you plan to dive locally your best bet is to buddy up with a couple seasoned local divers and ask them why they made their particular gear choices. Oftentimes divers make poor choices when buying their first set of equipment.  If you asked everyone in the forum to raise their hand if they have made this type of mistake most members would have their hand up (myself included). 

If you must purchase some gear to reward yourself after the certification then choose something like a dive computer.  It's fun to play with when you aren't diving and even if you make the wrong choice it has reasonable resale value.

When you are ready to buy equipment I would definitely buy the regs from your local diveshop.  That way you have someone who can provide the annual service for the equipment.  I've purchased 2/3 of my equipment from local dive shops and 1/3 online.  My rule is that if I have to try the equipment on to test the fit then I should reward the local diveshop with the purchase. Also, there's nothing wrong with buying used equipment that has been properly serviced and maintained.   

Feel free to ask us questions about any of the gear you are considering.  Get feedback from experienced divers here before you lay down your cash.  Good luck and have fun!

[aknelsonone]

As mentioned I would wait to get equipment. There is no reason to hurry.

What you need first are the basics; wet suit, fins and mask. All other items for diving can be rented.
Make the cost calculation how many times you will rent versus owning equipment and important maintain the equipment.

I started dive travel with basic stuff. and rented Regs and BC etc. every time as part of the dive package. This worked and is cost effective.

After a few trips I learned to look a the equipment especially regulator sets and realized that my own regs would eliminate poorly maintained rentals. I got tired to dive with leaky stuff and complain about. It takes away from a week vaccation. Bad BC's are no problem you learn to deal with it.

I rented computers for resort diving for many years. However did not dive in MN a lot.
Because i did more local diving and did more classes,
The next item was an air integrated computer. Also here I would say renting for a week is still more cost effective unless you dive in MN more than a couple times.  javascript:void(0); 

After many annual trips south for diving I still rent. Here is the reason: Why you want to carry a BC or bulky fins if you can rent them?
We travel usually with regulators mask and computers the rest of the equipment we rent for a week.

Andreas

[mcdiver]

I would personally recommend renting your dive gear for awhile. Try different brands from different dive stores to see what works best for you. It is not that a certain dive store has better gear than the other, it's just that it may not be what best suits your diving, and that will change over time as you become more experienced.

The one thing you can not go wrong on is purchasing your own dive computer, I would get one where you can download the dives onto a laptop. The information it will provide you will be very valuable. Computers can track your depth, breathing rate, water temp, even your pulse. It can tell you your starting and ending air pressure, you can even enter the dive site which will be a good reminder of past dives.