Personal Equipment

[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!