Posted by TDI_2 on July 23, 2002 at 10:01:15:
I saw a thread further on down, the substance of which was the issue of whether new dive students should buy rather than rent their initial gear during their first open water dive training course.
I believe that it makes sense to buy your own fins, mask, snorkel, booties, gloves, hood, and weight belt right away. That way you get a good fit on these items from the start. However the reg, B/C, suit, and dive computer should probably be rented, until you get some experience with these high priced items and know what to look for, before you buy them.
Everyone develops different preferences as they move along in scuba. A new dive student might be prone to buy the least expensive gear up front, which can turn into a huge mistake and total waste of money.
The more expensive the gear, the better it generally works underwater, but new dive students cant tell good gear from weak gear, and there are some entire product lines that prey upon that weakness in their designs and their pricing. [I wont mention any names.]
To truly appreciate a ScubaPro reg, you have to have rented some other brand first.
To truly appreciate a Zeagle B/C you have to have tried out any other popular cheaper brand first as well.
To appreciate a drysuit, you have to have dived in a wetsuit, on a boat, several repetitive dives, and be trembling before the day is out, before you can truly appreciate a good drysuit.
And to appreciate a good dive computer with air and nitrox features in it both, you have to become a nitrox diver first.
I would strongly recommend buying a dive computer as soon as possible, as soon as you can afford a good one, with air and nitrox features both, even though you are not a nitrox diver yet. Nitrox is perfectly adapted for dives in the 60 to 100 fsw range, and also good for shallow stuff less than 60 fsw as well. The only time you have absolutely no need of nitrox at all would be if you always stay shallower than the modern Haldane ratio of 1.58:1 which works out to about 20 ffw.
After a computer, then buying a suit would be a good idea. A drysuit if you can afford it. A well fitting wetsuit if your cant.
Then a B/C.
And finally, your reg(s). A high quality first stage, and two top of the line full performance second stages, with no short cuts.
You never really need to own your own tanks. Unless and until you go the technical route. Then everything changes, and you will defintely need a drysuit, and another tech B/C, and a total of 6 first stages and 5 second stages, and 4 pressure gauges, and twin tanks with a cutoff manifold, and an argon bottle, and up to 3 stage tanks as well. But then, that is only if you fall in love with scuba diving completely, and not everyone does. [Some divers believe you dont need a different B/C, but that is a different thread.]
Is it really necessary to buy your gear for your first basic scuba class?? It is a luxury, if you can afford it, and if you have a father or mother or brother or sister or spouse who you can trust to point you in the right direction for gear, someone who knows your budget, your real budget.
Buying your own gear before you complete your first basic certification is normally NOT a good idea, in my opinion, based on my own experience. I know that store owners would love it if you did. But it would be dicey as to whether you ended up with all the right stuff, and very unlikely.