Ot: Scuba

WarDaddy

New member
I am looking at getting certified...

Where does one find good used equipment? I can not afford new equipment, but may be able to dig up some funds for used stuff.

any thoughts?
 
Recycler, ebay, and Dive Shop "Sale Broad". In my youth I was a commerical diver and open-water instructor. Lots of people lose interest and don't have the time or money anymore to do it. Plenty of good use equipment out there. Buy a good dive-watch and learn the old ways first. Don't rely on dive-computers your life depends on your ability in the water. Good luck and enjoy.
 
Old ways... Slide rules an abacus and sun dial, I am in!

Life is one thing I will protect, careful diver I will be!
 
WarDaddy, Be careful! these are life support systems. If you can afford; do not buy non-certified equipment from ebay ...
Sport Charlet is having sale until end of June. The Open h2o is about $125 - $175 and equipment rental is free. The next Open h2o is 6/16 in FootHill Ranch (949) 588 6044. After you get certified Open h2o there are meeting on Saturdays in Laguna and Catalina for shore & boat diving with instructors and master divers. I will be joining the Laguna next weekend.

Good Luck and Safe Diving
Simon
 
I will only buy good condition equipment, and have it inspected to verify its function.

Talk to me about the open water class... is it pool diving? how long does it take? Anything else I should know...
 
wardaddy, if you are looking for a good place to get certified, i can recommend you to my instructor. He is really great, works out in Irvine. Also, dont buy any equipment yet. I highly suggest that you get certified first, find out how much you love the sport. Rentals are usually only $50 dollars for the occasional diver, and the equipment nowadays are getting really nice.

I bought a lot of my used equipment from scubaboard.com. Its a really great chat forum with all ranges of divers.

Lets go beach diving sometime.
 
14 day trips to exotic places just aren't in the cards now that we have kids. The only alternative is local diving. I only tolerated local diving long enough to get certified. The water is just too damn cold.

I'm starting to get nostalgic. I may have to watch some old dive videos tonight.
 
I just got a ton of scuba equipment at the minnies swap meet on old newport blvd.
I got 3 suits all 7 mill
1 jacket 10 mil
1 tank
2 regulators
2 masks w snorkels
2 backpacks ( one is kinda crappy )
3 sets of fins
booties
gloves
2 anchors

all for like $200
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7566815#post7566815 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fmellish
14 day trips to exotic places just aren't in the cards now that we have kids. The only alternative is local diving. I only tolerated local diving long enough to get certified. The water is just too damn cold.

I'm starting to get nostalgic. I may have to watch some old dive videos tonight.

You always were a wuss when it came to cold water diving.....See once Bryan has his cert we can try for the "Guy's week" angle....our dad's would go away "fishing" we could go away "diving" ;)
 
yea right... if you have not noticed, there is no vacation without the family in my house.

We need to get a place where we can take the family, leave them on the beach!

Josh, dig them out, I will go get them tested. :)
 
Bryan, my certification took 7 days. We would meet tuesdays and thursday for two and a half weeks. Some of the work is done in the books and some of the skills are learned in the pool. The last two days were ocean dives. One day was beach shore diving and the other day was catalina boat diving.

I would also recomend buying all your personal stuff (gloves, booties, hood, wetsuit, mask and snorkel) and renting the rest of the stuff until you find that you really like the sport. Sport Chalet has some good stuff to rent.

There's lot of stuff to see here so have fun. Oh, and lobster season is open at the end of october. :)
 
MOST not all but most places require you to purchase your "personal gear" fins, mask, snorkle, gloves, and booties. You can rent the rest if it is not included in the class. Sports Chalet may advertise a buck and a half for the class but there are lots of extras. The class iteself with the boat trips, books, blah blah blah will run around $500. Booties and gloves can rage from $15 to 30 for low to mid range quality. Masks vary from $25 to over a hundred for a good "frameless" mask. Do not purchase masks or even look at masks due to color, brand, or price. A mask is probably the most important purchase you can make. You do not want to spend all 5 of your check out dives doing nothing but clearing your mask because it continously leaks! Save money other places if needed to get a mask that properly fits!

Beware trying to save a few bucks by buying used gear online. I rather...."frugal" customer came into the dive shop the other day and couldn't believe how expensive a reg set is (even the least expensive $250) "I can buy it online from ebay for $50" We warned him that he doesn't know what quality he is buying but he didn't listen. He ordered a used set of regs and then brought them in for us to service. The manufacturer is still in business (one of the largest still) but no longer makes servcie kits the POS he bought. I instructed him on the lifetime warantee and free parts for life with our least expensive reg (still high quality) and he finally decided he would be ahead of the game and just bought the new reg....

If your going to buy used, make sure it is face to face and have a stipulation that your going to have it checked out by a pro service tech, if there problems and it cant be serviced make sure you can get your money back.
 
oh yeah, if you want to have decent to good quality gear (split fins unless your going teck diving) plan a budget of $1000 to get certified
$500 class
$200 fins
$100 mask
$100 gloves,booties, snorkle
$100 other misc doo dads
 
Nice thread. Just as I'm gearing up (pardon the pun) for certification. Franky, where is this minies you were speaking of?
 
$100 for mask??? mine only cost me $50 and they are pretty top of the line @_@
maybe cuz i got it back then...
 
My dad had my gear. I asked him to dig it out this weekend. He said he doesn't know if he still has all my stuff.

he better! My BC was expensive, (or so he told me :) )

Josh
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7572550#post7572550 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ezcompany
$100 for mask??? mine only cost me $50 and they are pretty top of the line @_@
maybe cuz i got it back then...

try to buy a frameless mask
 
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