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Just my opinion, I own everything. Diving is a sport where a faulty piece of equipment can ruin the day and possibly your life. So, I buy quality gear and maintain it carefully. When I travel I pay the extra bag fee and rent just weights and tanks. Another consideration is comfort, style and hygene.
If you love diving, and do it often, then get the most out of it.
Safe diving................ Joe P
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lerpy - 8/23/2011 9:56 AM 
In agreement with the others. Buy your gear, especialy the important stuff like regs. Buying your own you get to know your local shop and know the guy fixing it and servicing it. Don’t skimp either, spend the money on quality regs, afterall this is what keep you alive under water, its worth it. A BC try some different styles, and buying a used BC is a good idea to save some cash. I prefer a harness system like the Scubapro night/lady hawk, or a wing and backplate. These will help keep you more horizontal in the water. I personaly use a Dive Rite Harness with wing, and regs I use scubapro MK 25 with the s600 second stage.
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The other guys pretty much covered it and I agree with both. Last year I did two trips. The first to Cancun where I rented everything, and I was very uncomfortable. They gave me snorkel fins instead of scuba fins with a bootie. The BCD was a vest style inflate vs my normal back inflate. Etc.... My second trip to the Bahamas I decided to take everything but tank and weights. Boy was I glad. I was instantly more comfortable and able to better enjoy the dives.
The only two other items I always want my own to bring along is a BRIGHT dive light, and a good camera to record the memories. I’ve bought and sold all of my UK D-cell heavy dive lights in the past. I couldn’t afford the expensive technical can lights. There are many choices, but I really like my Intova Super Nova if you can find them. Brighter than most lights and the rechargeable internal battery lasts through any full day of diving plus some. Any dive, even in full day light is more enjoyable with a good light. You get to peek into all those cracks and crevices. Plus the color you lose at depth really pops. I won’t even get into camera suggestions. There are encyclopedias of opinions on the subject. But my basic peference is for small, durable housing, high MP, strobe a must.
Good luck.
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Tanks should be your last buy if at all, I use 80’s for boat dives but 72’s for shore dives.
You need to do the math, how many local dives, rent vs own, will you ever recover the price of the tank(s) plus the hydro and VIP cost?
When I drive to NC or Florida I take my tanks which helps offset the cost of ownership but I probably don’t want to look at what that extra 130 pounds is doing to my MPG.
Renting a computer is a bad idea, I took a loaner on a dive trip because they were collecting data for DAN and misread the time remaining putting me into a deco that I hadn’t planned for!
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Well from I have read I think everyone has hit the nail pretty much on the head..
I would as other suggested get a good regulator set up, if all your diving is air the need for a computer is mute as long as your comfortable with your divetables, however if you do Nitrox dives then absolutley go with a computer.
If you use wrist mounted or console is strictley a decission you make based on your prefrence.
While I and all of my core group of divebuddies use wrist mounts we also have a SMALL 2 gauge console as a redundent back up (ELECTRONICS DUE FAIL).
When choosing a regulator I would suggest that you factor in the number, types and locations of the dives you plan to do, discuss with several independent soures (other than the dive shops) and see what you can come up with almost every manufacture has a demo program where you can touch it and breath it.
ABOVE ALL ESLSE REMEMBER THIS IS YOUR LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM. AND YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.
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Greg - 8/24/2011 1:53 PM
You will dive more if you own your own gear. If you dive more than 10 days per year, buy your own gear, otherwise you might save money by just renting. But rental gear isn’t always in the best condition.
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lerpy - 8/25/2011 6:20 PM
The thing with a dive computer is that you don’t really need it, and I think that is where divemedic was going. Ultimately, or at least my feeling is, if you are going to buy a computer you might as well get a good one that will also do nitrox, so this can get into money. If you are concerned about saving some cash, you can do fine diving using the tables, people have done this for years, and it is always good to know your tables just in case. I always check my dive against the table and carry a table in my pocket just in case. If you get good at using your tables and even diving multiple dives with them, then you always have that safe back up. Sometimes computers can lead some to be complaisant.
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lerpy - 8/26/2011 8:43 AM
From EskimoBluDay:If my main computer craps out, the last thing I want to do is to pull out the tables and start figuring things out. To get the tables small enough to carry they are too damn small for my old eyes to read so I’d need a magnifying glass as well.
LOL, truce. I pretty much agree with you, sometimes I like to be "that" guy. I made sure I bought a computer whe I bought my gear, and now I am looking at something cheap and chearful for a back-up just in case.
This person that wanted some advice may have got more than they bargained for. This is what I love though, the discussions and hearing the ways different divers do things, especialy me just being a young pup to diving it is good learning.
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MDW - 1/04/2012 6:00 PM
I recommend a path toward buying everything you need, especially if you plan to do a lot of dives. It will pay off over time vs. paying to rent stuff every time you dive.
Assuming you can’t afford to just buy it all right away, I recommend you acquire the items in this order as funding allows:
1) Regulator - it’s best not to trust your breathing to a rental regulator that you don’t know how the last 10 or 20 people treated it.
2) Backplate & wing - Especially if you intend to do NE diving, don’t let a shop talk you into an overprices stab jacket BC. Get a nice backplate, $15 worth of webbing, and a decent wing that can be used with both single and double tanks.
3) All the "just in case" accessories for emergencies - SMB, reel, whistle, mirror, light, strobe, maybe even a die marker. These are more important than the computer or any fancy accessories.
4) Tanks - I recommend LP steel, especially for NE or other cold water. If you can’t afford them, get used ones. If you still can’t afford that, get AL80s and an extra 10 lb of lead. Buy at least 2 of the same tank so you can double them up easily later if you want to.
5) Computer - until you buy it, just use tables (it’s good practice to know how to do it for yourself)
6) Dry suit - you’ll really appreciate this on longer dives and in the spring and fall. This can greatly lengthen your dive season (from 5 months to year round in some cases).
7) Anything else you will use regularly (camera, scooter, etc) - only buy if you will use often, otherwise rentals will be cheaper.
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Doesn’t have to be new, just take care of it. I’ve bought several old Dacor 1/2 regs and they are simple and reliable. Bought several computers off of ebay cheap and all they needed was new batteries. Best to have and get to know your own equipment, its that simple.
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