I’ve been diving for a while, owned a lot of dive gear. Here are some tips on shopping for gear, some learned through painful experience!
General rules for buying gear
- Try it on before you buy it. Wetsuits, booties, hoodie, you name it.
- Try on your BCD and weight belt OVER your wetsuit – two layers of 5 millimetre neoprene adds a LOT of waistline!
- Make sure you understand the returns policy of the shop you’re using.
- Get acquainted with the Consumer Protection Act (if you’re in South Africa).
- Shop around! Don’t let sales people sweet talk you. They are more interested (generally) in making a sale than in making you a happy diver.
- Don’t cut the strap of your dive computer shorter unless you’re VERY sure you’re never going to dive in cold water (wearing lots of wetsuit and gloves to make your wrist thicker).
Second hand gear
- When purchasing second hand cylinders: get them viz’d first (at the expense of the seller) before agreeing to purchase.
- Try and get the seller to allow you to “test dive” expensive items such as dive computers before agreeing to purchase them.
- It’s a good idea to check BCDs for leaks before purchasing, unless you plan to use the BCD only for shallow dives, and even then it’s iffy.
Gear to avoid
- Don’t purchase based purely on colour (ladies, I know it can be very tempting).
- Be realistic about what you will use the gear for. (Do you really plan to dive to 100 metres, under ice with that regulator?)
- Don’t fall for wrap around face masks with 3 glass panels (here’s an example) without trying one first – they give rise to very confusing visual phenomena and distort things hugely as they pass across the join in the panes of glass!
- Avoid BCDs with inflate/deflate handle handles (example here) – I have never yet seen a beginner diver (and even some divers who have done over 100 dives) using one who was in proper control of their buoyancy.
- Neoprene covers on mask straps (example here) usually only work without a hoodie. They have a tendency to slip off your head during a backward roll off the boat when worn over a hoodie (although some people swear by them!).
- Smaller volume masks are usually better for beginner divers than huge five litre models! They are much easier to clear.
- Do you really need a three foot dive cutlass, as opposed to a small knife?
Repairs
- Get a second opinion on extensive repairs.
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