My new kit, comments please...

[jjasonuk]

Hi I have recently completed by Open Water course and I am off to Sharm next Thursday. I have purchased the following equipment and would welcome opinions on the choices I have made, good/bad/suitable or not!

Mares Avanti Quattro fins (£40 from Decathlon)
Cressi Matrix mask and snorkel (£40 from Decathlon)
Suunto Vyper computer (cant remember how much,from Denny diving)
Suunto MK7 compass (£17)
Buddy Profile TD (£160 from ebay, 2nd hand but good condition)
Atomic M1 1st & 2nd stage regs din fitting with an a clamp adapter (£320 from Aberdeen divers).
ScubaPro R290 Octopus (£79 from Aberdeen divers).
ScubaPro SPG (£49 from Aberdeen divers)

I am intending to rent a wet suit when in sharm then purchase a
Dry suit, knife, reel and torch when I return.

views please?

[vid]

Originally Posted by jjasonuk

Mares Avanti Quattro fins (£40 from Decathlon)
Cressi Matrix mask and snorkel (£40 from Decathlon)
Suunto Vyper computer (cant remember how much,from Denny diving)
Suunto MK7 compass (£17)
Buddy Profile TD (£160 from ebay, 2nd hand but good condition)
Atomic M1 1st & 2nd stage regs din fitting with an a clamp adapter (£320 from Aberdeen divers).
ScubaPro R290 Octopus (£79 from Aberdeen divers).
ScubaPro SPG (£49 from Aberdeen divers)

I am intending to rent a wet suit when in sharm then purchase a
Dry suit, knife, reel and torch when I return.

all of the kit that you've bought is popular, especially the fins/BCD/scubapro regs

before you go to sharm - have you tried this lot on in the pool/sheltered water?



vyper and mk7 will be useful as you progress with your diving in the next year or so

don't spend a lot on a knife - they get lost very quickly - so pay £10 max rather than £50 for the "sword in the stone"

torch - you can spend from £10 to £1,000 - just look on the forum pages for suggestions to fit in with your budget

reel - divided views on this - use a reel or use a spool? just talk to divers about what they're using, ask to have a go? are you with a club? if so that's one way of getting access to different kit

dry suit - search through the archives

vid

[Richie]

Snorkel was a waste
a) you probably won't use it and
b) they are often to be found in Sharm lurking amongst the broken fire coral.

Enjoy...................

[Mal Bridgeman]

Have you got your own wetsuit boots? I would certainly recommend getting your own because ill-fitting ones are a complete pain. Ideally the best time is to buy fins and bootees together. Since you are looking to buy a drysuit as well then consider the boot that you have on the drysuit may be bigger than your wetsuited foot....meaning you may need two sets of fins.

Hiring a wetsuit abroard is fine if you are an off-the-peg sort of person. If you are not then hire wetsuits are not that good a fit and you may wish to consider a UK purchase before you go....5mm for me at this time of year

The rest of your kit sounds fine ... I would recommend getting into a swimming pool with it all soon to make sure that it all works perfectly and if possible get the second hand kit checked over.

HTH
Mal

[Little Pete]

LoL Richie, very true.


Jason, all the kit looks to be very good stuff. Certainly popular brands and well supported with a good rep so no probs there.
Just one future point with the Mares fins though. Have you got a size suitable for drysuit boots as these tend to be that bit bigger than most wetsuits. Probably no worry as Mares foot pockets are a decent size but bear it in mind.



As for the future stuff, dry suit is likely to be the biggest one (unless you let Phill kit whore some of his torches). There is loads of info on previous threads and everyone has their own opinion as to the best suit to get.

My only advice on that one is if getting membrane (my preference) make sure it's well cut and fits and make sure you get a good quality warm undersuit. There are a lot of people I've met who will spend £500+ on a drysuit then just get the cheapest undersuit available and end up shivering, waste of diving dry IMO.

Anyway, have a wicked time in the Red Sea, tell us all about it and say hi when you're back

[jjasonuk]

Yes I am doing a check dive in a pool with my instructor on Friday to make sure everything is fine then up to Capenwray on Sunday.

I did buy wet suit boots at the same time as the fins and I got the Extra Large fins which fit fine on the tightest setting wearing the wet suit boot, actually I have dived using a dry suit and the fins are fine. thanks.

I am pretty average 5'10" 13 1/2 stone size 9 feet so I think a hired wet suit will be ok. I was going to buy one but decided to pay the extra on the Atomic M1 regs.

on the regs I kept umm'ing and argh'ing then decided tro get the best I could afford and the M1's came up top in the dive mag tests.

[Rob Dobson]

Nice kit.

Totally agree with the other comments posted so far.

One small point ref. the knife - you may want to skip the knife and just buy some scissors instead. Knives are reported to be fairly useless should you ever get tangled in nets etc.

Enjoy the Red Sea.

[divingniknaks]

Originally Posted by Little Pete

As for the future stuff, dry suit is likely to be the biggest one (unless you let Phill kit whore some of his torches).

Pete, you don't mean these do you ?

http://www.divingniknaks.com/categories.php?cat=5



Have a great time in Egypt and write us a trip report when you get back.

Ta.

[Woz]

Originally Posted by divingniknaks

Pete, you don't mean these do you ?

http://www.divingniknaks.com/categories.php?cat=5



Have a great time in Egypt and write us a trip report when you get back.

Ta.

Phil do you just lie there with your legs open all day?


and as for the kit it all looks pretty good to me. As others have said- the snorkel will be useful for drinking beer through and prodding fish.

When you get round to sorting a reel, I reckon the Narked at 60 reel is the best one out there for the price. No doubt Kent Tooling will be along shortly to tempt you with shiny stuff and PhilNaks will grease himself up and try and get you to buy a spool or one of his Delrin reels. But the NAS reel is compact, very well made and has lots of line on it. And personally I like the Advanced Diving Products blobs over most of the others out there as they are smaller and easier to deploy.

Of course you could always buy a self-inflator but that takes all the fun out of it.

[Conor]

As long as you ae happy with your purchases and feel happy using them in the water then they are right for you and that's what matters.

There are a lot of opinions about what bc/wing, what regs etc, but to be honest, they are just opinions, so noone will criticise your choices......except maybe the snorkel