Should I just hire?

[Chris W]

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice.

I've just got into Diving and I love it.

I'm a father of three (all under 4) and I don't really have much time to go diving at the moment.

I think I'll probably get 5 trips in a year in the UK and anywhere between 5 - 10 dives on holiday.

My wife doesn't mind me diving because she's my dive buddy . It's just not easy to get childcare.

We have Mask, Snorkel, fins and computers..............

I'm just wondering if It's worth buying kit if this is all the time we're going to get?

Looking at costs it might be more sonsible to hire as the annual servicing costs will probably come to more than the cost of hiring kit.

[milldog]

join a local club and kit will normally come around if you are just doing a few dives a year then hire it but prebook it as you might get there and they could be using it for courses

or course kit comes on here from time to time

good luck

[chas49]

Is that about 20 dives a year?

Let's say £20 each time you hire kit in the UK (£100) and perhaps another £75 for hire on holiday. Does that sound about right? (I'm just guessing)

So hire costs £175 pa.

Sounds a lot cheaper than buying.

But might you start diving more as time goes on? Then you need to work out how much you would have saved by not hiring.

And the advantage of diving with your own kit - that you can trust and are used to etc.

A difficult one to work out. Hope these ramblings help a bit.

[Chris W]

Thanks guys - yes it is helping.

Yes it's about 20dives per year - I'll have to see how it goes next year I might be able to sneak off a bit more than planned.

[Sparky750]

If you bought your own gear then it's a prime excuse because you have to get your moneys worth

[amy-ward]

Originally Posted by Chris W

Thanks guys - yes it is helping.

Yes it's about 20dives per year - I'll have to see how it goes next year I might be able to sneak off a bit more than planned.

you know you're going to catch the diving bug! 20 dives pa? yeh right! you'll be buying ur own kit in no time, if ur thinking of it now you know you will be again in 2 months time! lol

good luck

Ax

[Mark Chase]

There is good quality kit regularly available on here on Divernet and on Ebay. Check out the Q&As in the equipment section for recommendations.

Id expect to pay about £120-150 for a decent regulator set and about the same for a reasonable BCD. so 300ish each. Then just hire tanks.

I wouldn't want to use some one else's reg set, I could live with hiring a BCD but I would want my own reg set wet/dry suit and mask.

My top tip is don't be fooled by snazzy kit. As an example the bog standard Apex TX40 regulator on a DS4 first stage is a bomb proof bit of kit that i have used on dives between 6m and 106m. It is bench mark quality for about £150 second hand The ATX40 is smaller and lighter possibly better for women.

The Oceanic Alpha 7 is also a fantastic regulator expect to pay around £120
S/H

There are better regulators but you will have to pay a shed load more for them and you will hardly notice the difference.

ATB

Mark Chase

[cwood]

My opinion is that you should perhaps rent for now and then gradually accumulate your gear. Ive been diving abroad for 3 years now and have only recently started to buy my own kit with a view to joining a club in the UK. After a few trips on my own regs I tried out a set of rentals and hated them. If you dont use your stuff that often then it isnt really worth getting it serviced every year anyway. Start with a computer and work from there. It will pay for itself eventually.

[amy-ward]

Originally Posted by cwood

My opinion is that you should perhaps rent for now and then gradually accumulate your gear. Ive been diving abroad for 3 years now and have only recently started to buy my own kit with a view to joining a club in the UK. After a few trips on my own regs I tried out a set of rentals and hated them. If you dont use your stuff that often then it isnt really worth getting it serviced every year anyway. Start with a computer and work from there. It will pay for itself eventually.

although saying that ive only done 26 dives and im starting to gather my own kit together quite quickly....i just like having my own kit to be familiar with. knowing where things are on your own kit just makes a dive more pleasurable IMHO. having my 21st birthday only a few weeks ago seemed like a good time to get expensive kit bought for me im looking at atx40 apeks reg and atx40 oct also, on a DS4 first stage.....with a bit of modification to hose lengths my best price so far is about £300....ive definitely caught the diving bug! i think it totally depends on the person and what they want from diving and how much they realllllly enjoy it.
Axx

[cwood]

Thats very true. Its sometimes very reassuring to know that the kit your diving with is your own and is in condition unlike some of the rental gear perhaps. Its also good to get to know your own gear I reckon.