What equipment to buy when new to diving?

[rednemo]

I am new to diving and i am wanting to start buying my own equipment.
Going to dive show at Birmingham next week, any advice on where to start!

[Adrian Kelland]

Rednemo

Dominic, one of the posters here, has put together a very good site that is likely to answer most of your early questions.

It can be found here.

Many of us are going to the show, so if you want a chat up there, before spending your hard earnt folding stuff, I am sure some of us can oblige. To see who is going, look here.

HTH

Adrian

[gblades2]

I am also fairly new (13 dives) and have purchased some of my own equipment. Therefore what I say is just what I decided to purchase from reviews and the opinions of others. There are others here with far more experience than me.

The first thing I purchased was a mask and this was primarily because I wear glases and so wanted my own mask with different lenses fitted.
Next I bought a set of regs and console. These are among or if not the most important piece of equipment so you don't really want to keep hiring them because you dont know how well they have been treated by others. It is worth paying to get a good set of regs. Personally I got a DS4 first stage and a ATX50 with ATX40 octopus together with a low profile Suunto console. Most people say that you cant really go wrong with Apex regs.
I got a DIN fitting. Not particularly because I intend to use 300bar tanks but they are the same price, you can use 300bar if you want to later, and the most significant reason for me is that I feel that system is far more secure and safer than yoke. I got a yoke adapter aswell just incase I could not hire a din tank.

At the same time I bought a Suunto Vyper computer. I like gadgets but I also wanted to get a good record of my dives with graphs of the profile and a good indication of my SAC. My SAC has varied between 14 and 25 and knowing what I did on each dive has helped me better control my breathing.

Later I got some more general items such as fins, boots, gloves, spare fin and mask strap, tansportation crate etc...

[Reeve]

<font color='#000F22'>One option ant one that I've done on 3 occasions is to by someone elses kit when they quit. First I bought off an ex club member. It included comp, tank, regs &amp; semi etc. Then I bought a set of kit from free ads, the following year and it included a dry suit &amp; better regs more tanks etc. Flogged what i didn't need to another club member who needed some stuff (we'd arranged it together). Then I bought a set of kit earlier this year off an ex trimix diver Dui suit twins, stage, deco, argon &amp; lots of stuff. He even had a platform for deco stops he'd built. I reckon I paid around a 1/4 of the value. But you do have to be careful as the euipment will need to be serviced as your cost &amp; make sure it fits.
I was lucky &amp; got a very good deal on equipment that was for the most part not used much &amp; as he did the channel thing was in very good condition.

gareth &nbsp;

[Helen F H]

Avoid deep blue. &nbsp;They abused my trust in dive shops. &nbsp;That is all i will say.

[Mark Chase]

Mask Fins BCD and regulators.

Mask for health reasions

Regulatros for performance and known history reasions

BCD because using it has to be second nature

ATB

Mark Chase

[And]

<font color='#000080'>Hi

For an alternative viewpoint on what to buy first look at this

http://www.dir-uk.org/equipment_guide.doc

Whilst at the show perhaps look at the Underwater Explorers store and see if they have a copy of

Doing It Right: The Fundamentals of Better Diving by Jarrod Jablonski

Hope that helps

Andy

[Gibby]

I did a very similar thing to Reeve.

I bought my mask, snorkel, boots and fins new from the local dive shops.
My BCD and what is now my backup computer was 2nd hand from the shop too. Everything else apart from a knife which I was given I bought 2nd hand from a guy who'd had to quit on medical grounds (damaged shoulder joint)
Drysuit, regs, console, tanks, weights, torch, carryall, computer etc - he also threw in some more gloves, another mask, reel, SMB, backup torch, ankle weights etc for just a few pounds. In all I paid less than 1/3 what it would have been worth new

[andy2tanx]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Porg @ Nov. 09 2003,16:57)]Avoid deep blue.  They abused my trust in dive shops.  That is all i will say.

Sorry Porg, but we have had some great times with Deep Blue so I have to defend them here. &nbsp;Never had a problem with them.

[daz]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (andy2tanx @ Nov. 10 2003,14:56)]

Sorry Porg, but we have had some great times with Deep Blue so I have to defend them here.  Never had a problem with them.

Must confess also had good service from Deep Blue...

Maybe your experience was a one off Porg but difficult to say given the information provided. &nbsp;

Daz