Is It Too Cheesy To Get All One-Brand Gear?

[JasonP]

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

So you've never been on a GBR dayboat then?

Usually wall to wall Oceanic or Sherwood, aren't they?

Jason

[Hooked_on_diving]

From what I have seen if you get all nice matching gear then to all the non-divers looking on you will look like the best diver around; but to the other divers it will just look like you have bought your gear to look good and you probably would get ridiculed for it. It all depends on who you value the opinion of most - the lookers on, or your fellow divers.

Matt

[A. Berk]

Yellow fins, orange BCD, blue mask, green Wt Belt, pink/black no-brane suit and everything else to match... yuck! Why not get the colours right? When I was instructing my kit was black and blue from top to bottom, students got the impression that they were being taught by some-one who gives a shi-ite about appearance/presentation etc. Whether I was really any good or not only they could say.

My kit has change slightly since and if Posiedon made cars I would probably be driving one - black of course (are they part of the Volvo group?).

Berk

[tom]

Originally Posted by Phaedrus

IF I was to buy my entire set-up in one go (lotto win, bank loan - whatever), would it be unacceptably cheesy and ridicule-inviting to buy it all or most of it from one brand?

Depends if it's Halcyon or not



To be honest, I very much doubt if:

a) many people would notice, and
b) would give a shit, even if they did.

Just buy whatever you think is best for you, regardless of manufacturer or whatever. Make sure you try a mask on before buying it, fit is very important.

[purple vonny]

Originally Posted by Southern_Dave

Heh - I get stick for being coordinated

My suit, gloves and hood are all Waterproof branded (Swedish Manufacturer) and the rest of my gear (BCD, regs, cylinder, etc) are different makes (to suit the job), but just match the suit.


It's not hard to mix and match and keep within a colour scheme if you're fashion conscious like wot I am (not!)

You get massive respect as we all look on in awe Dave. Trinny and Suzanna would sooooooo approve.

I, on the other hand, come from the Dude School of diving fashion. Anyone who has got a migraine from copping an eyefull of my kit will agree.

The joy of having mad coloured messy looking kit is that no-one wants to steal it.

[nigelH]

<shrug>
I started out mostly Scubapro because it was 'on special'. Thankfully they are a good brand because I couldn't tell good from bad at the time.

Now I'm a total hotch-potch of whatever I thought was good at the time I needed something.

The only bad one would be wall-to-wall Halcyon. It wouldn't matter how carefully you researched each item to choose it everybody would know you were just a fashionata.

[Phaedrus]

I've been on a GBR boat trip - the last three days of our OWD course was on the GBR. Magic!

Gear? Don't remember a thing. We were just blown away by the place & the diving.

I'd guess that the boat in Open Water (to state the possibly obvious) was kitted out with one brand either cos it was cheaper to do that or cos they were supplied in some sort of opportunistic marketing move.

So if the unanimously-agreed-between-every-diving-magazine-and-website-and-forum-in-the-world "best" BC, wetsuit, fins, regs, mask, etc - everything you need to dive, let's say - just happened to all be from one brand and was only available in black/grey & blue, AND was all very reasonably priced , should I ignore those products and continue my search for inferior un-coordinated gear, so as to avoid ridicule? (My tongue is in my cheek - I'm not trying to antagonise . . .)

TBH, if the functionality/quality/reliability of the gear was like-for-like, I'd be more embarrassed to wear mixed flouro-colours than to wear my subtle black/grey/blue ensemble!

So there. Watch out for me in the Red Sea soon - I'm going to win the Irish Lotto this Wednesday (€12,000,000!) and cover myself in vaseline and sing loud Soundgarden songs in my new subtle black/grey/blue ensemble!

Joking aside, FWIW, I do know that fit of everything is crucial, specially masks.

My question was prompted, I suppose, by the different brand's websites and magazine ads displaying all their products that coordinate: Any divers I've seen or have been with never really seemed to care too much for the aesthetics of their gear - an attitude which I both admire and share, despite what my question implies.

I think that the diving fraternity, at least any that I've experienced, would offer light slagging if someone was coordinated, but if the gear was good quality and functional, light slagging would be all they'd get.

And in reality, if it was me, I gladly take the slagging, but I'd know that my gear was good, well maintained and I'd know how to set it up and use it, and I'd like how it looked!

If the gear was poorly maintained or renowned as ineffective, they'd probably get a lot more than a light slagging.


Mark

[MATTBIN]

I'll just add that when I first started I came out of the sea in rented gear, all tatty and holed to be met by two Italians in perfectly matched gear, all colour co-ordinated etc, they looked the Dogs Danglies, they might not have been any good at diving but they looked like the Muts nuts.

Cool!!

Matt

[broady]

On the lighter side of things. Whilst I pi$$ed myself laughing all the way through the film 'Open Water', my wife and buddy Nicola took certain things to heart.

When it was time to buy some new kit, and in her endeavour to never be seen as 'Mrs Anonymous Diver' on the boat, she bought a new yellow/black wetsuit with matching yellow weightbelt, yellow cressi mask and yellow slapstrap.

Soon after I read somewhere that yellow is a colour that has been known to attract a shark's attention !!!

Graham


.

[Sixsquid]

Originally Posted by tom

Make sure you try a mask on before buying it, fit is very important.

but don't worry about trying on anything else .......