[Dominic]

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My club's getting a bit bogged down in the issue of using club kit in open water - currently we only allow it in the pool. So on the one hand, you've got the "It'd be too expensive/difficult to allow it to be used in OW" group, and the "You can't expect people to buy their own gear before they've even been in OW" group.

What's your club's approach to club equipment and open water use?

 

[DanE]

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Our new members hire the club kit for the duration of the course, which includes both pool and open water use.  

If/As they buy their own kit, they can get their money back for unused items.

I was happy with this approach while I was training.
dan.

 

[Dr Stevil]

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My old club has always used club kit for open water. The club used to insist that trainees had to buy MSF & drysuit/hood/gloves, then  the tanks regs stabs & weights were hired from the club. Now they aren't insisting on trainees buying drysuits and it's causing no end of problems as you end up with a whole bunch of half-hearted dilettantes and training weekends are a nightmare of kit swapping, broken zips and ripped neck seals. THere's even people doing DL training who don't own their own weight belt

 

[Guest]

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Hi Dom

Our club have two "types" of kit, open water and pool kit. Either type of kit only comprises bcd, cylinder and regs (mask, snorkel, fins and suit etc are up to the individual to purchase at the appropriate time).

This way we have a lot of kit used in the pool, but the better quality kit used in open water isn't trashed by using in the pool. Also, we have the open water kit regularly checked/inspected/tested for obvious reasons, but much less on pool kit.

HTH

wwd

 

[And]

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<font color='#000080'>Hi

Our club has kit for both OW and pool. Funnily enough it is the older kit used in the pool and the newer kit is preferred for OW. The pool does more damage! I believe we charge £1 per item during OW training although no charge for pool use.

As far as drysuits we usually recommend they rent one from Roho who do a good deal on drysuit rentals then they can get their own if thry want t dive in the UK. Everyone uses a drysuit, we don't recommend wetsuits/semidrys.

Once qualified Ocean Divers are encouraged to get their own kit.

Kindest Regards

Andy

 

[daveking]

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<font color='#0000FF'>we tell then to hire kit from either roho or divers wharehouse we have worked out a good deal with them
£20 a day i think

 

[Josie]

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I joined a BSAC club in January last year. The cost of the Ocean Diver course included the use of the kit (bcds, regs, weights and cylinders) for both pool sessions and open water. There were 8 trainees but only 5 sets of kit which meant we couldn't all train together. Once we passed the course we have to pay to use the club kit (£5 per item in ow per day, £2 in the pool) to make sure there is enough money in the pot for servicing it etc.

We were encouraged to buy our own kit so Dave and I started to buy our own kit last summer, but still pay to use a cylinder if we need a second one now that we're trainee sports divers. We have some club members who, a year after they started their open water training haven't passed their ocean diver qualification, and have been asked to pay to use the club kit.

 

[Mark-B]

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Hydroactive in Letchworth supply everything except mask,snorkel,boots,gloves for OW and AOW, and then rent the stuff out to bods who want it for £30 Thursday to Tuesday, and thats cylinders weights, BCD wetsuit etc. I dont think  thats a bad deal when you do OW and want to go off and do few dives before you buy your own.

Best Wishes
Mark  

 

[Mary]

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<font color='#F52887'>well we have both OW and pool kit, obviously the old crap stuff gets used in the pool and new decent stuff gets saved for OW.

Once you get out of the pool and into OW the club will provide you with a BCD, tank, reg (half of which have built in dive timer in the console). You are expected to buy your own suit (or hire from stoney for the first few times). We still have many members diving in semi-drys, as university members many cannot afford dry suits. You are also expected to provide your own gloves, fins, mask and snorkel and weightbelt (although we do have some club lead that can be used).

We don't charge for using the kit, and have 10 full sets of OW gear plus a club pony rig. In the club we have 30ish clyinders which are available for any member and means very few people (unless they dive outside of the uni) have ever needed to buy a tank.

Generally as people progress they first buy a suit, then after a few dives a BCD and/or regs plus computer. the cost is spread over several months and is the only way i could manage to afford to go diving. However if people are still taking the piss and using club kit when a DL then words will be had. Any novices on a trip have priority over older members as to using the OW kit available.

It seems to work for us this way

 

[louigi]

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<font color='#FF0000'>We provide free basic kit for use by trainee's in and out of the pool. However we do expect them to start to buy their own as they progress. the only thing they have to rent is a dry suit when they do open water training.

 

[Digger]

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<font color='#000080'>Mary, allthe regs have got dive timers in them now. Made a policy decision, as novices can'tbe trusted to have a decent watch to use with the depth gauges, and we want them to start off doing it right (not DIR, just doing the right thing when diving)

Only problem is using gear diving outside the club. Often people want to, but if we let them they'll just go off and dive outside the club and we lose a lot of divers So they have to dive with other club members.

You could survive in our club diving with only a semi-dry, mask, snorkel, fins, boots and gloves to your name quite easily, but it's not the way to get comfortable with gear and I try and get people to consider that it doesn't have to cost thousands to get set up with very basic stuff. It used to be that everyone after a few dives would buy their own BCDs, as we used to have 20 ABLJs as our club standard issue, not good for most.

 

[TerryH]

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ALL club kit is good quality, well maintained open water rated.
We can easily put 12 divers onto a RIB/Hardboat and with the
exception of a suit they dont need any personal stuff at all.

To make matters worse (or better depending on your point of
view), nothing is hired out. It's all in with the basic (and very
cheap) membership fee.

Reason we can afford this is we dont have a boat. Instead
we have about 20 odd trips booked with Hardboats over the
Summer.

TerryH

 

[Dominic]

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Marvellous. Cheers all - looks like it IS the standard to have some arrangement for open water gear.

Should be able to get some sorted for our trainees, with any luck..

 

[Janos]

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Just a quick 'me too.'

Everything except M/S/F is free to trainees until they qualify as OD. After that it's 2.50 per item per day.

Laters,
   Janos

 

[Ian B]

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<font color='#0000FF'>Our trainees pay for pool training. £5 a session. That covers the pool admission, the instructor's time on a one to one basis, and use of all equipment.

When they go to open water they can hire all equipment including air fill for £10 but have to sort out their own suit, either borrowing someones or hiring it from a shop.

We encourage them to start buying their own kit as soon as they're ready for open water and we feel they'll cope with the sport.

 

[Geoff Oldfield]

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We provide all the basic stuff and tanks, BCs, Regs (including Octo) and weights for pool use during initial training. All new members are told that they need to get all their own kit by the time they are ready for open water. The only items that we allow into open water are the cylinders which are available for hire at a small charge. We do not have a great deal of drop out and new members take a great deal of pride in their equipment from the outset, which helps prolong the life of the training equipment and releases it in the shortest possible time for new members to use. It also avoids the possibility of it now being available on training nights because someone forgot to bring it down, or they couldn't turn up!

Geoff Oldfield
DO MErseyside Branch 5 BSAC