To Buy or Not to Buy......Your Own Dive Gear?
My Dive gear laid out ready to pack before heading off on the next trip…
It’s a question that at some point in time every scuba diver will ask themselves and unfortunately there is no hard and fast answer - it really does depend on you and your circumstances. In this post we will take you through the pros and cons of buying your own gear, some typical costings and some of our thoughts on how to approach this topic.
When diving in Southeast Asia it is almost always possible to rent dive gear where you are going and a lot of the time the water is warm enough not to have to worry about a wetsuit, you can just jump straight in wearing some boards and a rashie. So, the question is, why would you want to spend all that money and buy your own gear. Well, it comes down to a number of factors and personal preference really.
Safety:
Often, when renting equipment at a dive shop it will be low end, cheaper gear that has been used over and over again. While there may be nothing wrong with it and it may function perfectly adequately you are never 100% sure when it was last serviced or if it has any defects. The last thing you want to happen at 30m down is for a regulator to fail or start to free flow as this is critical life support equipment. Flipping this the other way, owning your own gear gives you the benefit of knowing how it all functions and when it was last serviced giving you a high degree of confidence. Having said this, many dive operators regular service their own equipment and it is perfectly serviceable.
Comfort & Fit:
When you rent equipment at a dive shop it is often unisex gear and all from one manufacturer which means that it may, or may not fit you very well. There is nothing more annoying when underwater than a mask that always leaks or a bcd that you need to constantly re-adjust. The advantage to having your own is that you can take your time and try on as many different makes and styles as you want to get the right fit. Once you have found equipment that fits perfectly you can become familiar with it, i.e. knowing instinctively where the dump valves are on your bcd or not having to adjust your mask - this gives you the confidence to be able to enjoy the dive and spend more time doing other things such as taking photos & videos or simply taking in the wonderful colours and scenery around you.
Function:
Most of the time rented gear is pretty basic and there is nothing inherently wrong with this, it does what it needs to and you can normally dive very safely with it. However, once you have tried breathing from a higher end, balanced reg and realise how effortless this is, it can be hard to go back to rented, unbalanced regs. Another example would be dive computers, often a dive shop will have very basic dive computers and you might not be familiar with that brand and its display, alarms and function. Having your own dive computer means you can take time to get to know how it works and what the different alarms sounds mean - this makes your dive less stressful again giving you more time to enjoy it. You may even decide to go for some of the bells and whistles and get a transmitter the allows the tank pressure to be read directly from your dive computer, thus eliminating the need to constantly reach for and look at your SPG. Again, there is nothing wrong with rented gear most of the time, it just comes down to personal choice and preference.
Cost & Usage:
This is normally what swings it for a diver when coming to make the decision to invest in their own gear. First, lets look at some of the prices for kit so we can get an idea of how much its going to cost you. A basic set of gear will normally consist of a mask, fins, bcd, regulator, for the purposes of this post I am going to assume that although we are in Southeast Asia that we need a 3mm shortie wetsuit. So, how much do they cost, well it varies greatly as with most things in life. Some brands cost more than others and within each brand there is a great deal of variation depending on how much function you want and what materials you want your gear made out of (Titanium regulator anyone?) For the purposes of costing, I’m going to stick to one brand, Mares, as they are often the brand of choice for dive shops around SE Asia and this will allow for a fair comparison and payback calculation and will quote prices in US dollars.
Mask: Mares X-VU Liquidskin Sunrise - $60
Fins: Mares Wave Full Foot Fin - $48
BCD: Mares Rover - $275
Regulator: Mares Rover 2S, Octopus and SPG - $400
Wetsuit: Mares Reef Shorty - $150
Dive Computer: Mares Smart Dive - $300
Total: $1233
This may seem like a huge investment, but another thing to remember is that you don’t have to buy everything all at once. Start with a mask and maybe some fins and work your way up. Don’t be tempted to go for cheaper versions and tell yourself you’ll upgrade later as this will work out more expensive - go for what you want and need straight away. So, lets now do a little maths and work out how what the payback is…… as we are in Southeast Asia you can rent a full set of equipment, including a dive computer for around $20-25/day and we’ll assume that you do 3 dives per day.
$1233/25 = 49.32, we’ll round up to 50. So this means that you would need to do 50 days worth of diving, or around 150 dives to payback your equipment costs. However, you will need to include servicing costs for your gear, which we will assume costs around $100/year. If like me your are classed as an active diver (50+ dives per year) then the calculation looks a little more like this:
$1233 + $300 = $1533/25 = 61 days diving or 183 dives, which equates to about a 3 year 7 month payback.
So, what does this mean? Well, if you are active diver doing around 50 dives per year and plan to dive for many years to come then it is probably worth investing in your own set of equipment. However, this isn’t a hard a fast rule that applies to everyone in every situation. There are a number of other factors and considerations that need to be taken into account as well. Not least is weight - dive gear is heavy and can easily take up your entire baggage allowance if flying a lot which may result in costly excess baggage charges so this is another item to factor in. At the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference.