If you go into any scuba diving shop or dive centre you’ll find a bewildering array of different equipment, from masks and fins to snorkels, wetsuits, BCDs and whatever else you might name. So with all this equipment in front of you, how do you decide what is right for you?
Environmental conditions
It doesn’t matter the size of your scuba diving equipment budget if you choose the wrong equipment for your local environmental conditions. Points to think of are:
· Where will you be diving and what are the environmental conditions?
· Will a shorty be enough or do you need a full wetsuit?
· Is the water cold enough that you should invest in a dry suit?
· Do you need an environmentally sealed first stage to prevent freezing?
· If much of your diving be done on diving holidays, what are the conditions you are likely to encounter?
Price versus quality
As we all know there is no such thing as a free lunch, so if your budget is restricted you should carefully consider the tradeoffs between price and quality.
One area to look at carefully are zips, fasteners and buckles – it is easy to reduce costs by providing low quality items that will not stand up to any degree of normal use and so a saving here will be at the expense of equipment life or safety.
Rather than think budget, think value for money – ask if the store has ex-display models or stock from the previous season and remember that you can always get discounts right at the end of the diving season.
And you can save money on kit like dive bags by substituting other products – you can find cheap plastic storage crates in supermarkets and other stores for a tenth of the price of a dive bag and it will do the job just as well.
Comfort
It’s you that will be using this equipment, so make sure you spend enough time trying it on and ensuring you are comfortable. When trying on equipment like a BCD you should either take your wetsuit along or wear a similar one and ideally you should dive with the equipment before committing to purchase.
If you follow the above steps you’ll find that choosing scuba diving equipment can be straightforward as long as you apply a bit of forethought. Despite the amount of equipment available on display in many dive stores you should be able to quickly filter your choice products down to just a few and then take real pleasure in selecting you final purchase.
