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scuba is expensive...

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Lil Dragonfly

Well-Known Member
Jun 14, 2009
403
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For those of you who scuba dive, how do you come up with the money to buy or rent the gear?

High-paying jobs? The stock market? Rich parents? Selling crack?

Just wondering.
 
Yard sales and ebay. Sure you get some iffy regs and what not but everyone often someone sells a nice set for pretty cheap. I do the rich mans sport for pennies on the dollar. My friend and I dont own a single new piece of equipment, in fact, he's got a few things that I would swear came from a museum, but we sure as heck do giving and sure enough we survive every time!
 
So far? Spear fishing with a snorkel is cheaper, simpler and there is less junk to cart around, literally: I have seen SCUBA divers using wheelbarrows, wheeled carts and chains of people to move tanks, etc. from cars to beach. It's not for me - I spent years learning how to pare down my climbing gear, the thought of dealing with all that gear is quite a turn off. Forum member Blenny wrote a book about spearing & underwater photography and interestingly writes about the advantages of snorkelling after SCUBA. Apparently all those bubbles can scare away fish. [Not surprised, I swam over some SCUBA divers at the weekend - wondered what the heck was causing all "volcanic" bubbles. ]

A PADI instructor friend used to do group orders for his students and staff. He got me some spearing gear for a v. good price. EBay is probably worth a look. I see a lot of used dive torches there, folk retiring from SCUBA or upgrading.

The problem with the crack approach is the distinct lack of diving facilities in prison.
 
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Reactions: scottwilson
Buying the gear is only a part of the problem , if you live in the UK , then holidays to places with good vis' and some wildlife are needed too .
In answer to your question , most people who dive a lot have good jobs , those who earn less dive less .
Me , I'm poor as a church mouse but luckily my wife is loaded .
( Just comming dear ! )
 
Reactions: apneaboy
i first "freedivie" 35 years ago, when i first manage to descent at 2m depth...
i first put a scuba gear on me in 2004, so...5 years ago
i'm now a rescue scubadiver, but i can tell u [as my fellow said before me] that i rarely do scuba, not because i did'n like scuba, but because i love to much to freedive...
the best method to purcase a scuba gear is in time....
don't go to buy second hand pieces of scuba equipement....after all is about your life ...
buy new and brand pieces....today a BCD, tomorrow the regulator and so on...
 
All my kit has come from ebay, except one set of regs that I bought cheap(ish) from a friend. Got all the kit tested and its fine. You just have to be patient and look for the hidden gems. They are there, they just don't come up that often.
 
I did my scuba diving course during the communist times in the Czech Republic 25 years ago - the equipment was quite rudimentary, and the conditions very hard (no visibility, cold, ...) but the experience was absolutely extraordinary anyway (in fact much stronger than all scuba diving in exotic lands I did later). Since then, I scuba-dived in different places all over the world, with much better equipment, but I have to agree with Vali, that in fact I always enjoyed freediving more. Only in the last 2 years I re-discovered the good old "communist" feeling during scuba diving - together with my brother we started to dive again in the Czech lakes and quarries with just a naked tank and a regulator. It brings a "Cousteau-like" experience, and it is actually rather close to freediving. And it is not expensive at all. 20 years ago, I've got a tank with a regulator for free from a German friend, who after buying it, found he did not really like diving (or could not dive for some reason). It is still good (revised, of course), and serves fine, so you can tell it was a really excellent investition But recently we actually use just 5 litres tanks which are much less bulky. And since the most interesting diving is in shallow waters anyway, we can easily keep an hour or more with it under water, and have plenty of fun, and for very cheap.

You can get a used or even a new tank for a few bucks, and the refill is not that expensive either. And if you have some friends in the community, you can usually get a good deal, or sometimes even some free fills.

Yet another possibility is becoming a divemaster - not only you can dive each day for free, but you become a very strong man (or woman), due to the carrying of all those tanks of your customers.
 
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Cost is always relative. I think scuba gear is pretty good value for money. Probably like most consumer items in the modern world it is cheaper relatively than it has ever been.

Brand new a complete set of gear for a novice including suit, mask, fins, reg, stab, tank and computer would cost about $2000 USD equivalent in the UK. That's good gear maybe not top of the range but brand new from a dive shop. Sure you could pay $2000 alone for a gold plated dive computer but you don't need to and I know people who pay $2000 just to belong to a golf club for a year.

I started the old way that is I graduated from freediving (called snorkelling back then). I had a suit fins etc and I begged, borrowed and hired tanks etc while I saved. I also used scuba to catch more than a few meals which helped ease to pain of monetary cost.

If you look after your gear it should last. I've had tanks go 20+years and most modern dive gear is now made of long lasting synthetics.

At the end of the day it is priorities. Ipod versus dive computer, designer clothes versus a stab jacket. Personally I love it so much I would go without a lot to fund my diving.

Dave.
 
Reactions: scottwilson
If you buy used gear (especially regulators and such) get them professionally serviced or rebuilt. New o-rings, seals, necessary parts etc... So you pay lower prices, but still get the security that your gear is functioning and will continue to function well.

Also, in the USA dive shops will not refill certain older tanks. So just beware of buying an old steel tank etc... I believe they all have to be aluminum now.
 
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yeah im just getting my SCUBA licenses now and i can't afford anything on my college budget. i'll just buy it piece by piece. The thing about this stuff though is that it may be expensive when you buy it but it lasts a very long time so if you are considering diving for the rest of your life i would say the money is worth it but if it is just a quick hobby, dont bother.

for all of you freedivers out there (actual ones not like me whose max static is 2:10) i totally agree that SCUBA is so much more intrusive. That is why i want to get involved in freediving (heck it is why i joined this forum). I just need to get my breath hold above normal. I also want to do underwater photography and i can see how a burst of bubbles would frighten a fish
 
Scuba gear is expensive. Freediving gear is expensive. Item for item, scuba and freediving gear costs more or less the same, just that scuba requires more gear. So why would anyone scuba? Longer bottom time is one thing, but I'm not going to start another debate about whether scuba or free is better. Each has it's advantages and supporters.

Lynsea, there aren't 'proper' freedivers as you make out to be. As long as you hold your breath and pop your head below the surface to explore, you're a freediver.
 
salibandy said:
Lynsea, there aren't 'proper' freedivers as you make out to be. As long as you hold your breath and pop your head below the surface to explore, you're a freediver.
Click to expand...

fair enough. well this is good! with my mediocre skills i am now a freediver!:friday
 
salibandy said:
So why would anyone scuba? Longer bottom time is one thing, but I'm not going to start another debate about whether scuba or free is better. Each has it's advantages and supporters.
Click to expand...

If I want to swim with fish, dolphins, or whales, I'll pick freediving, because bubbles would scare them away. If I plan on swimming with sea lions, definately scuba- these guys love playing with bubbles.

I would pick scuba for planting seagrass beds, creating artificial reefs, reef clean-ups, etc.

And for my modeling, definately freediving. It's sexier!
 
lynsea said:
The thing about this stuff though is that it may be expensive when you buy it but it lasts a very long time so if you are considering diving for the rest of your life i would say the money is worth it
Click to expand...

Thank you lynsea I never looked at it that way before.
 
when you guys talk about less gear for free diving I presume youre talking about pure freediving as in just down and up coz I think alot of us freedive spearo's ( the only way we're alowed to here in SA) probably carymore gear guns float lines crayfish bags flashers stringers ect
 
No, I'm talking about spearing. I guess how much your carry is a personal thing that varies. Having watched a SCUBA group form a human chain to ferry dozens of air bottles to the beach at Chesil and others bringing heavy duty trolleys, large "Radio Flyers" and wheel barrows to SCUBA dive at less accessible locations.

I carry a lot less gear than that, typically: a 75cm carbon fibre gun and a small, cheap, swim-kit bag. That's it. I wear my suit, socks, weight belt & knife and wear old trainers that I don't mind loosing/soaking. The small swim-kit backpack holds: mask, gloves, snorkel, 12m RA polprop. float line on mini-winder, small bottle of water, fish stringer, deflated dive float, crab bag. Its quite liberating if you can limit yourself to that. I know what you mean though, sometimes I will add a collapsed, flat crab trap with line, winder, float &/or bait - but its a drag, so will probably save that for easy access locations in future. Ditto for angling gear. Ditto for kayak. (Of course, back at the car there is the picnic hamper, freezer box, yadda, yadda, yadda).
 
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When I dive break walls I wear my suit with cheap sandals, wear my mask around my neck, wear my weight belt and stringer, and only carry out my fins (with gloves and booties tucked in the footpockets) and I bought a cressi SL 70 just for this type of use, so that's just enough gun. I walk about 1/3 mile to the beach with my fins tucked under my arm and my gun in my hand...I have one hand free the entire way. On my way back I'm usually dragging more weight but that's the whole point isn't it.

I did some scuba diving about a month back and didn't like how much all of the gear slowed me down (above and below the water). Being able to stay down for over an hour is great but I like the feeling of freediving much better.

Also, due to being a somewhat practiced freediver, I used 1/2 as much air in the hour and twenty minutes underneath as did my experienced scuba diver friend.:t
 

I find seals (especially the youth) will play around with you regardless what your gears are, as long as you are in the water.
 
Mask + Bathing Suit (optional) = Freediving

I tried the mask only option this summer and it was pretty cool.
 
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