Sorry too, being British I should have made the conversions.

So 10°C = 50°F, 22°C = 71.6°F, 26°C = 78.8°F

Quick coversion, so apologies if any are wrong. I think I used some metric depths as well, 20m & 105m so I'll change them too.

20m = 65 FT.
105m= 344 FT.

Anything else? ; )

Where's gulliamo?

And don't forget - at -40 it does not matter which system you use.

(-40 C = -40 F (= 233 K )

Most gear is a personal choice (Style, Price, Features). If you are not already certified most places will not sell you the actual diving gear. You can buy off the internet for price, but one of the things you have to consider is most of the major manufactures will not honor any warranties if the product is bought off of the internet and not from a dive shop. (Can run you lot of money if something happens or just servicing a reg. because the parts kits are free for life with most major manufactures if you keep up on service as a perk)

Mark

PADI Instructor
Master Equipment Technician

Place to love and hate is Leisure Pr (http://www.leisurepro.com/) out of NYC. I see that's where you are from so you can always stop by and chat with them (but what sux is that we NYers have to pay tax since the shop is local). I have no idea how they price stuff so low. I bought some of my accessories from them. They are totally geared toward sales and sad to say I don't think any of those guys down there ever been diving. Savings on for example Suunto Cobra can be up to $300 over other reputable dive shops but I don't think you are getting any warranty or support but if you are willing to take that risk $300 is a lot of money to save. My dive computer, bcu, regulator I bought from Swim and Scuba in LI. I paid little extra but got great personal service and got hooked up with some freebees and made few friends. Another good shop is Kings County Divers in Brooklyn. Stay away from Paragon Sports since they are overpriced.

In the end Ebay has some amazing gear at low prices. Problem is that like with all life support equipment you need to get it serviced prior to use so sometimes the service price offsets the actual savings plus there is no warranty. But for a spare reg or extra gear Ebay saved me a bunch.

Lots of investment of resources and calories to dive in a survival situation. For sustainablity if it made sense to dive otherwise, consider free-diving.

For an online retailer, I've had supurb service from "Scuba Toys", good pricing, manf.warranty intact, fast shipping, real "divers" to take your order/ answer questions ect.

I have no affilation, YMMV.

As to specific brands/types, it really does depend on the type of diving that you are going to do.

Also for some gear, fit is very important, just not the kind of thing that one should select on line....At least for your "first" mask, wet suit. Other stuff is "One size fits all", and you can save quite a bit on line.

Good luck,& happy diving

Leisurepro is one of the sites I was talking about. Polak187 is correct there is NO warranty when ordering from them, but if it is just accessories or the like cheapier is better.

Excellent advice! Thanks all!

Someone asked "where's Gulliamo?" For that I must apologize - I've been jammed at work this week.

I did take your advice and stop by Leisure Pro. I tried on all of their "high-end" masks and did not find one that would fit/seal well. They finally pulled out an inexpensive ($24) mask that fit like a champ! So I'm glad I didn't order it online.

I'm going to Florida in March for 5 days of dive training and Padi certification then plan to dive at least a couple times a year going forward. So I don't really need the entire kit but would like to own a few of the more personal/fit-related items like mask, fins, and suit. Is a 3mm full suit good enough for most dives? (Not NYC winter!)

Yeah, a full 3mm will do most places. Use it more of a protection from coral (you really don't want to get near fire coral... trust me). Some times currents underwater will just slam you into stuff.

Besides you want to own your own wet suit... some people just like to pee underwater, and last thing you want is a rental that reaks of urine and salt water (yeah, its been washed, but still!).

If you make it down to cayman, give me a shout! I'll take ya to some local dive sites... show ya around.

Kris

ROFLMAO. Now that is real world expert advice!