Owning Your Own Gear

Katy Danca Galli

There are times when renting dive gear makes sense, but there are some excellent reasons for why you should purchase your own gear.

1. Owning Your Own Wetsuit. What’s better than wearing a comfortable warmer that molds to your body shape like a second skin? No more squeezing into rental suits that are long in the legs and short in the torso. No more having to constantly readjust your ballast weight to match each rental suit’s buoyancy characteristics. Oh yeah, and no more wondering if that foreign pee smell is coming from the suit, or is just your imagination.

2. Owning Your Own Reg. Nobody enjoys breathing off a reg that’s been slobbered on by a hundred other divers. With your own reg you know exactly who was the first diver to use it, and who was the last. You also know that it gets a thorough soaking between dives, its service records are up to date, and its adjustments are dialed in perfectly for your particular type of diving.

3. Owning Your Own Dive Computer. Who wants to be faced with a sharp learning curve every time they get wet? With your own DC you’ve had time to get to know its data crunching capabilities, you know what all the numbers mean beyond basic depth, time and NDL loading. Modern dive computers can add so much to the quality—and safety—of your dive, if you allow yourself the time to get to know them.

4. Owning Your Own BC. The buoyancy compensator is the foundation of any dive rig; it’s what all your life-support gear components connect to. With your own BC you can dial in your dive system, including adding convenience clips to secure console and octo, attachment points for your dive light, and a place to stow your safety tube.

5. Owning All the Rest. Like a tank, a dive light, a good cutting tool, a reliable bail-out bottle, and a dive bag to hold it all. Bottom line: scuba diving is heavily dependent on gear. Make your gear system your own and you’ll feel more at home in the water.