Best place to purchase diving kit?

[w1z4rd]

I have decided to get my lazy ass back into the water and I will be doing an advanced diving course. The 5 subjects I have chosen will be :

- Wreck Diving
- Deep Diving
- Search and Recovery
- Underwater Naturalist
- Night diving

I dont live in Cape Town, so am not sure if I should get a 3mm or 5mm wetsuit. Most of my diving will be in sub-tropical and tropical waters in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Where is a good place to buy kit online? Ill be needing everything. Wet suit, mask, BC, tanks, weight belt, fins, etc. When I compare SA online store pricing with Australian pricing the Ozzie pricing is a lot cheaper. Is it worth importing? Does custom own you on diving kit? Any suggestions?

 

[hsmnel]

Junkmail is a good starting point. Had some good bargains there as many people take up diving but never progress and then sell their stuff.

 

[karnuffel]

I bought my diving kit from these guys in jhb. I went to their shop though.

Well done on getting back into the water. I soooooooo want to do wreck diving but time is a bit of a problem at the moment.

 

[Ou grote]

Where are you doing the course?

I've been wanting to do the course at Knysna heads for the longest time.

I assume that the person presenting the course will be able to tell you what to get and where.

Maybe do the course first and see if you like it before spending a lot of money on kit you may never use again.

 

[ponder]

Junkmail is a good starting point. Had some good bargains there as many people take up diving but never progress and then sell their stuff.

Yeah you can get good deals on second hand gear that's virtually new.

 

[Sinbad]

2nd hand dive gear is very very cheap for some reason.

As for wetsuit thickness - a lot of it comes down to your tolerance for cold.
I'll dive in a 3mm shorty in anything over about 25 degrees... my SO will use a 5mm full suit with gloves in anything under 30!

 

[biena]

Where is a good place to buy kit online? Ill be needing everything. Wet suit, mask, BC, tanks, weight belt, fins, etc. When I compare SA online store pricing with Australian pricing the Ozzie pricing is a lot cheaper. Is it worth importing? Does custom own you on diving kit? Any suggestions?

Please do not buy online if you do not know the products very well. You need to go through the tons of different options and see what fits your body. If you don't well then leaky mask/unconformable wetsuit irritating weight-belt and fins that hurt your feet will be your future.

 

[biena]

Yeah you can get good deals on second hand gear that's virtually new.

Yeah all the enthusiastic people that buy everything before even their first lesson, seen that many times.

 

[Drifter]

Where are you based. MIAS i n Anderson str , JHB city centre usually have very good deal, and you can negotiate anoll.

 

[Re83L]

I recently bought a neoprene mask-strap-cover for my wife (Mares).. On it was a tag: "Made in Cambodia"
Now we're going to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand in March for a month, thought I'd try and buy kit there, but I couldn't find anything on the factory shop, or whether kit is cheaper at all over there.

Anyways, I guess it also depends on your choice of brand, for instance, if you choose ScubaPro, then you won't find prices cheaper than the rates offered by their 5-star affiliates (but they're probably the most expensive brand to start with..)

 

[oldBastard]

I have decided to get my lazy ass back into the water and I will be doing an advanced diving course. The 5 subjects I have chosen will be :

- Wreck Diving
- Deep Diving
- Search and Recovery
- Underwater Naturalist
- Night diving

I dont live in Cape Town, so am not sure if I should get a 3mm or 5mm wetsuit. Most of my diving will be in sub-tropical and tropical waters in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Where is a good place to buy kit online? Ill be needing everything. Wet suit, mask, BC, tanks, weight belt, fins, etc. When I compare SA online store pricing with Australian pricing the Ozzie pricing is a lot cheaper. Is it worth importing? Does custom own you on diving kit? Any suggestions?

Yes it's better to own your own equipment, but leave tanks out, as it is more of a bitch to keep it up to date in servicing, besides you can hire the tanks where you go diving.

 

[Waaib]

When I used to dive I used to wait for the specials from the equipment companies. Subscribe to their news and social feeds. Then run regular specials to clear seasonal stock. Also watch to closing down sales at Dive Shops.