Rent or Buy Scuba Gear: Where Should You Spend Your Money First? | The Denver Diver
You don’t need to buy a complete scuba kit after certification. Start with fit, consider familiarity, and compare the real cost of owning the gear you’ll use.
Getting certified can make a dive shop a dangerous place for your wallet. Suddenly you’re comparing masks, trying on BCDs and wondering whether the bag you haven’t bought yet will hold all the gear you don’t own. That excitement is part of the fun. If you have the budget and know what you want, enjoy it. But you don’t have to buy a complete kit to belong on the boat. For divers traveling from Denver, a mix of owned and rented equipment can make a lot of sense. The question is where your own gear would make the biggest difference—and what you’re willing to carry, maintain and store between trips. Start with something you want to fit the same way every time A mask is a sensible first purchase. It’s personal, easy to pack and something you’ll use throughout the dive. Spend time finding one that fits rather than assuming the most expensive model will be the best one for your face. Get help with the fit Spend a few extra minutes with someone who knows the gear. A mask that presses on your face or never quite seals won’t get better because you paid more for it. Try it in the water Ask whether you can try the mask in a pool. Something that feels fine in the store can leak or become uncomfortable once you’re swimming. Ask about exchanges Before you buy, find out whether the shop allows exchanges after a water test. Keep the receipt and know the time limit. Our story, The Foggy Scuba Mask That Almost Ended My Diving, shows how much one equipment problem can affect the experience. It’s a good reason to work through fit and preparation before the trip. Fins and exposure protection deserve the same thought. If rental sizes rarely work for you, owning those items may solve more of a problem than buying something else first. Just include their space and weight in the decision. Then consider equipment you want to know well A computer you know how to use Owning a dive computer lets you learn one set of controls and keep your dive history in one place. Whether you buy or rent, learn the computer before you get in the water. Know where to find your depth, dive time, no-decompression limit and ascent information. As you dive more often, owning a BCD or regulator can be appealing for the same reason: you know how it fits and where everything is. Weigh that familiarity against the cost and the hassle of taking it on every trip. Rent the pieces you aren’t ready to choose There’s no need to rush into a large purchase while you’re still learning what you like. Renting gives you time to try different equipment and see what works for the diving you actually do. An occasional warm-water vacation calls for a different buying decision from diving locally all year. Think about your next few trips, not every dive you might someday do. Match your gear to the diving you’ll actually do. Our family cenote-diving story is a good example: one outing may call for different equipment from the rest of your vacation. If you need a thicker wetsuit for one cenote dive, rent it. Buying a suit you’re unlikely to wear again costs money, fills your bag and leaves you storing it between trips. Tell your operator if you need rental gear. A good operator can help you get what you need for the dives you’ve booked. Try the rental gear before the dive. If it doesn’t fit or something isn’t working, have the crew fix it before you get in. Work out what ownership will cost between dives The price tag is only the beginning. Depending on the item, ownership also means servicing, accessories, baggage costs and somewhere suitable to clean, dry and store it. A regulator sitting in a closet still needs care. Follow its service schedule and have it checked before a trip if it has been sitting unused. DAN’s gear-care guide is a useful place to start for cleaning, storage and servicing. Compare those costs with renting for the diving you realistically expect to do. Don’t use an imaginary lifetime of dive trips to make today’s purchase look cheaper. The answer doesn’t have to come down to a rental break-even point. A better fit or a familiar setup may be worth paying for. You just want to know what you’re paying for, including the work that comes with it. Choose the next purchase, not the whole kit Before buying, answer four questions: What problem would owning this solve for me? How often will I use it over my next few trips? Can I rent a suitable alternative? Am I willing to pay for—and handle—the transport, care and servicing? If you know what problem the purchase solves, you have a good reason to buy. If you’re still figuring that out, rent for another trip and see what you like. You may end up buying a mask now, renting the larger pieces and revisiting the decision after another trip. You may decide that owning a complete kit is worth it. Neither answer needs to be settled on the day you get certified. Buy what makes your diving better, rent what makes sense and learn the gear you’re using. You can build the rest of the kit as you go. Further reading gear-care guidance
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