Any scuba divers here?

dex

dex

Can anyone recommend a good regulator?

I'm planning to buy a second regulator set for single tank, open water recreational diving in tropical climates. A dive instructor friend is steering me toward Scubapro gear which she says is top quality but I'm not sure it's worth the extra? I've half decided to go for the Apeks XTX200 but can't decide if the Tungsten or the Nitrox versions are worth going for. Do they have any advantages or features which the base model doesn't have?

I think this could be the wrong forum so if there's any divers here, can you recommend a good scuba forum to ask diving questions?
 
Wow, I am an instructor and I just bought a reg set off eBay because it was $100 brand new surplus hire equipment with no bad reviews on amazon ....

I am probably not the guy to be asking.

Been running well for about a hundred dives now so I figure I got my money's worth .....
 
I do quite a bit of technical diving on the XTX200 (on both my back gas on decompression gas). I've dived with these regs in warm and cold water down past 60 metres; they perform flawlessly. I've probably done over 150 dives on some of these regulators.

I've just got the regular version (not the Tungsten). I don't believe they're the nitrox version but I have all my regs nitrox clean and some of them are also used for 50% and 100% O2.
 
Don't bother with the tungsten, its not worth the extra and adds nothing to the reg. And don't bother with the nitrox version either unless you're doing accelerated deco - all Apex regs do nitrox mixes up to 40% out of the box (EAN40) so it's more a marketing ploy. The guts of the XTX200 second stage are the same as the guts of the XTX100 and XTX50 second stages so why pay more for cosmetics? The most noticeable difference is where and how many HP/LP ports there are.

If you're diving warm water you can get away with a XTX20. If you intend on doing cold water or tech diving in the future, go with the XTX50. You certainly can't go wrong with Apeks regs. Very reliable and very easy to service anywhere.

This is the best scuba board:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/forum.php
 
Tounge now removed from cheek.

Unless you are, or are planning on being a tech diver - I'm with Simon

You can get fantastic bits of kit very cheaply. I have a mares micra which I bought about 10 years ago and hasn't missed a beat in over 1500 dives. It cost about $500 from memory

Get a decent first stage which is balanced , makes deeper diving more pleasurable.

Unless you are a pro-diver there is little difference between brands. Though servicing costs can vary.

Blacky
 
Great info, I think I'll shell out for the XTX200 even though I could get away with a cheaper model. I found one on sale for $680 which looks like a good price. Great scuba forum TT, I'm amazed they have such a huge forum for divers, captains and free divers. Blacky, how deep can you go? This is something I'd like to get into at some stage.
 
Trimix diving starts to get fairly expensive in Australia. Helium is extremely expensive these days and twin tanks with 35% helium will cost in the order of $200+, but you do need it when you start to go deeper than about 45m.

On a recent wreck exploration dive, the sonar told us we'd put the line onto the wreck (at 70m). By the time the team got to the bottom, the current had pushed the line of the wreck, so each diver had spend about $300 on bottom gas and decompression gas, only to look at sand.

Sometimes though, you get to do something really cool, like putting someone's ashes onto a wreck at 60m.

http://youtu.be/XDT0aK38R8M
http://youtu.be/l6uAhFfwFfM
* I am in the news article, but you wouldn't know it for all the dive gear we're wearing.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Shaw_(diver)

http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/w...congress-just-averted-a-global-helium-crisis/

Wow $200 extra for a trimix dive is crazy. Over here they charge an extra 250 peso per dive for helium. I heard helium is now worth $120 or 250? a cubic meter/tonne but I could be out. Google says the US controls 80% of the world's helium supply and prices have tripled in the past 10 years. Hmm no wonder you don't see helium balloons as often these days.

Nice work on that wreck Bear, I read 18 souls on board perished during that hurricane :( I've dived a few sites including ship wrecks with plaques, crosses and bottles of beer which remind me of the dangers involved. That scuba board has some interesting threads about diving accidents. Apparently some guys suicide with diving. The story of David Shaw is particularly sad and tragic. His rescue video where he dies trying to put the body in a body bag is on YouTube and quite distressful if you're a diver. I won't post the link because I know it will be deleted from somersoft.
 
Tanks have tracks and you drive them, not what you strap to your back!

In the Army we would fine you a slab of beer for calling them anything other than cylinders ;)
 
good to see so many scuba here:D
a beginner here just done my OW half a yr ago
dived 9 times
wanting to dive once a week
I am trying to buy my own gear and came across this us website diver-supply
pretty keen on their Edge value pack for around AU $800 incl mares computer and delivery
has any one had any experience with 'EDGE" gears?
good bad comment plz?
 
Great to see scuba divers here! I am an advanced diver, but fairly dependent on my rather experienced family who have thousands under their belt! Will put the question out there, and see what comes back...

Cheers

Jen
 
FFChaser said:
good to see so many scuba here:D
a beginner here just done my OW half a yr ago
dived 9 times
wanting to dive once a week
I am trying to buy my own gear and came across this us website diver-supply
pretty keen on their Edge value pack for around AU $800 incl mares computer and delivery
has any one had any experience with 'EDGE" gears?
good bad comment plz?
Click to expand...

Do you have a link to this package?
Get some more dives under your belt then do your advanced and rescue if you enjoy it. Welcome to a surreal sport where you are weightless like in space.
 
ScottyB said:
Tanks have tracks and you drive them, not what you strap to your back!

In the Army we would fine you a slab of beer for calling them anything other than cylinders ;)
Click to expand...

Haha. A bit like flippers. If someone called fins flippers they had to shout a beer.
Flipper's a dolphin, everyone would yell.
 
dex said:
Blacky, how deep can you go? This is something I'd like to get into at some stage.
Click to expand...

I'm diving to about 60m constant weight with fins. I have been deeper on training dives which is when I drop weight to surface.
After about 30m my biggest challenge is equalization.

I have done a lot of scuba dives in my past. But don't bother with all the gear most of the time nowadays. I can dive deeper for longer without air.

If you like scuba diving you will love free diving imagine the weightlessness without all that gear. Plus there is no noise. Bubble blowers have no idea how much noise they make - which is the main reason you rarely see any sharks.

Blacky
 
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