New Divers – Equipment you will need to buy to go diving. As covered in Lesson 1 the club gives you priority for your first year to use the club diving kit to save you buying lots, however there are items you will need to buy. I have put together a list of items you will need to look at getting before you go open water diving, I have also added a few suggestions on what I personally prefer and a price guide. These are my view based on my experience and the equipment I use. Mask – Probably the most important item, aim for one that fits comfortably and has good vision. Low volume is helpful but not essential. Cost £30-40 for one that will last for years. A Cressi Big Eye mask, very good vision and they were available on offer for about £26 on the link below. They have a very good range as do Mares. You will need to treat the inside of the lens, ask your instructor about this.

http://www.ts-heinemann.com/tauchshop/cressi-scuba-mask-eyes-p44.html Fins – Flexible open foot seafins. I would strongly recommend Mares Avanti Quatro, they are very good and last for years. Usually a deal going somewhere for them. Cost £40-70. Have a search around, yellow is a very good colour as it’s very visible in the gloom at depth and helps us to keep an eye on you.

We do have about 6 sets of seafins you can borrow from.

Simply Scuba had these Avanti X3 on offer for £39.95. They look a very good buy.

Wet suit boots – We provide wet suits but lack boots, you can get a pair for about £15 I think, the Water sport shop on Herne Bay seafront does a 10% discount for club members. Buy them before trying your fins on. Shop around, plenty on offer. 5mm is a good thickness. Some of those who trained in the last few years may have some for sale if they have bought a dry suit. Simply Scuba has 5mm boots on sale for £17.95

Gloves – Scubapro 3mm gloves are very good and cost £18-25. This thickness is about right for the right balance of warmth and feeling/control. Simply Scuba has the Scubapro 3mm Hyperflex on sale at £20.95 these are my gloves of choice.

Cutting Tool – Knifes are ok, but net cutters or scissors are better. If you get a knife aim for a chisel ended one, stainless steel about £20-25. Titanium is better but about twice as much.

A net cutter is fine, this one is £12 from Denney Diving.

Sea Snips (Scissors) are better, these are £14 from Denney Diving.

Torch – Essential for channel diving ideally a main torch about £50 and a back up about £15-20 is ideal for now. Something like this for about £42 should do. The more you can afford the better, a LED one gives very long burn times and very good light. Try Denney Diving on the link below, it’s where I get mine from. Next day delivery.

http://www.divingdirectshop.co.uk/acatalog/Torches.html Dive Timer – A waterproof watch will do as long as it’s good to 35m, however a bottom timer is much better and often cheaper and better than the watch. A computer is far better, however a timer for now will be a good back up to a ‘puter at a later date. A UWTEC Bottom Timer £65 from Denney Diving or Kent Diving. Timer and Depth Gauge, records last 9 dives and gives water temp, depth, dive duration and are VERY good. Far better and cheaper than most dive watches which don’t do half as much. If you go for a ‘puter the SUUNTO Vyper is the main one in the club and costs about £190. Whatever you buy you will want one that does NITROX as well as air. Kent diving has an online price of £178 (see link below). Or get a Gekko for £148. If you look at Dive Watch prices you can get both of these for less than a lot of them. If you already have a waterproof watch then that will do.

http://www.kentdiving.com/index.html

Boat/Goody Bag – A net bag to hold your mask, fins, torch, drink on the boat. A goody bag can do this then be used on the dive. Coat about £5-10

£6.25 from Simply Scuba. Keeps everything nice and tidy and you then have something during the dive to put your Lobsters, Scallops, Portholes, Ships bell or sunken treasure into.

Dive Log Book – To record your dives, very important later on. Get your buddy/instructor/dive marshal or me to sign them off.

£4 from BSAC, the dive profile format book is better for most people than the column format. The loose leaf format will go into your QRB Filofax folder once you have it.

BSAC 88 Dive Tables – Essential for all dive planning during the courses and used on ALL BSAC theory tests. Available from BSAC for £15

You need them for your dive lessons, planning, revision and exams, they also have practice exercises in the front which are ideal for revision.

These last two items are available at the BSAC Mail Shop (link below), you can order by phone or on-line. You need your BSAC Membership number for your discount:http://www.bsac.org/shop/index.html DSMB When you move into Sport Diver training you will need one of these, as in the channel we all need to carry one, with a reel to deploy it with. Available from Denney Diving for £13. There are lots of versions, ask your instructor to show you some. These are basic safety items.

Reels Ideally by the time you are doing your Sport Diver assessment dives you should have 2 reels (So about next May/June). One to stay with your DSMB in a pocket for emergency use, the other to use as a distance line so you can get back to the shot, however I would prioritise the one with the DSMB. McMahon Mini reel at £40 a good buy that will last for years and ideal with that DSMB. You can see these items in Simply Scuba in Whitstable.

A big McMahon reel, ideal as a distance line on wrecks, the big drum makes it very easy to reel in. However if your buddy is doing the reeling leave it on the boat as the handle is a pain if its just hanging. £40 from Denney or Kent Diving.

An SMB lanyard is also quite important for deploying your DSMB from the wreck, cost £6.50 from Denny Diving

These reels, lanyard and DSMBs are available here:http://www.divingdirectshop.co.uk/acatalog/SMBREELS.html You can also see a lot of this kit at Kent Diving at Dartford who do some very good prices as well, cheaper online than in the shop:http://www.kentdiving.com Simply Scuba in Whitstable also has a lot of these items. Their prices always were a bit steep compared to many of the other outlets, but they now appear to be more competitive and they have a good online shop. I would have a look around before buying and they are conveniently in Whitstable The Shorncliffe Dive centre also has good quality kit at good prices and Chris has been extending his shop facilities, its well worth a visit if you are in the Folkstone area. http://www.shorncliffedivecentre.com Any questions feel free to ask. ALL divers have a different view on what is best, these are just some of my suggestions on what will do the job. Please have a chat before spending, you have lots of time before we go into the sea and during pool training the mask is the most important and only really essential item. I have shown the computer just to really show what you can get for the price of a good watch, you will not need it until you start diving as a Sport diver in your own right. If you intend to buy a Cylinder then you need a 15L with the depths we dive to off Dover and preferably O2 Clean so you can dive Nitrox from dive 1. You can always get a good price on these at the London Dive Show or from Kent Diving (Currently about £115-125)

Paul Oliver Diving Officer Canterbury Divers