Diving Cents: A Quick Word of Advice for New Divers Who Don't Want to Waste Money

Earlier this week, I had a prospective student reach out to me about starting their open water journey. This individual and I had been communicating back and forth about their training path, goals, and best practices to get started.

In the end, a financial decision was made to start their open water course with a different dive center. Basically, this individual was able to slide into a free open water course with a dive center quite a bit of a drive away. By the end of our conversation, we both agreed that for them, the money saved makes the trip worth it and that they should go to the other dive center for their class.

It’s totally understandable. I’ve been there. Diving is expensive, and I have only made it as far as I have in my scuba diving journey because of the people who pointed me in the right direction and helped me dive within my budget. Not all of us are readily able to drop a over a thousand dollars on training, equipment, and whatever miscellaneous fees that get thrown into the mix.

Truly, students take a bit of a gamble with their wallet when it comes to diving, especially when first starting out. Most have never taken a breath underwater before their Open Water class, and even fewer will recognize the importance of choosing the right instructor for their personal needs and goals. In this scuba credentialing system, a life changing decision often gets boiled down to the first dive center or instructor that shows up on a Google search.

Choosing your instructor or dive center isn’t the only financial option that students need to think about either. Equipment is also a deciding factor, and many students try saving money on equipment as well. Or worse, after their class they spend money needlessly on different equipment because they believe the hardships they experience while diving is caused by ill-fitting gear, or heavy fins, or maybe they think they just need bigger tanks because they use up air too quickly, and so on and so forth. They don’t realize that these “gear” issues are usually a training or experience dilemma, and so they go out shopping with hopes that buying a different set of fins or an expensive BC covered in buckles and D-Rings will fix their diving.

Don’t get me wrong, the right dive gear CAN make your diving easier, but it is not the deciding factor of how well you perform in the water. The deciding factors are your skillset, mindset, and training.

Personally, I’m a fan of “Buy Once, Cry Once” but this is much harder to get right when you are first starting out or changing direction on your diving journey. Take a deep look at the people who are doing the type of diving that you want to do, and then emulate that in your diving decisions. This will help you choose the right equipment and instructors from the beginning. Once you know where you want to be, the line to getting there becomes a bit easier to see.

No matter where you are in your diving journey, feel free to reach out to us if you ever have any questions or looking for a nudge in the right direction on your diving journey.

And of course, Happy Diving!