New diver looking for advice

[mitachu]

My fiancee and I are off to the Maldives (Maayafishi) in January for our honeymoon and are doing our PADI Open Water course with GoDive in Derby (www.godive.net) as apparently the Maldives are amazing for scuba.

I'm keen to get into scuba but am wary of the cost of the gear. So far I've bought a pair of neoprene gloves to stop my hands getting and feeling manky after an hour in the water, lol !!

Does anyone have any advice to a couple of newbies with regards equipment? I'm thinkin we should just get our fins, mask and snorkel sorted and then hire the rest of the gear when we want to dive.

Lookin forward to our first trip to Stoney Cove in August !!!!!!!!

Cheers for reading.
Tim.

[Woz]

Save your money and find out if you really like diving first. Defs get a mask, fins, don't bother with a snorkel or if you do, get the cheapest one in the shop with a purge valve. You won't go far wrong with some Mares Plana Avanti Quattros (used all over the world by dive guides and reasonably light for travelling too) and a Beaver Atomic mask (cheap and appears to fit everyone). Fins with seperate boots are better as if you are shore diving, you can walk over rocks without damaging your feet.

When you get back to the UK, find a local club and have a play with lots of kit.

[mitachu]

I'm really enjoying the pool dives and, like I say, looking forward to the visit to stoney. I reckon I'll get into the whole lark quite happily.
Those Atomic masks look decent enough!

[Chris Cherrington]

Bear in mind if you buy stuff here it will eat up your baggage allowance. Also what's good for Stoney isn't really ideal for the Maldives.....

Everyone starts by buying loads of kit then sells it off secondhand after a bit and buys another load. We've all done it.. All the tempting offers will happen again and the sales will start in january...

Chris

[Hamish]

Hi Tim,

It does not look as if you have decided at this time if you will be diving anywhere else besides the Maldives, if so my advise would be to get mask, fins (slipper type) and snorkel. You may find you will spend more time snorkeling on the beach than diving and these will do the job very nicely.

Bear in mind that all of the equipment will be available for hire from the dive outfit you pick to dive with, so why go through all that expense and agony of carting all that gear when you go on honeymoon, I'm sure you will have more than diving on your mind.;)

Then when you return if the bug has bitten as I'm sure it will, you can start looking round for deals on the kit you want and where you want to go from there.

Best of Luck

Hamish