So I am not one who likes to buy a lot of gear or merchandise, I am way to cheap for that BUT when it comes time to buying something that will allow me to enjoy my hobbies then I don’t have a problem. You can’t put a price on fun right so who cares when what you buy is related to FUN … 😛
So I bought 2 upgrades and 1 brand new piece of equipment. So that equipment is listed below :
Equipment number 1: I bought a new Aries f10 dive computer. This thing usually retails for about $499 – $529 (prices I have seen) but I got it from the awesome guys at http://www.spearfishing.com.au for a CRAZY $329 when they were having their christmas special.
It was insane, I been wanting to buy a dive computer for so long so that I can keep myself safe and gauge my progress but the prices were just way to much, so when the F10 was selling for $329 I bought it right away. I get most of my diving gear (fins, gloves, snorkel, mask) at www.spearfishing.com.au because its cheaper then most places and the delivery is 2 days MAX (even for large fins :P) so this was the first place I searched when I was looking for this dive computer and man …. I wasn’t disappointed !
So I haven’t looked into the F10 in detail yet, I just haven’t had the time BUT using the basic features, average dives, depth alarms, depth gauge etc I train so much better and safer. I can’t really compare it to other diving computers but in terms of the progress I have made in performance with this kind of data at my finger tips its been really great.
Equipment upgrade number 2: I bought new fins baby. Pure carbon wave series from Leaderfins. I was using the Cressi modulars before and they have done me well for a while BUT when I started to try to do some serious dynamic distances and actually go all out I felt that my legs were getting tried faster then I was running out of breath.
This really started to get apparent when I started using “Fin Keepers/Holders”. When I started to use the fin keepers there was less movement between my fins and my ankles so most of the energy was transferred to the fin blades and much less got lost in the ankle/heel area with fin moving. Because the blades are so hard on the current Cressi Gara’s I could feel that my thighs started to get tired much much faster so it was time to get blades that were softer and had more propulsion. Just to note, this isn’t the fault of the Gara’s, they are great fins, I think they are just not suited for my kick output 😛 Im a pretty short guy and skinny legs so in comparison to taller guys with more leverage my kick is weaker. I think the Gara’s are more suited to taller stronger kickers.
I looked at a lot of different kinds of fins but its really hard to go past the pure carbon leaderfins at prices below $300 AUD including delivery, bag, blades and foot pocket ! At the end I chose the all carbon and finally gave them a go this weekend. Compared to my Cressi Modular Gara’s these babies fly. My legs don’t get tried and I can really feel the push. I can’t wait to try these out in the pool and try to go as far as I can and try to beat my PB’s.
When I bought these fins the guys at the shop made a mistake with my tracking number so my fins were at the post office for almost a week without anyone picking them up. Every time I went to check the location of my fins using the wrong tracking number it was stated as not yet delivered so they were just sitting there collecting dust. Other then that though, the packaging and delivery was perfect so great job to the guys at www.freedivershop.com.
Equipment upgrade number 3: New GoPro ! Why, cause my old GoPro is in kind of a disabled state. When I went to Sangiang island a few months ago water got into my GoPro when the waterproof casing wasn’t 100% sealing. As a result something happened to the camera. It takes longer to charge now and sometimes the SD card can not be read when its plugged into the GoPro, however if we take out the SD card and plug it into another device it works just fine. The Camera still works but I am worried that because the camera is in this damaged state it could start to fail on a trip and that would suck.
Now if the camera fails during the trip it isn’t about the camera, you can just buy another one no worries … its more about missing the moment and reliving the experiences later, so I thought screw it, ill just buy one now and use the old GoPro silver as a spare, maybe put it as a head mount or attach it to my legs when i’m diving. If it dies during a trip then no worries.
So thats about it, oh I bought it all in one big hit so my pocket did cop the flak 😛 I bought it all in one big hit was so that I could get it delivered to Australia before I left to Indonesia as I will be spending the next 3 months here. I wanted to make sure I could order all my gear and take it all with me. I will be living in Indonesia for at least 3 months for work so I wanted to make sure I didn’t need any additional equipment whilst diving and travelling around Indonesia on my days off.