Like it or not, scuba diving is a gear-intensive sport. If you want to do it safely and correctly, you need the right kit.
Finding a great dive shop isn’t always easy, but that too is vital. You need professional scuba gear vendors who can provide you with the equipment you need for your particular diving activities. Just ordering a bunch of stuff off the internet from a random vendor probably isn’t a good idea: it may well be a recipe for disaster.
Not all dive shops are the same. Some, for instance, focus exclusively on marketing and getting as many products out of the door as possible. They are, in a sense, just big-box retailers, looking to make money from shipping low-margin products in bulk to consumers who will probably never use them.
These kinds of operations, though, are irresponsible. Diving is not the same as discount clothing. The suitability of diving equipment is a life-or-death issue. Companies that try to sell as many products as they can put their clients at risk.
Other dive shops, like Scuba World, take a radically different approach. Their purpose is to provide customers with all of the equipment that they need for scuba diving in a way that helps them to mitigate risk. Scuba diving is a potentially hazardous activity, and so anyone who wants to do it needs to go in fully prepared.
What does preparation look like?
Finding All The Equipment That You Need
The first thing that any budding scuba diver or snorkeler needs to do is find a shop that provides all of the necessary equipment.
Specialist stores like Scuba World are in a far better position than generic retailers to provide information and recommendations on specific equipment, whether all you need is a simple mask to a full-blown Aqua Lung regulator.
Scuba World overlooks the Sunshine Coast and is a prestigious dive shop that’s been in the business of providing amateurs and professionals with dive gear for decades. As your dive shop beneath the surface, we sell products from a variety of manufacturers, including Light and Motion, Sharkskin, Apeks and, of course, Aqua Lung.
Our primary role is to equip you with the gear that you need to immerse yourself in your underwater adventure, giving you the freedom to explore the magical world under the waves.
Getting Equipment Fitted
Dive and scuba gear, just like regular clothing, needs to be the right size to be functional. Knowing, however, whether the equipment is truly the right size for your body type can be a challenge. It’s not just physical measurements that matter, but also the amount of oxygen that you use and the depths that you plan on diving.
One of the things that makes our dive shop so successful is our customer service. We help you find the right gear for your body type and diving needs, giving you the tools for going out and exploring the underwater world on your terms.
Customer service specialists can help you in numerous ways. For starters, they understand the difference between the big diving brands. Aqua Lung, for instance, developed in 1943 by Emile Gagnan and Captain Couteau, has been providing world-class scuba diving gear ever since. Apeks, by contrast, was set up by an English duo, and makes all its scuba gear in a purpose-build factory, designing everything that it produces in-house.
Light and Motion, by contrast, doesn’t focus on clothing, but instead on underwater lighting. Electricity and water don’t generally mix. So the company has spent years trying to perfect its marine designs, tools that resist not only water but also the saltiness of the sea.
Other companies provide life-saving equipment. Luxfer, for instance, established more than 120 years ago, specialises in making high-capacity gas storage tanks, providing divers with breathable oxygen while they’re underwater. It also offers products to the medical industry.
Latest Innovations
The world of diving never stands still, and neither should diving shops. The top stores stay up to date with the latest diving technology, making it available to their customers the moment that it comes to market.
The companies we’ve discussed here and many more are continually upgrading their tanks, clothing, and masks to increase safety, life, resistance to water, thermal properties and comfort. Diving stores need to stay up to date with the latest trends in gear, stocking things like snorkels, fins, boots, wetsuits, drysuits, torches and much, much more.
That’s precisely what Scuba World does and why so many people on the Sunshine Coast keep using us.
Check out this blog post from GloboSurfer on some on the best dive watches under $100