Opinions on what to buy in which order?

[Papa Bear]

Follow Lottie's advice.

When you are familiar with some of the pieces that you need to purchase, then My suggestion is to buy the regulator setup. Just my personal preference, but it is life support and my life is worth knowing how the regs have been taken care of.

As you may guess - I have had some bad luck with rental regs.

My .02 is over

Most rental gear is well maintained due to the liability potential! Not to say things don't go wrong, but that's why you're training A Reg will do you no good in 50* water if your too cold to dive longer than 10min!

[Dsix36]

Most rental gear is well maintained due to the liability potential! Not to say things don't go wrong, but that's why you're training A Reg will do you no good in 50* water if your too cold to dive longer than 10min!

I didn't really take exposure protection into account. I trained and dive in sunny S Florida where the water is pretty warm.

I still have to put my priorities on the life support rather than comfort, but I guess that will depend on the water temps.

[Papa Bear]

You can breath from an open valve on a tank or a cut hose, but in cold water your dead in 5 to 10 min. As I was saying the simplest reg must still meet minimum life support standards and 99.99% of shops keep their rental line in great shape, it only takes one bad reg to be sued and risk everything! The Rental Line in dive shops maybe basic, but it is usually the hardest equipment in the industry!