Shop til you drop

This does not take long for me.

But...

Who would have thought that I would spend over four hours shopping. I got gift certificates to a dive shop in St. Charles for graduation. I went to the dive shop to figure out what I should get. Originally I thought this would be quick trip to one dive shop. I wanted to get a dry bag for the dive boat or for any other time that I wanted to keep things dry while in Honduras. We get to the dive shop where I have gift certificates and start looking around the store. The guy asked if he could help us and I wanted to look around the store first so I had some idea of what I wanted. By the time I was ready to talk to the guy working the store, other people had shown up and started signing up for the Open Water class. We waited for close to half an hour to talk to this guy when he asks, "Do you need help? Let me go get Chris from the back room." Why he did not tell us that someone was there earlier I am not sure.

So the new guy comes over and shows me the prices on all the buoyancy compensator (BCs). I never knew how expensive BCs could be. The low end range is around $500, the high end up to $720. Beyond buying a BC, I still need regulator, gauges and dive computer. Altogether, this shop had a set up of around $1500 with Scubapro gear.

Then we went to another dive shop. This is the dive shop that my parents have the strongest connection with. Why? I am not sure. They just always say that they leave the shop thinking that the people really know what they are talking about. We went in and started piecing together a set up. This dive shop pushed Oceanic gear. The prices and equipment were similar however, this company was willing to throw in a $235 course if I bought all my gear from them. Not a bad deal.

The whole process took 4 and a half hours. The end result of the whole process was that I have to make a lot of choices and making decisions is not my strong suit. The internship that I am attending does provide a full set of gear but from what the two dive shops told me about Mares, I think I would rather get a different brand. I am just waiting to find out how much the internship price will drop to see if it is worth bringing my own gear or if I should just use the gear supplied and then use that as a base to help me make decisions on what gear I want in the future or if I am happy with the gear that I already have.

The dropping, not me, but my mom and sister. What are the odds of me out lasting them in a shop-a-thon. Inconceivable.