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Choice of outfit is often complicated by disputes on which equipment is better and abundance of advertising by one or another company each of which tries to persuade in superior quality and reliability of their products compared to "common" outfit.

When speaking about reliability, the regulators are usually meant. There are more than 30 big world manufactures of the regulators (Scubapro, Apeks, Mares, Aqualung, Oceanic, Tusa, Deep Sea, Sherwood scuba, Dacor, Cressi-Sub, Ocean reef, Atomic aquatics, Dive Rite and others). They all are reliable enough and operate according to the same principle: aqualung design developed in 1943 by captain Jacques Yves Cousteau and engineer Emile Gagnan. Design of regulator has remained unchanged until now.

However, in advertising prospects of many manufacturing companies their regulators are featured as having some absolutely "unique" design due to which breathing from such regulator is much easier than from "ordinary" ones.

Many outfit traders add the word "outfit" with the adjective "professional", however it is not exactly correct . Professional outfit is equipment used by commercial and military divers in their work and often it differs fundamentally from the amateur outfit. Such outfit often has no cylinders and regulators while included elements never used by recreational divers. Major makers of such outfit are: Diving System International (Kirby Morgan), Ocean Technology Systems, Interspiro, Hunter, Draeger, Broco, Fibron, Comex Pro, and others.

Some advice on choice of equipment:

Regulator: choose your regulator made in Europe, USA, and Japan by big outfit manufacturers. Your regulator must be certified according to the standard CE 250. Turret regulators have high pressure air balancing and are more convenient in operation while those of membrane design are preferable for our conditions. For dives in cold water (lower than +6 ºC) choose regulator specially designed for such conditions which usually wold be of the membrane type. On the second stage such models must be necessarily provided with radiators (heat exchangers).

Buoyancy compensator: choose BCD made in Europe, USA, and Japan by big, well-known outfit manufacturers.

Computer (dive computer). There many companies specialized in production of computers for diving, recognized world leaders are: Uwatec, Cressi Sub (Archimede), Mares, Dive Rite, VR3 and others.

All other outfit: masks, flippers, snorkels, diving suits are produced by many various manufacturing companies and here major criteria of choice are convenience, matching in size and your personal likes.

Outfit for technical diving - here the choice of manufacturers (technical wings and backs) is more or less limited to several companies: OMS, Dive Rite, Halcyon, and others; and, for example, outfit made by Halcyon is distinctly oriented to "Cave Diving".

More detailed advice and information on this outfit are available directly in our diving centre.