Online scuba shops

Not just for photographic gear but for general scuba gear as well, which online shops are people using in their respective countries and overseas and why. Prices? service? speed of shipping?

I live in Australia and often find purchasing from the States including shipping, exchange rates and Australian taxes once it arrives, cheaper than buying retail in Australia. The price differences worth forgoing local warranties.

I have read some forums suggesting LeisurePro for particular items in the past. woul people agree LeisurePro are good?

Thanks

Mary

I have used LeisurePro many times for many products. Never really had a problem.

Always got the product requested in the shipping time offered. But then I am in the US. Owned by the same people as Adorama which offers camera equipment. I have also done considerable business with them with good results.

I am not associated with either business.

I concur that LeisurePro provides excellent service and a wide range of products (most often not available at local dive shops) for a low price. I have used them for years and have been quite satisfied. I have no relationship to LeisurePro.

I have often been surprised by the lack of knowledge and limited availability of products in local dive shops. The claim that one pays for individual service is an obsolete myth.

Bob

As a store owner and an online retailer, I am still a huge fan of supporting local business and your local economy. Of course, as per above, not every "brick and mortar" store in your local community offers the level of service, support and knowledge that warrants paying extra...however for those that do have a quality local business, its still a great way to do business, and always nice to have a local professional to help you, talk to, and work with. One thing to always consider is WARRANTY. Many online discounters are NOT authorized dealers and products purchased from them may or may not come with a manufacturers warranty.

In the case of scuba equipment, LP is authorized by some mftrs, but not all. With regards to camera gear, there are some AMAZING, in fact, too good to be true deals, from online camera stores in NY. Many do not come withe the included accessories, warranties, and definitely no service!!

Here is a recent story of my experience, since I just had to test the waters!!

When buying a Sony EX1 last year, I found the camera online for as low as $2800 (normally $6500 at the time). I called 2 of the places, Neither of them included the accessories or warranty...and neither of them included the LENS!! Thats right, they said they physically removed the lens elements from the body!! All said and done, to have a ready to go package from them would cost more than normal retail. But, you do not know that buying online. It took my persistence (calling for a few days) to get someone and ask them what was and was not included.

It really comes down to what you are looking for, and what is the cost savings. When its minimal (10, 20, 50 dollars) its questionable...when its extreme (hundreds or thousands) then it definitely MAY be worth it, after investigating. When the dollar was really strong against the Euro, we did a ton of sales to Europe, because they could pay shipping and duties and still save 15% on big systems!

for general scuba gear as well,

Hi Mary,

I have found over the years that nothing beats the service and support we get from using your favorite local dive shop. The potential price savings on gear (sometimes illusionary) from an internet shop is just not worth it for me. I'd much rather do business with people I know I can trust and have a place to try on and see the equipment we are counting on. Just my 2 cents.

Have fun,

Steve

For many things, including anything that you later might want serviced, I think the extra initial cost of buying from a local dive shop is worth it. OTOH, some things are never going to be serviced, and if you're willing to take the risk that they won't, and your local dive shop doesn't carry them anyway, online works. For scuba gear, I would agree that Leisurepro.com is probably the one to trust.

For camera gear, OTOH, I find local camera shops - and the people they hire to man the counters - of very little use. I think the online retailer of choice for camera gear is B&H Photo (www.bhphotovideo.com). Their prices are real - no gimmicks or bait & switch tactics. In second place IMO is Adorama.com, which you'll usually find has prices virtually identical to B&H. Since those are two of the most reliable online sources, if you find anything at some other online site significantly cheaper, you can almost bet that there's something fishy. That's why I don't even bother with other places anymore. I've ordered too much stuff, only to get e-mails saying, "In order to complete your order, you must call and speak to one of our representatives," or somethin similar, and end up with a NYC salesman trying to talk me into a bunch of other stuff and/or say, "Oh, that doesn't come with the original ___ - if you want that, the price is $___ more."

I'm a little different to most as I live in a very remote area of Australia and don't have access to a local dive shop that actually carries gear for sale and can service stuff quickly and reliably. I buy virtually all my gear on line as I have no other choice. I use four online diveshops regularly, two are Australian based and two are in the USA.

In Australia:

Scuba Doctor

Scuba Imports and Divetub

In the USA:

Scubatoys

Dolphin Scuba

I have found Dolphin Scuba's service to be particularly good. When I purchased a dry suit from them for my wife last year (at a huge saving to what I could buy the same one in Australia) they actually rang my wife and had a very long discussion with at their expense to sort out various details of the drysuit before it was shipped.

I have friends in Australia who have used LeisurePro and have been happy with them but I have also heard negative reports about them. Personally, I would rather deal with an overseas online trader that is actually a dive shop as both Scubatoys and Dolphin Scuba are.

I give all my and my son's business to the (very good) local dive store. Amongst the benefits we get are free gas and unrestricted use of their equipment servicing bench. When you have as many regulator sets and cylinders as we do, thats a huge saving...

I have used Leisurepro before and have had good luck. Wouldn't buy anything that required an annual service from them (ie reg and BC). I'm a tech diver and use Apeks. They sell Apeks, but aren't authorized dealer for that, so there is no warranty. I have bought like fins, knives, and stuff from them with no problems.

I've tried Scuba.com. But have cancelled orders as well as some of my friends. Problem with them was I would order stuff and pay extra for 2 day shipping and when nothin arrived, I called and they said it was on backorder, although the website said it was in stock. Not even an e-mail telling otherwise. My best friend had the samething happen to him as well. And they chraged his credit card when they did not even have the item in stock. He waited 1 month then cancelled.

I try to support my local dive shops. I live in Indianapolis and we have 4 in the area. They pretty much only sell what they have in stock. I've asked them to get me things such as steel tanks, masks, etc, but they never were too interested in getting anything for me. I eventually found a shop 1 hour away and he takes good care of me and does good service on my regs and tanks. Will do orders for me as well, but he does not carrying every brand I use such as Halycon or Aquatica.

I have also had really good luck with http://www.divegearexpress.com/ They used to be diveriteexpress, but changes their name after they started to carry other dive manufactor gear. They are in Fort Lauderdale. I stopped in to see them. They charge you for the air that you only need plus air and Nitrox is the same cost up to 40% and they don't short you out on the pressure.

AS far as Camera gear goes, I like B&H photo. I'm a NAPP member, so I get free shipping. Therefore, I have not tried Adorama. Have always had good service from them. And they ship fast.

Just order 3 weeks ago from Backscatter. Housing for the D90, ports, and gears. I called on Friday inquiring about my gear. Apparently, they had to order the housing in. This may be standard practice. Not sure, but atleast B&H photo had this on the website if I would have ordered this from the,. I only wich backscatter had let me know this when I ordered. Haven't got my gear, so the jury is still out on them. They were nice people and pleasant to deal with. I went with them, since they are divers and know what they are talking about when I spoke with them on the phone.

Kirk

I have put together pretty large list (with hyperlinks to their sites) in the AquaPages Directory Shop Online/Dive Equipment Stores.

Have also done the same for Underwater Photo/Video Dealers as well.

I live in the Netherlands (prior to that France)

I hardly shop local, little to no choice, shops with inconvenient opening day or hours or far away (I work very long hours, so the last thing I want to do is to spend several hours or the saturday driving/taking train to a shop where there's not much to match my interest), prices generally more expensive (sometimes outrageously depending on items) and advices not adapted to my interests in diving. If I was diving locally that may be different. Generally I know exactly what I want to buy as well.

caveat: I have had impulsive buys when coming to a very small local diveshop to get a hose changed and I left with a 500EUR hartenberger light. I also came once to get a 500EUR dive computer because my Aladin died and I was leaving in 2 days to the other side of the world. In both cases I made his day.

I have been buying my gear online for 7 years with zero issues. Warranty is rarely if at all my concern and in any case, there's probably little to no difference.

I have been buying diving gear to:

- DiveInn Scubastore (Spain) http://www.scubastore.com

- Sport Extreme (Sweden) http://www.sportextreme.com

7 years ago when I was in France I bought entire gear (fins, mask, bcd, wetsuit, computer, reg, octopus) to a small online shop in Italy (which I dont remember). Received everything in 3 days, absolutely perfect.

For photography or underwater gear , I take advantage of the fact I sometime travel to NYC for business to get some goodies from B&H , otherwise I have been ordering various things from:

- B&H (NYC,US) - http://www.bhphotovideo.com

- DigitalRev (Hong-Kong) - http://www.digitalrev.com

- Reef Photo Video (Florida, US) - http://reefphoto.com

- UW Marine Camera (Japan) - http://www.uwdigitalcamera.com/ (cheap Inon strobes ex: $600 for the Z-240 T4 vs $750 in the US)

- Scubacam (Netherlands) - http://www.scubacam.nl

I think I have been ordering once from DiverVision - http://www.divervision.com (Taiwan) as well

I have put together pretty large list (with hyperlinks to their sites) in the AquaPages Directory Shop Online/Dive Equipment Stores.

Minor correction, Lucas Dive Store is a Netherlands based shop.

Thanks bearaway, I will add the following to the AquaPages Directory

Sport Extreme (Sweden) http://www.sportextreme.com

UW Marine Camera (Japan) - http://www.uwdigitalcamera.com

Scubacam (Netherlands) - http://www.scubacam.nl

Can Optical Ocean Sales be added to the list?

I think you're also missing H2O Photo Pros and a couple of other WetPixelers...

Thanks,

Jack

Thanks Jack, Optical Ocean Sales has been added to the list. and yes H2O Photo Pros has been there a while.

I try to buy locally when I can. Definitely for serviced and warrantied gear like computers and regs. They don't carry everything I need (sometimes I have a preference for brands they don't carry, for instance), however, at which point I shop online.

At that point, ScubaToys.com is my go-to place for dive gear. Best service, best support, often the best prices or close to it.

If they don't have what I need, I'll check DiveSports.com which is another excellent dealer with a sterling reputation.

TechDivingLimited.com is another good choice, particularly for tech-oriented gear, along with GolemGear.com

PiranhaDiveMfg.com has a more limited selection of goods, but fantastic prices.

NorthEastScubaSupply.com has been a worthy supplier on occasion as well.

LeisurePro.com is my last choice, generally, when all other options have been exhausted. They're more likely to carry items than anywhere else, but their grey market activities and some hassles from the past have left a bad taste in my mouth, so I avoid them when I can. Ditto for Scuba.com ... too many bad reports, and some issues on my own orders.

For photo-specific needs, Ryan at ReefPhoto.com is my main choice, followed by BackScatter.com OpticalOceanSales.com and H2OPhotoPros.com (and of course B&H for non-UW-specific needs)

I had a bad experience buying a regulator that was "on sale" at a local dive shop. After I made the purchase (about $400 +tax ) I went home and checked online. Thew results I found bummed me out big time, I could buy the same reg online at almost any retailer for $200 less! I returned the regulator the next day and used the credit to purchase some boat dives.

That left a bad taste in my mouth for that LDS but I live in Los Angeles and was able to quickly try another LDS. The next shop I tried was great and has been great since the first day I became a customer. They keep their prices competative, and offer great service. I got free airfills for life and they help me out with extra tanks whenever I need them.

Local dive shops are a bit more expensive than online, but they have overhead and they are there to serve you when you need that last minute item or something fixed a half hour before hopping on the plane to Fiji. So, I like to support that dive shop that treats me well because then I know they will be there for me when I need them.

For underwater photography there is one guy who knows his stuff (started making his own housings in the 1950s) and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to loyal customers. He always has me covered when it comes to extra sync cords, and last minute strobe batteries, etc. I will never purchase an Item online for underwater photo gear, becuase my local UW photo store has good prices and always makes sure my UW system is complete and works great.

I had a bad experience buying a regulator that was "on sale" at a local dive shop. After I made the purchase (about $400 +tax ) I went home and checked online. Thew results I found bummed me out big time, I could buy the same reg online at almost any retailer for $200 less! I returned the regulator the next day and used the credit to purchase some boat dives.

 

That left a bad taste in my mouth for that LDS but I live in Los Angeles and was able to quickly try another LDS. The next shop I tried was great and has been great since the first day I became a customer. They keep their prices competative, and offer great service. I got free airfills for life and they help me out with extra tanks whenever I need them.

 

Local dive shops are a bit more expensive than online, but they have overhead and they are there to serve you when you need that last minute item or something fixed a half hour before hopping on the plane to Fiji. So, I like to support that dive shop that treats me well because then I know they will be there for me when I need them.

 

For underwater photography there is one guy who knows his stuff (started making his own housings in the 1950s) and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to loyal customers. He always has me covered when it comes to extra sync cords, and last minute strobe batteries, etc. I will never purchase an Item online for underwater photo gear, becuase my local UW photo store has good prices and always makes sure my UW system is complete and works great.

Where in LA and who is this mystery photo guy? Alan at ABSEA?

Bill

..... we get are free gas ...

And even if you don't get gas for free don't forget you can't gas fills on-line. Not such a big problem at resorts but in the UK at least dive shops are the source of most air fills {citation needed}. If they go under getting fills becomes a PITA.

Where in LA and who is this mystery photo guy? Alan at ABSEA?

Bill

Yeah, Alan of AB Sea is the guy I'm talking about. Funny fella and he knows his UW photo stuff forward and back.