I will say upfront that I am, overall, a Scubapro person, with some exceptions. Even before I became an instructor I used Scubapro. My very first regulator was a Sherwood Brut that I got third or maybe forth hand, from my cousin. I have no clue what the 1st stage or octo was. I probably put 10 dives on it over the first 4 or 5 years of diving.
When I hooked up with the dive shop that I ended up spending a significant amount of time at over the following 10 years (had to move for a job), I decided to treat myself to some new gear.
I had rented a few other models and brands and found that I really liked the Scubapro MK17 as a first stage. I was diving New England waters 8-9 months of the year so the recommendation form the shop owner was to get a sealed 1st stage. I paired that with Scubapro G250V. I think the V was supposed to mean vintage or something. It didn’t matter I really liked the way the regulator breathed.
If I remember correctly the first real dive I took it on was to dive the wrecks in the St. Lawrence seaway, in Ontario, Canada (see more in the travel section). If you’ve ever dove them, you know that the current can run pretty rippin around some of the wrecks (Daryaw). I remember dropping around the stern of the
A.E. Vickery in about 115 feet of water and what I swore was 6 knots of current, and the regulator performed beautifully (I won’t say much about my performance back then).
A few years go by and in 2013, we saw that a new regulator, the G260, was coming out. I thought I’d get one, and yes, I was an instructor by then. I kept the G250V, because you can never have to many regulators. I dove the G260 a serious amount of times while teaching and thought it was a pretty good regulator, but then later in the year I went on my annual pilgrimage to the St. Lawrence seaway and HOLY CRAP, I got to tell you this regulator (G260) was awesome. When I took it on dives on wrecks in New England (Chester A. Poling) I was still amazed at how well it performed. So I now own 4 MK-17s with G260s and 2 MK-25s (Sidemount setup) with G260s.
On both of my regular setups I have the r195 octopus and on one, a normal pressure gauge.
On my primary ocean setup I have a Shearwater (made by PPS) transmitter. I also have this on my pony bottle. More on this later.
very nice job on the website!
Thank you