I am looking at buying regulators for our first dive trip in Mexico. Looking at the Genisis Yukon $200, or the IDI Seaira Spirit Flowby $190. Any suggestions or recommendations? Thanks.

In one word SCUBAPRO not cheep but the best. Get a SCUBAPRO regulator and you will not be sorry. Since you are trusting your gear with your life only get the best. Have a good trip and remember Divers do it Deeper.

Mares and Posidon are the top of the line as far as recreational regs go. There are Mares regs made for both tropical and colder waters. Have a Mares Abyss and have had it down past 130 and in water as cold as 38 degrees. NO problems.

Spend a lot on your reg, get the best you can. It is life supprt equipment, not rollerblades.

As DK said, check Rodales reviews, ScubaPro is NOT clearly the best.

NAUI Instructor #13531 here.

i second the recommendation on ScubaPro gear.

all of the standard gear you see is also just fine.  and for stereotypical, 'couple times a year' divers, this stuff will prolly be your best value.

Poseidon regs, ScubaPro's D400, et al. have performance capabilities you will not take advantage of as a beginning diver in average conditions.  you will feel really cool except when you look at your credit card statement.

having taught diving for a few years and been on many a trip with newbies, i am completely jaded about gear.  most of it you will not need to own unless you are working in the industry or dive on a monthly basis.

hauling gear to places is a PITA for one or two days of diving.  go with a reputable outfit and they will have standard rental gear that they will have to schlep and clean and deal with.

here's a better suggestion:  get a dive computer and learn its functions and use.  this will be eminently more useful in maximizing your diving fun.

i can ramble for hours and bore you to death with my jaded opinions on SCUBA gear.  just ask.

Atomic Aquatics ! Best reg going... You don't need the version that has the Ti' 1st and second stage, though.
Get the B1/T2 (I think,) mine is a few years old so they may have changed. Mine has a Titanium 2nd stage with a brass 1st stage... Great reg, breathes awesome !

[url]http://www.atomicaquatics.com/[/url]

The B1 is the one you want to look at...

edited because:

While I agree with a lot said in the above post... I am not going to trust life support gear to a rental or someone else... I actually had a rental tank blow on me once, not funny. We all have to rent tanks, but the rest, I ain't gonna rent. Anything that is life support gear should be owned and tested by you.... My opinion.

[size=5][blue][u]SCUBAPRO[/u][/blue][/size=5]  [red]is the way to go!![/red] [:D]

Gotta agree with the SCUBAPRO recommendation. I bought a Mark V in 1972 (top of the line back then) and it is still going strong.  Keep it properly maintained and it will last forever, and mine has been put through many, many, many dives, including ice dives!!

roger that on Atomic.  those guys used to design regs for ScubaPro and the similarities are obvious.  good stuff.

as a diver, you need to keep up your skills for equipment failure at all times.  the more extreme risk stuff you should have redundant equip anyway.

i can't in good conscience recommend a first time diver spend >$1,000 on gear.  

most of the rental gear in good outfits is all workhorse stuff that will be fine.  

your buddy and the DM are carrying your backup regs and tanks anyway!!

I have the gs2000 from genisis. I got it about 2  years ago, and have been on around 50 dives with it. I think I got it for about 170, but can't remember for sure.
I used www.diverdiscountsupply.com for it. They match any price, even an internet price for it.
They are also an authorized dealer, so your warranty is good. I know because I called genisis directly. And I have had it serviced since I bought it, and all the parts were free for warrantied service.
It has the adjustment knob,and a flow direction lever.
It has worked well for me, and is easy to breath all the way to 108 feet, my deepest depth so far.
I use the tusa secondary air with it as well, and have had no problems.
My wife has had a minor problem with her's but she has the seaquest secondary air on her's, and no one in my area can service both at the same time, so they feel it is a pressure problem of "dialing" it in or some such. After about 15 dives on it, it causes the secondary air to leak a bit unless she is breathing on the primary.

also, i used to do the maintenance on a fleet of rental regs and service on numerous other makes.  i've probably overhauled hundreds of regs and serviced tanks and BC's.

a good function check and condition inspection (especially the hoses) will give you most of the info you need about the gear.

personally, i would exercise the convenience and cost factors in renting decent gear from a reputable dive outfit before i plunked down cash for the same mid-grade workhorse gear and had to schlep it around the country/world and pay for maintenance each time i was getting ready to take it on my once/twice a year outings.

if you are going to buy your own gear, buy higher grade equipment.

but i'll repeat my rec to buy a nice dive computer that you will see the benefits from on your first and all subsequent dives.  doesn't take up space and will maximize your dive better than following the tables or relying on a DM. [my opinion of overseas DM's and their concern for divers is extremely low.  **depend on yourself and your buddy before you depend on somebody you do not know.**]

tanks are a non-issue unless you can travel in your car to the divesite/boat.  in case you're wondering, i recommend steel tanks, DIN valves so most yahoos won't muck with your gear, and bring along a DIN adapter for airfills.

oh cr*p, i'm starting to ramble....

The Poseidon bought back in the early 1980's just keeps on breathing dry and easy.  At any angle including upside down.  There are lots of fancy regs out there but that old stainless steel Swede still works for me.

It's almost embarrassing the old instrument panel we made back then and one day I'll finally get a computer.  But diving the tables has never got me bent.

I agree with many of the posts here, basically to sum up the best course of action.

If you even think of wanting to dive more than just a couple of times, buy a better reg, around the 500-700 range.  In looking at a reg, go for good engineering, good construction, good warranty, good ergonomics, and good performance.

Basically this rules out oceanic.  I do not know about genesis or IDI.  The regs look like knock-offs of the g250 and mark15 first stages.

Anyway, some good regs are
1.  Apeks TX100, TX50, ATX200
2.  Atomic B1, Z1 (Titanium is a gimmic)
3.  Scubapro G250 HP, D400

I do not recommend Mares because I do not like the fact that they up the cracking effort to compensate for the fact that there are no adjustments on the reg.  You can probably get around this if you know how to service the reg, but that said the mares abyss is a good reg.

To furhter narrow the choices, you have to decide if you want knobs or not.  All of the regulators above can be adjusted, the only difference is some require tools, some require a twist of the knob.  You only really adjust a regulator once, and that is it.  I have had adjustable regs that I adjusted once and dove for years from 30' to 120' and never messed with it once.  If you feel more comfortable with the extra "feature", then go with

1.  Atomic B1, Z1
2.  ScubaPro G250
3.  Apeks ATX200, TX100

To narrow from there, if you are going to do some severe ice diving, etc... get a sealed first stage, that limits you to the apeks.  I have tried the 100 and the 200, and found the 200 to be a more comfortable, better breathing reg.  If you are not ice diving, go with a piston first stage and the atomic b1.  Basically the same guy who designed the g250 designed the atomic b1.  It is an iteration on a very good design and is superior to the g250 in every respect.

If you don't care about knobs, you want the fire and forget no hassel regulator, go with the d400.

Personally, I dive a d400.

If you want a cheap reg that you just want to play with, get a mk2 r190.  It is a solid reg for about $300 and is a good performer.

that Poseidon you(Arock) have is still the same reg they are selling now.  good, high performance reg you got there.

i've seen people get bent on tables and computers, no guarantees.  the computers use some very good gas models that are most likely better for people who are not 18, super-fit, have a chamber standing by, and are in the Navy.

just as with firearms, it's all about knowledge and training.  just use gear that will get the job done and you can enjoy the rest.

some more rambling:  while you are schlepping your regs, BC, mask/fins/snorkel back to the hotel, hanging the stuff up after rinsing, soaking your regs in the tub to get all the sea water out.......your buddies will be lounging at the pool and onto their second or third beers.  heh.

Darin_Marple is SPOT ON.

nice detailed post. [unlike my scattered ramblings.  it's the silly season, ugh.]

don't leave the country without proper insurance either:

[url]http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/[/url]

rides in the chamber cost a few thousand per.  helo and jet evac to a good chamber start in the 5 digit $$$'s.

scottjiminez...what's a good to better computer these days?  I'm looking to upgrade my rig after the holidays.  Maybe a recommendation of more than one manufacturer?

Arock,

gimme a short bit to brush up on the latest models and i'll post.

offhand, i prefer the Aladdin Pro.  acquired by UWATEC/ScubaPro a few years back.

these days i usually recommend wrist mounted and possible air-integrated (wireless connex to unit mounted on hi-press port on first stage).

anybody else who is up on the latest computers, feel free to jump in here.

i'll get back on this...

Thanks, Scott.

Nothing wrong with rambling, especially if there is some good information in it

I use an Oceanic DataPlus (2 or 200 I think,) works well for me. Mine is mounted on my hose, by my console.
I bought all my stuff at the same shop (I get  outragous deals and they have quality stuff.)

I like the UWATECs and am going with that when I get the funds.

FWIW: I agree 100% w/ scottjimenez about not needing to buy/hump your gear for a short trip. But, If I go for like a week, I'm taking my stuff. I dove for a year before I bought any gear (excluding mask and fins.)

yes, if you take long trips (lots o' diving) it's nice to have your gear.  additionally, you can go to your local trusted shop and hand select some rental gear to travel with. [i'm all about options, eh?]

as far as computers,

Uwatec:
    Aladdin Air Z - large wrist computer, air integrated transmitter (can be used w/o transmitter)
    Aladdin Pro - THE original wrist computer that apparently still kicks ass
    Aladdin Sport Plus - Total KISS (non-integrated wrist computer)

Suunto
    Stinger - wrist computer/watch (non-integrated but this is THE computer watch you always see)
    Cobra - air integrated console

for travel, wrist computers are grab and go.  leave the transmitter units at home if you're going light, or take your reg to use all your funx.

i have a strong affinity for air integration.  more info is always good and calculated values for air time etc. are sweet.

if you will be taking your own reg, a computer in the gauge boot and integrated to the HP port is the way to go.  all the info right there.  make sure you take a crescent wrench and an allen wrench in case you need to switch to a backup reg unit.  

i'd be interested in hearing more about the mid grade brands since i haven't been working in the industry for a number of years.

The Poseidon is probably still the best on the market,,, a very proven design that has stood the test of time, but they are more costly to overhaul when it becomes rebuild time since the parts are imported. I bought two of them in the 1980s when I was a diver in the oilfields for a living...They were as close as you can get to the gas services models used on commercial diving helmets.

My dive buddies in Miami who dive an average of 200 dives per year use the Mares and Oceanic.  Moderate price, durable and easy to get worked on.

HoustonTargetShooter,

you're talking about the Cyklon model right?  or do you have the Odin?

i've seen Oceanics abused on a long term daily basis that keep working.  the cracking pressure is pretty stiff and they are definitely not high performers, but dang if i've ever seen anyone able to kill one (that couldn't be resurrected, save for dropping an Alum80 on one)