Ap Valves for the jackets.

Apek Regs (expensive servicing) or;
Oceanic regs (free servicing, just labour charges)
Scubapro

There's a start!

Sherwood Brut or other sherwood regs if theres someone who can service them.
Sherwood will give serviceing training, the LDS here services there own hire
regs and told me it's only a $200 NZD course if I want to do my own and keep
them under warranty. It may pay to have a club officer do the serviceing
course. maintain them yourself.

The Sherwoods are bulletproof, and with their air dry system they don't
freeze solid like water filledtypes of regs in cold water... you should be
able to use them midwinter wherever you have divers in the UK.

rhys

Get comfy, it's going to be a long thread ......

Well as the EO of a large Uni club, you could say that I have been there
done that, so heres my  advice.

Have a prime directive.
Make a wish list of all the kit that you want based on current numbers.
Stick with it! You dont have to get it all now. You can buy one reg at a
time as long as you always have the same end goals. Evntually you will
get there.

BC's. Are you training or diving and when do you expect them to get
there own kit?

If it's just training then the best (cheap) BC is the Poseidon clublift.
Will do years of good use, drys quick and is an excellent travel BC.
It has the higest lift in it's class. We have 8x of these and they are
extremely good. RRP about ?200. Negotiated price ?150? or less.

Bit if your lot are going to be training AND hanging on a bit longer
before they buy there own (student club) then it has to be Buddy.
Go for Explorer Sml (Cant get small Commandos) and Medium/Large
Commandos. We have Blue-small, Grey-med and yellow-Large.
Makes it easier when dishing out sizes.
RRP about ?320. But shop arouind and you can end up with ?270 or
less.

Regs. TX40 the tractor of diving. Doesnt matter what you do, it
still comes back fighting. Dont forget that your Poseidon and Buddy
BC's have different inflators (so dont mix regs).
Shop around, but about ?240 odd for stage 3 (1st , 2nd & Octo).

You might also want to consider servicing cost. While it's relativly easy
to service regs, legally you do have to be a service technician. We have
4x in our club, yet none of us is prepared to take on the liabilty and
our regs are done profesionally. So ?50 odd per annum is a heck of a
service bill. Solution ...........

Depending on the number of regs you are going to buy rotate them.
Work out how many you are going to need for OW and use the
in-serviced regs for that. The others (no more than 2x years out of
service) are fine for the pool. So that's your servicing bill halved!

But you say how do you tell which is which and isnt there a danger
of taking them OW?

Go for a basic twin console in a rubber boot. We prefer Uwatec
D-timers, but single analogue will do. Now when your regs are in
service the depth gauge is in. When they are not, take the depth
gauge out alltogther. Nobody goes divong without a depth gauge
so it's an easy well to tell.

Avoid triple consoles and go for some rubber wrist compasses.
Anything on the end of a heavy console will get broken in the pool.
I have had three go this year already.

Mark all your kit and take serial numbers, but
especially DSMB's and lead. These two ALWAYS go walkies.

Get coloured hose wrap and put about 100mm of one colour on
EVERY individual hose of each reg combo. I 've managed to get
10x diffrent colours before having to go 2x colour.

This way if some muppet takes off the Buddy whip to stick on
another fitting you know that the blue hose floating around, fits the
blue reg. Remember the WHOLE reg has been serviced. You dont
want an SPG from one unserviced set being stuck on one that has.

Storage? Well we use plastic drill cases from Homebase at about
?3.00. They are very strong and when you hand out a reg for a trip
(be it here or abroad) they are well protected. 4x boxes go neatly
in a  blue/green crate.

And finally if you want to keep your kit together then only allow
a finite number of people to go near them with a spanner.
The EO of course and then NQI's or if you are a PADI outifit
anybody with engineering/mecanical background.

It might seem a bit OTT, but trust me I have seen muppets destroy
a ?100 1st stage by cross threading a dry-suit hose with a pair of
mole grips (I kid not).

There is more, but better you ask for specifics first.

If you contact me via email, I can point you in the direction of some
really good deals.

HTH
TerryH