I've been a DAN member for as long as I can remember in my diving life, and I'm a DAN Instructor and Instructor Trainer. For every diver, that's what I recommend: get to know DAN — the Divers Alert Network — and what it does for the diving community.

DAN is the non-profit behind a great deal of diver safety: the emergency hotline, dive-medicine research, and a deep library of learning. Spend an evening on their site — look through their courses and education and their medical articles and health resources. It's some of the best diver education anywhere, and most of it is free to read. This page is about what I'd do — and knowing DAN is near the top of that list.

Ask your local dive shop before you act on anything below. They know your local water, your local conditions, and the gear that actually works where you dive — things no general advice can account for. That's not a disclaimer I'm obliged to write; it's genuinely the first and best move.

What follows is my own experience over many years of diving and teaching — the answers I'd give my own newly-certified self if I could go back to day one. Take them as a starting point for the conversation with your shop, not a replacement for it.

Buy your dive gear from your local dive shop, not online. Online might save you a dollar; let's talk about what that dollar costs you.

Dive shops don't make their money on classes — for most shops, teaching roughly breaks even. They keep the lights on, pay the rent, and pay their staff through the margin on equipment sales. That's the whole model, and it's why you see far fewer dive shops than vape stores. When you buy your gear from them, you're keeping alive the place that rents you a tank (try asking an online store to ship you a rental tank — it won't go well), connects you to other divers, runs the trips and events, and points you toward continuing education and real local expertise. The diving community is a tight one, and the shop is its hub. A good local dive shop is a gem; if you're lucky enough to have one nearby, make sure it survives. That saved dollar online is borrowed against the thing that makes your diving possible.