u/Mysterious-Yak8852

Hi team,

I want to ask advice as I'm getting mixed ones from people in the shop and around the shop. So I'm 28 dives in and got my open, advanced open, nitrox, dry suit , wreck and almost finished deep cert ( need dive 3 and dive 4 and could not finish them this upcoming weekend as I got ear infection last weekend from 2 Michigan wreck.dives and did 4×45 min dives in haigh quarry so was exhausted and felt ears light up and be itchy, red got antibiotics drops for it so hoping I'm a week I can finish it),and already ordered my gear as the free rental gear is done today ( rental gear included in open water which I finished 30 days ago. So in 30 days did 28 dives and would have been more if the lake Michigan weather did not crap out and boats had been cancelled left and right due to waves and lightning and storms) why I did those certs? So that when I go somewhere they can't tell me I can't dive to 130 ft or not as deep to.the wreck.as needs to be the same depth and length of the wreck not to exceed 130 ft.

Anyway I ordered a back plate and wing setup brand DIVE RITE from a shop in Illinois. What wing to get? Mostly diving In the Midwest and will sometimes dive in the ocean but not much as it's far and not always can go there. WHAT LIFT WING TO GET? I ordered the Dive Rite Artic 45lb Wing. Will be diving single tank 11l (80s) or might go 12l steel(100s). I'm 6.2; 210 pounds.with 7 mm wetsuit I need 16 pounds lead. With a neoprene dry suit that needs 22-24 pounds depending on how much thermal clothes I got on. So people say I only need 35lbs wing same company other say there is no suck thing as not enough lift and said stick.with 45lbs. The Dive Rite Artic 45lb Wing is not wide and will not taco the single tank. As you can see in the photo attached it's a thick not wide wing. Which one would you get for mostly Midwest diving, 7mm and dry suit. Plus occasionally in saltwater Florida and etc where is warm and salty water. Please advise

I have OPPO find N5 fold on AT&T network and it's a beast as I work Midwest and in rural areas and where at&t towers are at its working perfectly with good upload and download speeds. I fly a drone for work on cellular towers and need to take photos of civil with phone and upload to the app and is working great. I was thinking about x9ultra but will see what X10 pro shows and what will be the price. I bought mine from Trinity electronics. Shipped in 3 days. This was last year October. I don't know if I would buy a fold again as this one felt 4-5 times and fifth time the inner screen messed up, so now using the outer screen so thinking of going to brick phone not foldable as they are too fragile. Had nilkin case. Plus pixel 7 screen from zagg (doesn't cover full screen but it works) just my 2 cents.

Hi, getting my Open water plus nitrox certs. Did the tests. Now left is the swimming pool and open water lake or some sort of quarry. I'm in Chicago land. So the place I'm going they said to buy a mask , a snorkel, diving boots and fins. I have done 2 dives in my Life, one in Mexico and one in key West. The stuff they provided was good enough and worked. Don't know the brand and quality of the gear they gave us. So I looked online and did research on facemasks. They said you need to try it out in store to see if they fit ( when did the dives prior they gave us all same and it worked lol ) .

Do you guys actually use the snorkel when on the surface or just like swimming you can be without it and swim perfectly fine.? I tried I remember and it just kept getting full of water on the surface so maybe they didn't give the magic one , so I just swam like I normally do as the snorkel was kind of in my way.

The dive boots question. I watched YouTube and forums they said it's true to size but need to wear them. My question is when diving off the boat they didn't give us no boots (obviously not shore diving) do I really need them for the swimming pool (I think not) ? For quarry I might need as don't know the way to the water and to the debts where start scuba dive.

Fin question. What fins to get? I remember then they gave us when I dove kick in fins. Are those not good anymore? Do I get the ones that have strap on the back? Split fins?

I want to spend once but I'm green as baby shit in diving. Maybe you experienced people can give advice. Anyone in Chicago land and had to get gear for scuba. It's like 80-90 degrees during days here now. What's the price on the low end that are good bang for the buck. As I said I'm starting my journey so don't know what where to go