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DIVER & SPORT DIVER
This is our brief overview of the best selling diving equipment from a number of our main departments and I take a stab at what will happen during 2014. Well 2013 was a very up and down year which will have affected the type and number of some products sold in a couple of the different categories.
BCDs Its really the same BCDs that appeared in the 2012 top 10 that have made it into the 2013 list. The Cressi Aquaride Elite and the two versions of the Aqua Lung Axiom have jumped up into the top 10. The Aeris Jetpack had a strong surge and was only just outside the top 10 which is very good considering the UK didn’t get the BCD until half way through the year. I have noticed increasing sales of BCDs with the ‘All-in-One’ type inflate/deflate systems such as the Aqua Lung i3 and Mares Airtrim. It will be interesting to see whether this is finally an acceptance of these systems or a bit of a one off for this year. From what I have seen of the 2014 brand line ups so far I can’t foresee any shake ups happening here in 2014. A couple of refreshes in the Mares BCD line are very welcome but hardly ground breaking.
Dive Computers Once again Suunto have smashed the competition with the help of their end of year free transmitter offer, after all who wouldn’t want a free transmitter. The Vyper Air, HelO2 and D4i were definitely boosted in November and December but I have to wonder if these units would have gained these positioned without the transmitter offer because moving up the ranks are the Oceanic Veo units. All three Veo models have pushed their way into the list (the Veo 3.0 even managed the number 5 spot), squeezing out the Mares Puck Pro, Suunto D9tx and Oceanic Geo 2.0. An interesting observation for me this year is the lower number of sales of watch type computers. Did this mean more UK diving this year? With some idea of what Suunto have up their sleeve but no clue what Oceanic has planned for their dive computers yet I can only foresee a similar result for 2014 at the moment.
Fins The Top 5 are absolutely identical to last year so nothing of interest to mention there. The 6-10 spots saw the Smoke of Water version of the Atomic Split making a good finish and a relatively surprising result for the Mares Volo Power. The only new fin to feature in the top 10 for 2013 was the TUSA Solla fin. Again nothing much on the radar so far that would light any fires on this list for 2014 but we could still see a couple of surprise products released during the year.
Masks The top 3 spots haven’t (technically) changed this year. To be fair to TUSA I combined the figures for the Ceos and Geminus masks as the Geminus was effectively upgraded to the Ceos earlier in the year. Even combined it wasn’t enough to knock the Oceanic Shadow from the top spot. As I predicted Cressi made a bit of a come back with the standard and Evolution Crystal versions of the Big Eyes and the Matrix getting in the top 10. I shouldn’t be surprised (as it is a pretty awesome mask) BUT the Atomic Venom was more popular than I had predicted throughout the year. For 2014 I have introduced a couple of the Sub Gear masks into the mix which I think will be well received and the Mares X-Vision has had a facelift and some new colours which I personally really like.
Regulators 2013 saw a strong representation of cold water regulators BUT Apeks regulators, the tried and tested cold water brand, only has two models in the top 10 this year (five last year). Oceanic made a last minute second entry with the EOS FDX10. Only one travel regulator made it’s way into the top list and that was the Aqua Lung Mikron. Scubapro has a wide line up for 2014 which included a total of 14 different first stage, second stage and finish combinations, not all of which you’ll find on our site as some of them just seemed a little unnecessary to be honest. I suspect that due to shear weight of numbers in their range that Scubapro will do well next year.