Scuba Gear for Denver Divers: What You Actually Need
Carolyn Bryan Sep 01, 2026
Most scuba gear works the same no matter where you dive. A handful of decisions change once you're training in Colorado's cold reservoirs at altitude instead of a warm reef, and those are the decisions worth getting right before you spend money. Here's the full picture.
The Gear Every Diver Needs
Every diver ends up with the same basic list: mask, fins, snorkel, an exposure suit, a regulator, a BCD (the vest that controls your buoyancy), and a dive computer. Tanks and weights are almost always rented rather than owned, even by experienced divers, since they're heavy, bulky, and easy to rent anywhere you dive.
What Changes in Colorado: Your Exposure Suit
This is the first real decision Colorado divers face that a lot of warm-water divers never have to think about. Our lakes and reservoirs run cold nearly year-round, cold enough that a standard wetsuit doesn't always cut it. Whether you need a thick wetsuit or a drysuit depends mostly on water temperature and how often you're diving locally. We laid out exactly how to decide in Wetsuit vs. Drysuit for Colorado Diving.
What Changes in Colorado: Your Regulator and Computer
Cold water also affects gear that a lot of new divers don't expect: your regulator and your dive computer. In water at or below about 41°F, a standard regulator can ice up internally and free-flow, which is why cold-water-rated regulators exist and why they're worth owning rather than renting if you're diving here regularly. Dive computer batteries also lose apparent power in the cold, sometimes reading low even when they're fine. We go through exactly what fails and what doesn't in What Gear Actually Freezes at Altitude.
Gloves and Hoods
Your hands and head lose heat fast in cold water, and the thin 3mm gloves that work fine in the tropics won't hold up much below 65°F. For Colorado diving, look for 5 to 7mm gloves and a hood of similar thickness. This isn't about safety so much as dive time: cold hands are usually what end a dive early, not anything else.
Buy First, Rent First
You don't need to buy everything before your first open-water dive. Mask, fins, and snorkel are personal fit items worth owning early since a badly fitting mask ruins a dive fast, and they're inexpensive enough to buy as a new diver. Exposure suits, regulators, and computers are worth renting until you know how often you'll actually be diving Colorado conditions, then buying once you're diving regularly enough that a cold-water-rated setup pays for itself in comfort.
Where to Get It
We carry cold-water regulators, drysuits, and the rest of the list at our Lakewood equipment shop, and current students get a 10% discount on gear purchased during their course. If your existing gear needs a look before diving season, our equipment service department handles regulator servicing and repairs.
Not Sure Where to Start?
If you're newly certified or just getting back in the water, come by the shop and we'll walk through what you actually need for the diving you're planning to do, rather than selling you a full kit you might not need yet.
