Diving & Snorkeling
Buy and sell diving and snorkeling gear in Panama.
For plenty of people in Panama the first reef is in the San Blas islands, seen through whichever mask the boat crew had spare, or at Granito de Oro off Coiba. A mask that seals is often the first thing they buy afterwards. New and pre-owned masks, fins and snorkels come up here alongside scuba kit: the regulator, the BCD and the dive computer an owner would rather know by feel than pull from a rental bin. Plenty of used sets were bought after a certification course and dived on a handful of trips, so the date of the last service tells you more than how new a set looks.
Masks and fins for a day in the Holandes Cays:
the boats that run out to the San Blas islands carry a handful of shared masks, and whoever reaches the box last gets the one that leaks. A tempered glass lens and a soft silicone skirt seal on most faces, while clear plastic beach-toy masks fog up. Full-face snorkel masks are comfortable for floating over a shallow sandbank, but you cannot pinch your nose inside one to equalise, so they are no use for going down to look at the wreck off Isla Perro. Many masks take corrective lenses fitted per eye, which makes a used one a bargain for someone with a similar prescription and useless for anyone else. Fins split by the foot. Short full-foot fins go on bare feet and pack into a day bag for boat trips; open-heel fins take a bootie for shore entries over rock and for scuba. Long freediving and spearfishing blades are a third kind, awkward in a small boat. A mask and snorkel also travel well on a sit-on-top kayak or a paddle board heading for a reef off the beach.
Dive computers and surface buoys for Coiba’s pinnacles:
owning the heavy kit usually comes later, since dive centres rent tanks, weights and full sets. Coiba’s pinnacles are known for strong currents and cold layers that arrive without warning, and anyone who dives them often wants a computer they already know how to read and a surface marker buoy of their own, because a boat looking for a diver in a chop needs something brighter than bubbles. Jacket BCDs, the rental standard, hold you upright at the surface. Back-inflate and wing styles leave the chest clear and let you lie flatter in the water, which helps along a wall in a current. A regulator has to match the tanks you will be breathing from, yoke or DIN, so settle the fitting before anything else.
A snorkel set, and a scuba set with its service history:
a decent silicone mask, snorkel and pair of fins together start at around $150 new. A new BCD and regulator with octopus and gauge come to roughly $1,200 to $1,800 in Panama, and a used set with a recent service and the receipt to prove it goes for around $600 to $900. Most of that value sits inside a regulator nobody can see into, so one with no service record sells as if the buyer will be paying for a service the week they get it home.
Salt in a BCD inflator and fog under a computer screen:
tell you how a set was looked after between trips. Inflate the BCD, press the inflator and each dump valve in turn and check that nothing sticks, then look inside the inflator mouthpiece for white crust left by stowing it unrinsed. On a BCD with integrated weights, clip each pocket in and pull its release: one that jams is a problem to find on land. A dive computer should switch on cleanly, and any mist or droplets under the screen mean water has found a way in. A chewed regulator mouthpiece is a cheap fix and says nothing about the first stage. Fins crack where the blade meets the foot pocket, and heel straps perish in the sun.
A regulator’s last service date and a mask’s prescription:
belong at the top of the listing, next to the brand and model, the fitting, yoke or DIN, and the sizes of fins, booties and BCD. Photograph the service receipt, the lens of the mask and the foot pockets of the fins, where wear shows first. A mask with corrective lenses needs the strength of each lens written down, because nobody can judge it from a photo. Mask, snorkel and fins listed together in one bag, with their sizes, suit someone packing for a few days in the San Blas islands who would rather make one trip to collect than three.