Reminds me of a DIR diver who came to dive at my place a few years ago. He wanted to rent a backplate - he'd brought the harness and a pocket handkerchief of a wing with him. I offered him a choice of 9 - SS, aluminum and resin, each from three manufacturers. He asked if I had a Halcyon one. When I said I didn't he went elsewhere. Since I ran the only operation anywhere in the country that rented ANY tech gear I can't imagine what he did - probably sat on the beach and drank beer for the entire week!
When I go diving with a wing I want adequate buoyancy and redundancy. In coolish water too warm for a drysuit the redundancy is critical. Most of my deep dives have been with a DR Superwing, and on one occasion it saved my life. I was diving with some other divers who were on mix and going to 130mtr. As is usual for deep diving we went down fast. I was on air and stopping at about 60mtr. Except that when I started putting on the brakes at 40mtr I didn't stop. I had one bladder fully inflated and the other one half inflated before I finally stopped, just short of 80mtr. I then had to get rid of 2/3 of that air to stop myself going into orbit, but if I hadn't had that buoyancy available I wouldn't have stopped until it was too late. A bit later a girl did much the same thing but didn't have a Superwing. She died and I had to recover her body, from 115mtr. I have another one to recover shortly, another person who didn't think it all through.
I've been to the Halcyon shop and I've dealt with them over the phone. I had one rather surreal conversation with them. I wanted a DSMB like the English AP Valves one I used, all red, with a loop at the top to fasten a slate, a one-way inflation valve, masses of buoyancy so it could be used as an ascent platform, and designed for inflation with a second stage. "We don't teach that method of inflation" "No, but do you sell them". "We don't teach that". Repeated several times. I gave up. The reason I'd called them was that it appeared from their website that they DID make such a DSMB, and I subsequently discovered that that was in fact the case. But the person they assigned to the phones didn't seem to know what they made, and they lost a sale. Not for one - I was buying ten, but I never got as far as telling her that. THAT's why I don't buy Halcyon.
When I go diving with a wing I want adequate buoyancy and redundancy. In coolish water too warm for a drysuit the redundancy is critical. Most of my deep dives have been with a DR Superwing, and on one occasion it saved my life. I was diving with some other divers who were on mix and going to 130mtr. As is usual for deep diving we went down fast. I was on air and stopping at about 60mtr. Except that when I started putting on the brakes at 40mtr I didn't stop. I had one bladder fully inflated and the other one half inflated before I finally stopped, just short of 80mtr. I then had to get rid of 2/3 of that air to stop myself going into orbit, but if I hadn't had that buoyancy available I wouldn't have stopped until it was too late. A bit later a girl did much the same thing but didn't have a Superwing. She died and I had to recover her body, from 115mtr. I have another one to recover shortly, another person who didn't think it all through.
I've been to the Halcyon shop and I've dealt with them over the phone. I had one rather surreal conversation with them. I wanted a DSMB like the English AP Valves one I used, all red, with a loop at the top to fasten a slate, a one-way inflation valve, masses of buoyancy so it could be used as an ascent platform, and designed for inflation with a second stage. "We don't teach that method of inflation" "No, but do you sell them". "We don't teach that". Repeated several times. I gave up. The reason I'd called them was that it appeared from their website that they DID make such a DSMB, and I subsequently discovered that that was in fact the case. But the person they assigned to the phones didn't seem to know what they made, and they lost a sale. Not for one - I was buying ten, but I never got as far as telling her that. THAT's why I don't buy Halcyon.
