ScubaL Still in Business?

[flyingbudda]

yes there is only one factory like this in Vietnam, they have made some big investments in machinery and production methods to keep everything inhouse right down to injection molding of plastics, CNC machines etc. Most other BCD's are made in China, I guess you could list the remaining USA companies who still manufacture in house on on a few fingers,,, Aqualung Mexico, Mares Bulgaria....

Incidentally Sheiko have moved one of their factories from Thailand to Cambodia in the free trade zone, they still have another in Thailand and another in China, I believe they processes something like 70% of the worlds neoprene for wetsuits, most name brands are made their, if not then China.

 

[Marek K]

yes there is only one factory like this in Vietnam, they have made some big investments in machinery and production methods to keep everything inhouse right down to injection molding of plastics, CNC machines etc.

Well, like I keep saying, the four Triple-L BCs we've got are built like tanks. Not exactly flyweight, but very sturdy.

(Except maybe for the backpack my son snapped, but that was when he picked the BC up wrong with a tank attached.)

I e-mailed the factory yesterday at the address you gave me. No answer yet. Maybe you could check with them??

 

[Marek K]

OK, no answer yet via e-mail. So I called one of the numbers listed in the oemscuba.com catalog on their web site, +84-8-3712 9320.

Someone actually answered!! A young lady:

She: "Hallo?"

Me: "Hello. Do you speak English?"

She: "Eh, no....." [silence; Vietnamese voices in the background...] "Someone come in...thirty minute."

Me: "OK, I will call back in thirty minutes. Good-bye!"

She: "OK."

Still, a communication breakthrough with the company. We'll see in a half-hour.

 

[Marek K]

All right!! I just called back, and was transferred to a Frenchman named Gilbert who works there. (Very interesting "on hold" music.)

Gilbert said he speaks "a little" English (hell of a lot better than my French or Vietnamese!), and very nicely asked me to e-mail him directly.

So I did that. We'll see what happens now.

 

[Marek K]

Well, I got a kind e-mail from William at the factory.

He's willing to ship me a replacement backplate (assembly, I hope) for just the shipping cost from Vietnam. $60. Still worth it, I think, since the BC is in great shape otherwise.

But I'm confused. He says that particular backplate has been long discontinued, and they now use a new and incompatible backplate. Yet the old one I need still appears as a spare part on the scubal.com web site (whose ordering system doesn't work), and as an accessory on the oemscuba.com web site (which looks like a wholesale-only site without prices or a direct ordering mechanism).

Craig/flyingbudda, maybe you can clear this up. Is the ScubaL web site still supposed to be operational?

Is the OEM Scuba web site wholesale only?

Is any of the older discontinued equipment still listed on the web sites in various places still available in any way?

Does the company, in any form, still do retail sales at all?

 

[Dave1w]

Did you get sorted with a new backplate?
If not, Red Hat Diving in the UK sell the Triple L stuff, and have the backplate on their website and ebay shop. Drop John a line and I am sure he will sort you out.

Red Hat Diving. BCD backplate. New on eBay (end time 11-Oct-10 22:04:27 BST)
pt=UK_SportingGoods_Scuba_SnorkellingEquipment_SM&hash=item20ae93efdc

Dave

 

[Marek K]

Did you get sorted with a new backplate?
If not, Red Hat Diving in the UK sell the Triple L stuff, and have the backplate on their website and ebay shop. Drop John a line and I am sure he will sort you out.

Red Hat Diving. BCD backplate. New on eBay (end time 11-Oct-10 22:04:27 BST)
pt=UK_SportingGoods_Scuba_SnorkellingEquipment_SM&hash=item20ae93efdc

Dave

Now you tell me!!!

I did have the company in Vietnam ship me the new backplate assembly for $60 via DHL, the only way they ship. Expensive total, but worth it to fix a BC that's otherwise still good.

I also needed the tank plate that bolts onto the backplate (contoured to fit the tank, that holds the tank in place), and that came with it.

This particular design has been discontinued, but they still had some in the warehouse.

Red Hat Diving don't mention how much it would be to ship to the U.S., but it must be less than the $60...

Anyway, thanks!!