Why is this not the standard?
- Thread starter NickPhillips
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fire_diver
Contributor
OK, I'm NOT trying to be rude to you, but you really need to not make comments on things you have no experience with. Getting 3rd hand info from a shop (which obviously doesn't sell BP/Ws) also shows poor judgement.
I can maintain trim in pretty much anything. My beat-up Aqualung Wave Jacket, my Zeagle Brigade and my Apeks OPH & WTX4. They all allow me to dive that's the only standard anyone needs
Crush
Contributor
That didn't take long... The face plant myth...
A wing will not face plant you unless you fasten it around your ass. It is the poorly positioned weights that pull you forward - the same effect can achieved with "jacket" BCs, but they are more forgiving. I know - I have personal experience with this. In going from a jacket to a rear-inflate I found that I was face planting. When I tried to figure out why I found that my 26 lbs in weight had slid (along my weight belt) until if was all sitting in front of my navel. I shifted the weights back to their correct position and I was no longer face planting.
To the OP - welcome to SB. I believe that posting "why aren't BP&Ws used by everyone?" on SB is like asking "why doesn't everyone love Jesus?" in a Christian forum...
BP/Wing setup is not "only" for tec diviers... rec divers can ( and should) enjoy using them as well. It's just that instructors and the PADI/SSI/IDD's of the world haven't come around to recognizing their value.
I am not saying BCD's are useless, just that the industry (instructors AND organizations) is hard at work ignoring stuff that just works.
I hear a lot of so called instructors (or shop owners for that matter) stating tons of BS about equipment they haven't really tried.
Your setup looks just fine to me... enjoy it !
---------- Post Merged at 02:35 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 02:29 PM ----------
It's not PADI it's shops/instructors. PADI has no rule against teaching OW with BP/Wing.
I quit teaching through a school because of their equipment ( and their way of teaching ) and started teaching OW using hog rig with single tank.
There are no dust clouds behind my students !
OP
NickPhillips
Registered
I was not saying it is only a tec thing, I just tend to notice tec divers being the only diving with BP/Wings and I feel as though it is a simpler and more efficient way in diving. When I mean efficient I guess all BCD's will do the job but you comprimise personal preference of where your rings will go or if you want/where pockets and whatnot. I just feel as though BP/Wing is a overall better choice.... and for those who sidemount, I dont know why but I personally have no desire in sidemount. Also, I wonder why in nearly every dive magazine there are hardly any ads for anything sidemount or BP/wing... it's like the 'unknown' way of diving. I just find it interesting.. thats all.
CT Sean
Contributor
I think this is one of your biggest reasons right here - misinformation spread by many dive shops.
I think the biggest reasons you will find as to why shops don't use them for students and such is that for rentals, its easier to use something like a standard bcd with its adjustments, then to try and size students every time they get into a pool or ow check outs with a bp/w harness setup. Because of this, a lot of students and newer divers will tend to go towards what they have trained with. This is why the BP/W is a bit more unknown until you get to a group who are fairly experienced and/or moved into the technical realm or do online research. So because of this, there is generally more of a demand for regular bcds and advertising is the best way to sell. With a bit smaller crowd and therefore demand, word of mouth advertising and demo days and such are a better option then magazines. Side mount is its own beast....still fairly new in the general dive community, i think you will see more of it in the future.
I think the reason it isn't a standard is multifactorial.
People have already alluded to the adjustment problem. Peter and I have a couple of student rigs that are set up to be easy to adjust, but it still takes time, and someone has to know how to do it. And a poorly adjusted rig isn't something where you can just swim up to the student and yank on a couple of straps and make it better -- it pretty much requires fixing out of the water, which can mean the student has an uncomfortable dive.
Backplate setups in cold water pretty much require a weight belt, and some students don't prosper with them. In addition, there is the significant difficulty of trying to don a heavy weight belt OVER a harness, so that it is ditchable. (If there is ever a time when I think somebody ought to have ditchable weight, it's when someone is a student in OW class, so that the instructor can render them permanently buoyant if necessary.)
In addition, for the student who is only going to be a warm water resort diver, the "traditional" BC is what he's going to rent, so it makes sense to expose him to it.
WHY the industry as a whole doesn't espouse primary donate, with either a bungied backup or even an Air2 type device, is what I don't understand.
People have already alluded to the adjustment problem. Peter and I have a couple of student rigs that are set up to be easy to adjust, but it still takes time, and someone has to know how to do it. And a poorly adjusted rig isn't something where you can just swim up to the student and yank on a couple of straps and make it better -- it pretty much requires fixing out of the water, which can mean the student has an uncomfortable dive.
Backplate setups in cold water pretty much require a weight belt, and some students don't prosper with them. In addition, there is the significant difficulty of trying to don a heavy weight belt OVER a harness, so that it is ditchable. (If there is ever a time when I think somebody ought to have ditchable weight, it's when someone is a student in OW class, so that the instructor can render them permanently buoyant if necessary.)
In addition, for the student who is only going to be a warm water resort diver, the "traditional" BC is what he's going to rent, so it makes sense to expose him to it.
WHY the industry as a whole doesn't espouse primary donate, with either a bungied backup or even an Air2 type device, is what I don't understand.
I think it feeds back in the tourist diver rental gear market. Much easier to rent out jacket style BCDs than BPWs. Pick your size and go. I have yet to see a tropical dive operation providing BP/Ws to tourists anywhere in the world outside of the tec sphere (has anyone else?).
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