Equipment Trends: The BCD

[Eric Sedletzky]

How many dives have you done with 25lbs\30lbs\35lbs belts?

How does the diver with weights on remain neutral while removing\replacing gear underwater?

I dive wet in Norcal, 45 to 53 degree water on average. My thickest suit is a 1/2" two piece beaver tail Rubatex G231N commercial urchin harvesters suit which I use a 35 LB belt along with a s/s plate and steel 120. I am positively buoyant on the surface with a full tank and swim down head first to break neutral at around 15 feet. At the end of the dive I can sit at 15 feet with no air in my wing and hover controlling my bouyancy with nothing but breathing. This is the same story with all my different thicknesses of wetsuits. I have everything from 3 mil up to the 1/2" (13mm - 26mm on my chest) and everything in between. How is it that I break neutral at 15 feet at the beginning and keep the same at the end? Magic I guess. The answer is that the suit has compressed and has also cooled during the dive so requires less weight to counter buoyancy at the end of the dive, that's how those two numbers are the same.
The other day I used my 7mm two piece Yazbeck freediving suit to do two tank dives off my kayak and needed 12 lbs on a rubber belt.
The math is simple. At depth the suit compresses allowing for 12 lbs (or whatever belt matches the suit, I have several) to have me about right in terms of bouyancy. Shallower it's becomes more of a challenge but at least I still have some weight directly on me that counteracts the buoyancy of the suit. At 3 ATM's absolute that 12 lb belt is perfectly neutral, whereas if I was just freediving with that same suit I would typically use 22 lbs and be heavy at 3 ATM's absolute.
Noramlly we freedive to about 30 ft for abalone so 22 lbs is what I need.
The rig makes up for 10 lbs.

 

[shoredivr]

Hi Dan,
I believe we human beings are born LAZY ie. minimum effort but with max reward. I wonder how many divers new or old alike would like to pay someone to teach them how to use one piece of scuba equipment albeit a important one? And how many dive operator has the facility and man power to run a course in short notice? Imagine someone walk in to a shop looking for a bc for his/her vacation in few days time and been informed that he/she would have to complete a dedicated course first!
Finally, skiing is a lot simpler than scuba diving. It doesn't require a license for a start. How many learners will choose a beginner, intermediate, performance, racing ski or even the 1m version? And how many instructor would suggest anything other than beginner ski for the student?
Both skiing and scuba diving are recreational sport ie meant to enjoy

People get trained to use scuba gear. All kinds of scuba gear, even jacket style BCDs. I don't understand how it's any different getting specific training for using a BPW? And why would training prevent enjoyment?

---------- Post added February 21st, 2015 at 11:55 PM ----------

Well, if that instruction was part and parcel of how anybody learns to dive, what's your point?

That OW instruction isn't teaching well enough to be safe using something that can't be ditched in a flash.
I see this as a way for manufacturers to fix a problem of complaints of unwanted lost weights by replacing it with something harder to lose but more dangerous for undertrained divers.

Eric, I was actually replying to Centrals post about lazy people with my "what's your point" question. I should have quoted Centrals' post.

 

[jzipfel]

I saw two non-professional divers on my Hawaii trip using BP/W, it was a father and son diving Hog. This was out of over 100 divers. About 1/2 of the pros were diving BP/W (halcyon, oxycheq multiple Hollis - which they sold) and half using some sort of jacket or back inflate rec type BC.

I'm going to bet that was me and my son. December? Kona?
We chose BP/W as relatively new divers because I grew up with Legos. I really like the fact that it could grow with us as our needs changed and would work very well as is. I liked that I could replace pieces rather than the whole BC if needed.

In the water we love the comfort. I like that in Seattle with a dry suit it works great with 20# and then in Hawaii just 4#. I can set it up to have less than 25% of the weight ditchable so I don't rocket up, but allows me to become more bouyant if needed.

Yep, lots of research and talking to folks with knowledge led me to this decision and we are very happy.

 

[KevinNM]

I'm going to bet that was me and my son. December? Kona?
We chose BP/W as relatively new divers because I grew up with Legos. I really like the fact that it could grow with us as our needs changed and would work very well as is. I liked that I could replace pieces rather than the whole BC if needed.

Probably. Jack's in late December or early January? I got a Halcyon BP/W when I got back home.

 

[Centrals]

People get trained to use scuba gear. All kinds of scuba gear, even jacket style BCDs. I don't understand how it's any different getting specific training for using a BPW? And why would training prevent enjoyment?

---------- Post added February 21st, 2015 at 11:55 PM ----------







Eric, I was actually replying to Centrals post about lazy people with my "what's your point" question. I should have quoted Centrals' post.

If a diver learnt how to dive with a jacket in the beginning. How many of them especially the vacation divers would want to do another course on a different type of BC? They probably would do another course on whatever topic but highly unlikely on a BC.
As for "training prevent enjoyment", depend who you are asking! We are all individual and have different mind set. I still met divers who had only OW but had been diving for few yrs. As far as they are concerned, they are NOT interested on any more training because they are contented on what they got. I have no problem with that.
To most divers, myself included, scuba diving is just a recreational sport. BP/W does not make you a better diver and jacket certainly doesn't make you a 'stroke".

 

[danvolker]

If a diver learnt how to dive with a jacket in the beginning. How many of them especially the vacation divers would want to do another course on a different type of BC? They probably would do another course on whatever topic but highly unlikely on a BC.
As for "training prevent enjoyment", depend who you are asking! We are all individual and have different mind set. I still met divers who had only OW but had been diving for few yrs. As far as they are concerned, they are NOT interested on any more training because they are contented on what they got. I have no problem with that.
To most divers, myself included, scuba diving is just a recreational sport. BP/W does not make you a better diver and jacket certainly doesn't make you a 'stroke".

A lot of vacation divers get into shooting pictures with a point and shoot camera.....peak control buoyancy, and a number of other related classes will help these vacation divers in better results for their photos--better sharing of their experiences underwater with their friends. The typical AOW diver will silt the daylights out of their own shots..,.they NEED a class.
[video=youtube_share;vNU-7pxGV1U]http://youtu.be/vNU-7pxGV1U[/video]
Stuff like this

 

[Redshift]

I don't see the point of the specific training to use a BP/W, that just adds to the misconceptions around this gear.

Centrals, I think you are taking a defensive position because you somehow see yourself being attacked for using a jacket style. On the other hand, what I see in threads like this is an attempt to defend those divers who got or will get a jacket when they would have preferred a PB/W only because of the attitude towards that gear.

 

[Centrals]

I don't see the point of the specific training to use a BP/W, that just adds to the misconceptions around this gear.

Centrals, I think you are taking a defensive position because you somehow see yourself being attacked for using a jacket style. On the other hand, what I see in threads like this is an attempt to defend those divers who got or will get a jacket when they would have preferred a PB/W only because of the attitude towards that gear.

I have been diving BP/W for several yrs(rec) and over 16 for tec.
So I do understand a bit on BP/W. But what I don't understand is the condescending attitude of some BP/W divers on jacket.

 

[boulderjohn]

A lot of vacation divers get into shooting pictures with a point and shoot camera.....peak control buoyancy, and a number of other related classes will help these vacation divers in better results for their photos--better sharing of their experiences underwater with their friends. The typical AOW diver will silt the daylights out of their own shots..,.they NEED a class.

I have given this a lot of thought since my recent trip diving in the Philippines. I was there fore two weeks, diving at two different sites, and I had two very different experiences.

The first week was at Puerto Galera, where I was by myself and dived with whatever group I happened to be with that dive. The overwhelming majority of those divers were photographers, and they mostly had monster equipment with multiple lights. The all used pointer sticks to help them hold their position. They would flutter kick to their target, clearly negatively buoyant as they did so. They would then jab the stick into the reef to hold them up while they composed the shot. Being negatively buoyant, they had to kick to keep their back ends up. I saw the DM hold a diver's feet up to keep him from bashing the reef as he took his shots. When finished shooting, they would clumsily turn, often mashing the area they had just been shooting as they did. I had the same DM on almost every dive, and I made that observation to him. He said that what I was describing matched about 90% of the diving customers.

The second week was at Dumaguete, and this time I was with a prearranged group that included cave divers and others with sound training in buoyancy and trim. Many of them were photographers as well. I watched them swim gently up to a subject and hold their position in mid water, motionless or nearly motionless, while they composed their shots. When done, they backed away or otherwise departed without creating a disturbance. That was not all of them, though. Some of them were the same kind of reef bashers I had seen in Puerto Galera.

I thought long and hard during that trip about the best way the scuba industry as a whole could deal with this. I haven't got a plan yet.

 

[Centrals]

A lot of vacation divers get into shooting pictures with a point and shoot camera.....peak control buoyancy, and a number of other related classes will help these vacation divers in better results for their photos--better sharing of their experiences underwater with their friends. The typical AOW diver will silt the daylights out of their own shots..,.they NEED a class.

By the time they completed the course, it is about time to go home. And when they return the following yr, have to start all over again. I was like that in skiing because I did not have time to practice. So at the end I gave up the idea of improvement and concentrated on easy pistes(blue and red and forget about the black in France) and I have fun.