I picked up a backplate from Rusty Berry at Scuba Schools of America in Montclair, California.
I hate much weights on my hips, as it puts weight low when it needs to be up higher. I aldredy have the backplate on with 8 lbs up top.....10 may be better, that way I can take 2 more off the hips....
If I had to do it all again, I have a large counterlung and wing, I would have preferred to get a medium counterlung and an extra large wing, the reason being, when I am on the surface for a longer swim, I noticed that inflating the large wing with the backplate, and all the top pouch weight and 10 or so pounds of hip weight does not keep me partcularly high in the water. This is with a drysuit and a medium thickness undergarment. For those guessing, if I let all the air out of the drysuit and large wing with minimum loop volume, then i can reasonably descend, if I removed 2 pounds from that equation, I would start to have a little difficult descending....so I believe I am balanced properly now....