Help in choosing bc.

[nihondzin]

Hi.
I'm new here.
Master diver with 75 dives.
I always dived with Zeagle Ranger, but sold it when i stop diving. Now I back to dive and want to buy new bc.
I'm recreational diver but want to start with tech.
So I need bc that suits both.
My primary delema is from:
1. Dive Rite Nomad xt- from what I read it can be used for both side mount and back mount.
2. Scubapro X-Tek Comfort.
3. Hollis Elite 2 with C60LX.

Thank you ahead for your response.

 

[Pedro Burrito]

I have quite a few BCD's including the Nomad-XT. I had Dive Rite retrofit it with an extra bladder after I had it for a few years. You can configure it for back mount, side mount or Optima rebreather mount. It's a good rig but it's a compromise and it's expensive. If I had to to it all over again, I would have gotten something lighter and smaller just for side mount and then stuck with a BP&W for single and double back mount.

I'm sorry, I don't have any experience with your second or third choices.

 

[nihondzin]

Thank you for the quick response.

 

[doctormike]

The classic BP/W is so well suited to diving in general (MANY threads here on that) that it's hard not to recommend it to anyone who is actually considering technical diving.

I don't do sidemount, but I would think that devices that try to do two things don't do either one that well (I might be wrong in this case, but it's a good general rule). If you are going to dive sidemount, get a good sidemount BC. If you are going to dive backmount, get a BP/W. If you are really going to go back and forth between the configurations (why?), then you are probably better off having two BCs. If the dual-function Nomad is really that pricey (as Pedro implied) you might not even end up saving that much money.

And if you do take up technical diving and spend $1400 on a flashlight, having two BCs isn't such a great cost in the scheme of things!

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[Storker]

Start with single tank set up....then in 500 to 1000 dives, get a set of doubles and get used to diving a double tank system

Or start with rec doubles just off the bat. The OP is located on the east side of the pond, where tanks usually aren't as overengineered as they seem to be on the west side. A double 6, 7 or 8.5L, 232 or 300 bar, is a nice twinset for rec diving, quite popular up here in Northern Europe. We use them just as we use singles rigs because they provide a little more gas for the hoovers and are more comfortably balanced than a large single is. When the OP has become comfortable with a rec twinset, they may progress to a larger twinset (say, typically, a D12) with an isolation manifold and enough gas capacity for tec diving. They may have to get a larger wing to fit the big twinset, though.

means just adding a 40 pound lift doubles wing.....

Depends totally on your exposure protection and weighting. In some waters, a 40# wing is only appropriate for a single tank rig.

 

[danvolker]

The OP should let us know if he will be diving tropical water temps, or cold water...as Storker says, this will make a real impact in choices.

I will add also, that if the choice exists to dive one, or the other...then the new diver should go with tropical only for as long as possible. Most divers in the world enjoy tropical diving vacation destinations, much more than they do cold water sites... It is easier, more fun/less to deal with, and you can be much slicker in the water.

You want to be slicker in the water..more like a barracuda, than like an inflated puffer fish as you swim along....the diver in a cold water rig, with doubles on, moves along much more like the inflated puffer. A tropical water diver, with a bp/wing of minimal size like an 18 or 30 pound wing, can "kick and Glide" more like the barracuda, allowing less work, lower breathing rate, and better bio-feedback with what he is doing right, or wrong, as he propels himself, and considers optimal buoyancy with trim.

My guess is Storker will see blood when he reads this post---he and I are on opposite viewpoints on the issue of diver drag and propulsion needs. Oh Well

 

[Storker]

I will add also, that if the choice exists to dive one, or the other...then the new diver should go with tropical only for as long as possible. Most divers in the world enjoy tropical diving vacation destinations, much more than they do cold water sites...

Well, many of us don't have that choice. Unless we resort to diving only when on vacation.

My guess is Storker will see blood when he reads this post

Nah, not really. You're unusually balanced in your viewpoints this time, so no prob here.

---he and I are on opposite viewpoints on the issue of diver drag and propulsion needs.

Quite right. Some of us prefer to chill underwater. Both literally and figuratively.

 

[nihondzin]

I'm diving in tropical water.

 

[doctormike]

I'm diving in tropical water.

If you plan on technical diving, cold water diving, or diving with doubles, you should get a BP/W. But if you are sure that you will only be doing recreational, single tank diving in warm clear water, then you should get a BP/W.

 

[nihondzin]

I mast to agree with doctormike, if something trying to do 2 different things it almost always not good in both.
The reason that i gave those 3 bc, it because that i can get them in Israel. So wich one is beter quality and more comfortable hollis or scubapro?