A Backplate for Now and the Future? Golem Stream vs. DSS Kydex...

[tbone1004]

i'm sure this was mentioned above but i just skimmed through the posts.

You have a hunterpac, which is a great little singles rig. If you want to go doubles, then commit to doubles, and go with a doubles rig. Why buy something that is redundant to what you already have?

also remember that with DSS you get to choose different backplate lengths if you are tall or short

 

[halocline]

Take it from me.. if you have never used a BP/W, be prepared to be very unimpressed. The difference underwater from a typical back inflate bc is minimal, especially if you are using a crotch strap on both rigs. Of course everyone will say i am wrong.

You will need separate wing for doubles and be honest, you are not going to be using the same harness and plate for single and double tanks.

Count me among everyone, you're wrong! But more relevantly, it seems that the vast majority of divers who try a BP/W strongly prefer it over a soft BC. Of course it is a subjective thing and the OP can make up his own mind after trying one.

Regarding the same plate for doubles and singles, I use the same one all the time, and I suspect so do most BP/W users. There's no reason not to. You do need separate wings, at least you got that right!

 

[tbone1004]

I use SS for most everything, but have a kydex in case I'm diving doubles in a wetsuit which is a fairly common occurence or if I have to dive steel singles without exposure protection *basically never*

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Count me among everyone, you're wrong! But more relevantly, it seems that the vast majority of divers who try a BP/W strongly prefer it over a soft BC. Of course it is a subjective thing and the OP can make up his own mind after trying one.

Regarding the same plate for doubles and singles, I use the same one all the time, and I suspect so do most BP/W users. There's no reason not to. You do need separate wings, at least you got that right!

So funny! I recently bought an old BC at the pawn shop for $1 (one) dollar. It had no waist strap and when I got it home the inflator was not working. I added some nylon belt that was recovered from a dumpster at a construction site and switched out the inflator. It is the old, bladderless jacket BC, with adjustable fastex clips on the front and a hard backpack. No padding anywhere- made maybe 20 years ago.

Took it on a night dive last week, with a 2 mm suit and big steel tank. So I had little suit compression or bouyancy compensating to do, but I honestly found it exceptionally comfortable and easy to wear. If you are not putting a lot of air in the BC, I just don't detect any great advantage of one over the other..

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Yeah but he does a lot of diving in super warm water with zero thermal protection required.

 

[CuzzA]

@dumpsterDiver and @tbone1004 you both make good points (as the both of you seem to do on my threads).

I guess I was hoping for one rig to be versatile for anything I want to do. However, at the expense of my garage continuing to turn into a dive shop I guess I should just forget trying to make everything so versatile. I do very much enjoy diving the HunterPac. I find it very comfortable, to the point I hardly notice it is there. And the fact it is discontinued makes me reluctant to sell it unless I fell in love with a BP/W.

I imagine my use of doubles would make up 10-20% of my diving simply due to the water travel necessary to require the use of them and for that reason is why I was hoping to just settle on one rig for anything I do.

I do need a plate for doubles though. So I'm still back at square one. Having just watched a video I don't know that I like how easily the DSS singles wing separates from the plate. I see that as a potential PITA on a boat with multiple repetitive diving and guys always moving gear around. But it clearly has the advantage of not having to remove tank cam bands when you want to swap wings. Perhaps I could fashion some sort of solution like a small push through rod attached at the center of the material they use. This would insure the rig isn't inadvertently separated on a pitching boat. A non issue though if I rigged one up strictly for doubles.

I wish I could rent a setup. When you figure $300-500 on rig you'd like to get it right the first time. Perhaps I'll drive over to Golem and at least take a look at the product.

I added some nylon belt that was recovered from a dumpster

Excellent! Living up to your handle. That made me laugh.

 

[StefinSB]

There is no issue switching tanks on a DSS plate. I think you are procrastinating too much.

 

[tbone1004]

the DSS solution is not an issue on pitching boats and it doesn't come out easily enough that it will just fall out willy nilly. You have to try to remove them since it's a grommet, but that's only on the single tank rigs, which you have no need to look at since you have a hunterpac....

for doubles it won't matter since they all function basically the same. The one nice thing with the DSS doubles rigs is the Q-tach retainers that keep the wing nuts on the backplate so they don't get lost.

Either way you need a full doubles rig, you can choose to get another singles rig, but the only reason I would recommend that is if you want to shed weight from a belt, which it doesn't sound like you are wanting to do

 

[CuzzA]

Are you planning on diving twin large steel tanks with a wetsuit in the ocean? Some people will want you to buy a double bladder BC for that and others will want you to use a dry suit for redundancy and some others will tell you that a pair of aluminum 80's cave filled is the only safe rig based on bouyancy issues in the ocean with a wetsuit.

Hmm... Just read the 2013 dual bladder wing thread... Maybe I'll bump it just to see what happens.

Some good info in that thread though.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

You can die from making the wrong choice in that regard. 3 local guys,one of which I knew pretty well, didn't make it on one dive. Being drastically over weighted in the ocean with no way to ditch ballast would be a major concern to me... More than a lot of the details people worry about.