A question for the ladies about a bcd

[SHARKBAIT94]

Hello all,
Well first off I am really glad to see that their are more ladies replying I was getting kind of nervous to the fact that "not to many girls/women seem to dive or belong to the scuba board" and what was I getting my g/f into. As to the gear. she picked it tried it out said ya or nay I took a mental note and will go get it or got it for her with out her knowing. Larry from scuba toys gave me the skinny on all the gear. Larry recommended the Aeries line and gave all the pros and cons of all the gear that she/we were looking at. A lot of our dive buddies all men and one girl dive with either aqua lung, cressi-sub or scuba pro and one friend of a friend dives with Aeries reg and pc he loves it so we got to talking about the regs and so on and so forth and he stopped by the house and we all jumped in the pool and she breathed through the reg and did all the stuff that she did in class and she loved the reg (the couple of times in the pool the reg she was using breathed wet and felt heavy in her mouth and this did not make her happy which in return made me miserable) so I decided to just get some input on the scuba board as to what the ladies like and what they feel about their own gear (I never buy anything with getting all the info I can get about opinions and facts). I would never just go and by life support gear for my g/f with out her input and some kind of idea as to what works for the ladies. Men are built different then women so I could and would never expect what works for me to work for her considering I’m 6ft 230lbs (just a little bit of a tummy fyi I state this before any one goes on to tell me to lose wait when I’m mostly muscle) and she’s 5'1 120lbs. with a mmmmmmmmmmmmm smaller upper body per say. Maybe I’m a little nervous about the whole idea of being under water and not being able to protect her the way I can on land being sixty feet below in water has me a little more cautious. I don’t know why I’m just venting my thoughts. We both were one of the top students in the class out seventeen. A couple of times the instructors asked if we already took ow and were just looking for a refresher course kind of made me feel good. But any way please keep your opinions coming I really enjoy reading everyone’s ideas and opinions. I can never have to much info. I just like every one on the board just wants to be safe and have a great time searching the sea but I want to make real sure that what ever we/she buys/gets its made by a company that’s stand behind the product and is a safe and enjoyable product.
Thanks to all of you . You have made this experience more pleasurable then one can only imagine.

 

[leigh]

Personally I don't like a lot of the "women's" designs as they're bulky in ways up front that may be more comfortable for women, but are not feasible/dangerous in a drysuit. (Not that you're necessarily drysuit diving yet, but you may be eventually...especially at her size I'm guessing she gets cold easily.) I dive a Zeagle Scout--but am comfortable in most any back inflate BCD. If you really want to protect her, get her an AOW class too with less than 17 students in it. (Just how many instructors/DM's are there for a class that big anyhow?)

 

[SHARKBAIT94]

Yeah that’s what are friends were saying too that seventeen people was to many for an ow course. In their defense they broke it down into two groups. The class were supposed to be monday = class wed = pool but it turned out mon = class tues = pool and wed = pool The bigger of the two groups had two di's and the other had one and a helper( I guess that’s what you can call him). At no time did I or any one else feel "robbed" of training/lesson time (we all hung out and talk after class about what we learned or went over) every one of us thought that the DI were great and we all felt very comfortable/safe that was one of my concerns. I already planned on signing her up for the aow course with just the fact that jersey is some dark water. Yes she gets very cold at times so I have funny feeling that with our "buddies" she will want to advance to a dry suit class. Funny thing I showed her one of the back plate and wings and she was like "no way am I wearing one of those" not that I would consider it even thou yes I hear and read members saying how great they are and everything else BUT my motto if I was not trained with it I’m not using it.
Thanks for your reply and post

 

[leigh]

Back inflate doesn't have to be back plate. And any good shop should let you demo a few different BCD setups. If you only buy the gear you train on in all liklihood you'll wind up with some junky gear! Good luck to the two of you

 

[SHARKBAIT94]

Back inflate doesn't have to be back plate. And any good shop should let you demo a few different BCD setups. If you only buy the gear you train on in all liklihood you'll wind up with some junky gear! Good luck to the two of you

i don't mean the same stuff that i was trained with i ment the kind of stuff we were trained with i.e a jacket type bcd no fancy reg wieght belt so on and so forth. We were not shown the bp/w or even trained with it so why go from a jacket to a back plate.

 

[leigh]

Because the only difference is in where the inflation issomewhat affecting where your trim is and in comfort. If it makes you more comfortable then you'll be a happier and safer diver. Many women don't like jacket style's because they squish them in the wrong places. Not that there's anything wrong with jacket style either--if it feels good on you then great. It's just good to try different things and see what you're most comfortable with--again, a good shop should be willing to rent you different style bc's (or test them during the class) to try out. And if you're saying you'll never buy a weight integrated bc cause you've only learned with a weight belt then you really need to find a shop that'll rent you one before you make a hasty decision. Again, back inflate is NOT the same thing as back plate. Don't think we're trying to steer your girlfriend towards a tech rig if she doesn't want it.

 

[GrierHPharmD]

My wife uses the Dacor Extremelle and enjoys it. Having never worn it myself, the main difference between it and the Nautica, which I wear, is the size of the front pockets. Heres are smaller and closer to the waist.

-G