Anyone dive a "Travel" BCD all the time?

[OKgunguy]

Hi All, new to the board. I'm Jason, and I live in Southeast Oklahoma. I'm getting into diving and have been looking at equipment. I'm not going to make any major purchases until certification is done of course, but I am a gearhead and have been comparing BCD's.

I have made a couple of dives in Cozumel, but had ear problems at the time and wasn't able to finish my open water dives. I was getting sick I think, and couldn't equalize with being congested. I woke up sick the next morning, so I'm hoping that was the reason. Also, the regulator I had for the first boat dive breathed really wet, squeaked, and just generally sucked. So it gave me a bad taste for rental gear.

So, to the original question. Is there a reason that a travel BCD like a Cressi Scorpion, Scubapro Lite Hawk, Hollis LTS or similar would be a bad choice for local warm lake dives? I don't plan on cold water diving, and my other diving WILL be travel diving. I do believe that I want a back inflate system, but I'm not so sure about a full on backplate and wing to start. If I don't drop a grand on a full feature BCD like a Hydros Pro, I figure I can at least make some of my money back to put towards a BP/W later if I want.

Any reason to have a bigger, heavier, more expensive BCD for local use?

Thanks for your time and advice!
Jason

 

[Marie13]

Hi All, new to the board. I'm Jason, and I live in Southeast Oklahoma. I'm getting into diving and have been looking at equipment. I'm not going to make any major purchases until certification is done of course, but I am a gearhead and have been comparing BCD's.

I have made a couple of dives in Cozumel, but had ear problems at the time and wasn't able to finish my open water dives. I was getting sick I think, and couldn't equalize with being congested. I woke up sick the next morning, so I'm hoping that was the reason. Also, the regulator I had for the first boat dive breathed really wet, squeaked, and just generally sucked. So it gave me a bad taste for rental gear.

So, to the original question. Is there a reason that a travel BCD like a Cressi Scorpion, Scubapro Lite Hawk, Hollis LTS or similar would be a bad choice for local warm lake dives? I don't plan on cold water diving, and my other diving WILL be travel diving. I do believe that I want a back inflate system, but I'm not so sure about a full on backplate and wing to start. If I don't drop a grand on a full feature BCD like a Hydros Pro, I figure I can at least make some of my money back to put towards a BP/W later if I want.

Any reason to have a bigger, heavier, more expensive BCD for local use?

Thanks for your time and advice!
Jason

What are the water temps in your local diving holes? If you’re wearing just a skin or a 3mm on vacation, what are you going to be wearing locally? 5mm-7mm? The travel BC might not have enough lift to handle the extra lead required with heavier exposure protection.

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Hi Jason,
I have a Lite Hawk and dive it on Caribbean trips as well as in local New England waters in a 7mm. The only issue is no pockets, but that is minor. I went this route because, at the time, they were closing out the old series Lite Hawk, so they were pretty inexpensive. Unless you can find a good deal on a travel BCD you will be better off financially with something like the Dive Gear Express bp/w package.
Hope that helps,
Erik

 

[Jafo19D]

This doesn’t directly answer your question but I travel with my Hydros Pro and absolutely love it. It comes with a dive bag that fits the BCD and everything else you need for a dive (ScubaPro has a video on how to pack it). Right now I travel/dive with the integrated weight system but may switch to the travel strap (included) to make it more compact.

 

[inquis]

I have a 1.5 lb aluminum backplate. It travels wonderfully. Also works for local dives in a drysuit, and the wing has enough lift to surface should the suit completely flood.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Summertime I switch to the aqualung zuma here in the keys
1mm suit
Around 4 lbs weight

 

[Belzelbub]

The key to answer that is how much lift you would need. For warm water (warm is relative), a travel BC is probably fine. For me, warm water means no wetsuit, or at most a 3mm. Will you have enough lift to counteract the weight you need? If a travel BC provides sufficient lift, it should be fine for local diving as well.

 

[kelemvor]

n. Is there a reason that a travel BCD like a Cressi Scorpion, Scubapro Lite Hawk, Hollis LTS or similar would be a bad choice for local warm lake dives? I don't plan on cold water diving, and my other diving WILL be travel diving.

IMO it's a great idea to use just one BCD most or all of the time. You'll be that much more familiar with it, which is always a boon. As long as the lakes really are "warm" then you won't have an issue.

If the lakes were cold, then you'd end up with a thicker wetsuit or drysuit and correspondingly need more weight which will likely be too much for a travel bcd.

If I were in the situation you describe, I'd dive the travel bcd in the lakes. If your exposure protection is different than you'll be using when diving the tropics, you'll need to do some testing/calculations. Try everything out in shallow water (pool or similar) before you jump in the lake. Just in case you made a mistake on your lift/weight calculations.

 

[OKgunguy]

Thanks for the replies so far everyone.

I don't see needing more than a 3mm wetsuit here at home. I'll be diving in warm weather and the lakes get pretty warm in the summer time. The local lakes aren't clear enough to see much, so most of my diving will be travel. I'll be diving enough locally to hopefully improve my skills and keep sharp (and justify my equipment purchases@!)

@Jafo19D, I've definitely thought of that aspect. I know that equipment changes can bite you in the rear under stress, looking for something that is somewhere else on a particular piece of equipment.

 

[OKgunguy]

Marie13, I follow your posts on another board in the scuba forum as well . You're actually the one that led me to this board, so thanks! You might be able to guess which board from my forum handle, not sure how firearm friendly it is here or I'd mention it.