Are Backplates beneficial for your back?

[Blue Sparkle]

Donning and doffing in the water. This makes sense to me as far as donning. Like I said, being a resort diver, he pretty much straps on and rolls in. All though, there is the occasional step off. As long as the DM/Capt, or anyone, was pulling the rig up when taken off in the water, I'm sure it would be beneficial. That being said, I know he's like me, and can be stubborn when asking for assistance.

For the better part of a year I was trying to get rid of a case of quadriceps tendinitis. This wasn't from diving, but it's a pain at the top of your knee that is really aggravated by things like climbing steep ladders with 50# of gear on your back....

I mentioned it to the DM's on each boat and said I'd like to doff my gear in the water and hand it up to them. I don't like feeling "helpless" either, but I found that if I was just matter of fact about it it didn't bother me that much and, hey, after all, I was going diving! I did make sure to make it as easy and tidy as possible for all of us. My rig was as light as possible (I wear a weight belt so I didn't have to change anything there), and I handed up my weight belt first, separately, so I would not end up with weights and no BC. I also clipped off my longer second stage to a D-ring so it would not be flopping around.

We had worked it out in advance that I would position myself slightly to the side at the stern so as to be away from the bucking bronco ladder, when there were swells. One really rough day, I tied my rig to the trailing line (made sure I was last) and then got aboard, and then we pulled it in and grabbed it up onto the boat. That worked quite well. I *could* have gotten up the ladder with my rig on, if there had been an emergency reason to do so, but it would have set me back, so why not avoid it? I did make sure to tip the DM extra, since it was more work for him.

Checking his posture in the water. I know that as a Photog guy, I used too find myself arching a lot. I've learned to try to be conscience of my posture in the water, getting trimmed properly helped immensely with this.

I read the advice to "clench your butt cheeks" (there may be a more elegant way to say this, but it did not come to mind), in order to help with keeping your back NOT arched and yet still dive in a good, horizontal position. I found this to be good advice. But like was already said, it did seem to be a combination of factors all together that really helped.

Thanks again all. It's good info that I can pass on to him. He's been diving for decades, and is still passionate about it. I think I need to research the plates themselves a bit. Like my first post said, it may be a stupid question. Mostlt because I've never used or considered using one. My assumption, and we know what they say about assuming, was that they were to make you more comfortable and help with your posture in the water.

I don't think that's true about their purpose (although like you say, why not ask if you are not sure ), but what I did find to be true was that it was a good platform for tweaking things, for me. And I think the tweaking is a huge part of what helped me. So I think that whatever rig he chooses, it's good to be able to tweak it to get things just right for him. Because of my build I was not able to move things around to get them to fit with a vest type BC, but that's probably less likely to be true for a male.

Some BCD's are designed to distribute the weight to the hips. ... It becomes less relevant in the water, however, many of us do quite a bit of toting on those long beach shore dives...

It does sound like the OP's buddy just hops off the boat and back on though so the fit of the rig for hiking or walking is not an issue in this case. I can see where with shore diving fit on land would become more important (and I wish there were shore diving HERE).

Blue Sparkle

 

[Matt S.]

When is he getting his back pain?

We had two students in the OW class we just finished complain of back pain. It made me remember that, when I was new, I had backaches, too -- and they were from the underwater part of diving. I can't remember what I did differently or what equipment I changed that helped with it, but I haven't had a backache from diving in a long time.

Same story here. At first I had a very sore back after a dive as I had to fight to get into the right posture underwater. Once I got my balance and trim right, no more aches and pains after a dive day... unless I smash a finger moving gear. In fact, after a dive my back feels better than ever! I feel nice and loose and a few inches taller. It's amazing. So count me among those who would check trim and posture first.