Back mount, side mount, wing, bcd, split fins, non split fins, lions tigers and bears, Oh My!

[swimmer_spe]

I recently did a cavern course. I learned a lot from it, but the one thing it helped me understand is -

There is a reason for the different set ups and types of gear.

I find it funny that there are arguments on what you should get. Each set up is geared towards a certain type of diving.

So, when someone asks what gear is the best, they first must tell us what they do, as that will tel us which direction to point them in.

 

[Scuba Scott]

So, when someone asks what gear is the best, they first must tell us what they do, as that will tel us which direction to point them in.

Unless you are talking about BP/W. That is always best for all types of diving.

 

[swimmer_spe]

Unless you are talking about BP/W. That is always best for all types of diving.

.... Nope....

 

[KevinNM]

I believe that what side mount was originally created for was bedding plane restrictions in caves. Often these are wide but not tall. Originally people used to pass through them by dismounting their gear and pushing it through ahead of them. But this has some pretty obvious issues and people came up with better ways to do this.

 

[The Chairman]

If all you own is a hammer: the world becomes a nail. I don't sidemount on the reefs here in Key Largo, and I don't like backmount in caves!

 

[Scuba Scott]

.... Nope....

You have been here longer than I have so I'm sure you get it...
I'm just impressed with myself for finally being first to post it.

 

[AdivingBel]

So, when someone asks what gear is the best, they first must tell us what they do, as that will tel us which direction to point them in.

I agree and also WHERE they will be diving. It's funny to see folks argue over the best gear and the best way to dive when one is diving in the North Sea and the other is sipping rum in the Caymans. How smart you are has a lot to do with where you're standing at any given moment.

 

[boulderjohn]

I find it funny that there are arguments on what you should get. Each set up is geared towards a certain type of diving.

So, when someone asks what gear is the best, they first must tell us what they do, as that will tel us which direction to point them in.

while I do agree with this to a certain extent, I am not going to go all in on it and say that every possible setup is superior to others in certain situations. As a part of my answer, I am going to give a very far-flung analogy.

Years ago, a section of federal law related to students with disabilities (Section 504) came into focus, and teachers were supposed to use instructional strategies that matched the learning needs of students with specifically identified learning disabilities. This was all new, and in my position in the school district I was asked to write an article explaining it to the district's teaching staff. To that end, the special education department gave me a stack of literature that identified specific learning disabilities and gave suggested instructional strategies for meeting those needs. My plan was to include 5-6 of them in my article as examples. I read through the stack and then went back to the director of special education. I told her that although there was a huge variety of disabilities, the suggested strategies for meeting the needs of each were pretty much the same for all of them, and those strategies were decidedly NOT the way most teachers taught. She explained to me that research showed conclusively that ALL students learn better with those suggested strategies. In the normal classroom, most students "get by" with the ways their teachers teach, but the students with disabilities really needed to have the teachers use those strategies if they were to succeed.

Similarly....

In OW scuba instruction in the dive shops where I worked, I always taught students in jacket BCDs (not back inflates) and with the traditional regulator setup with the alternate in the "golden triangle." I was required to do so by those shops, and it made sense to me to a degree because if the new divers went to a dive resort and rented gear, that was what they were going to get. My students would "get by" with that gear. I would certainly "get by" if I were to dive in that gear. I cannot, however, imagine a diving situation for which either setup would be ideal.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

When it comes to scuba equipment, there is no such thing as "best". Every piece of gear you can buy comes with benefits and drawbacks, and what's best for you depends on which of those are important to you and which are not. And what you consider a benefit or a drawback can be different from how someone else looks at the same things, depending on many factors such as diving environment, performance, price/budget considerations, familiarity, whether you're buying for local or travel use, servicing availability in your area, personal preference/comfort, and a host of other considerations.

A key factor is asking yourself where you see yourself going over the expected life cycle of the equipment, and whether this piece of gear will take you there? Can you see yourself still happy with this choice a few years down the road? Will it still be suitable for the diving you anticipate doing then? The answers will vary for the person who has a personality that leans toward challenging themselves vs the one who just wants to get wet in an easy, relaxing setting, or the one who goes into it knowing that they want to dive in local, perhaps cold water vs the one who is only interested in warm-water diving, or the one whose goals include some form of overhead diving vs someone who wants to stay within recreational depths.

Keep in mind that when you walk into a dive shop, you're only going to hear about the choices that particular shop is offering, and they're only ever going to tell you about the benefits ... and not the drawbacks ... of the gear they'll try to sell you. There are some quality offerings out there that will not be suitable for you ... but you may not realize it until after you've purchased the gear. So if you only want to buy once, and be happy with your purchase, it's up to you to do some digging ... find out what the alternatives are ... listen to the people who will tell you why they don't like that choice (even if you disagree with their reasons). Also keep in mind that there are opportunities to benefit from those who didn't do their homework ... there's a LOT of good scuba gear available on eBay and Craigslist for pennies on the dollar, being sold by people who only considered the drawbacks after they purchased and realized that this isn't the gear that's going to make them happy in the long run. Some of those may be perfectly good choices for you. Only you can really decide what's "best" for you ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[boulderjohn]

Keep in mind that when you walk into a dive shop, you're only going to hear about the choices that particular shop is offering, and they're only ever going to tell you about the benefits ... and not the drawbacks ... of the gear they'll try to sell you.

The first shop for which I worked switched agencies and adopted the marketing techniques taught to them in a workshop conducted by the owner/President of that agency. I left at that time. Several years alter I had a student who had had his first instruction and purchased a full set of gear at that shop. He told me he was unhappy with that gear, and he started to tell me what he had purchased. I stopped him and asked if I could predict the rest of his purchases. I was dead on.

The marketing strategy the shop was taught was to identify a specific set of gear as their top sellers. These would be items with good profit margins that they thought they could promote easily. When a shop sells a certain number of specific models of gear, the manufacturer reduces the dealer price for that item, thus further increasing that profit margin. The moment a customer walks into the store, the employee serving him or her is going to try to maneuver the customer into buying each specific item in that package. (And those items will indeed be offered as a package.) If the customer takes a class, the instructor will be wearing those specific items, and the instructor will insist (as required by shop policy) that he or she purchased each of those items because they are the very best. The instructor will be required to say this even if he or she would not choose a single item in that set for personal diving--which would have been true for me if I had stayed with that shop.

Not all shops are at such an extreme in their policy, even the other shops that are part of that agency. You can be sure, however, that all shops are somewhere on the spectrum of that policy.