I bought one few months ago as my dedicated travel bcd. My normal bcd is a tech rig, but I needed to save on weight. I prefer back inflation so I went with the Islander. On the plus side it is very lightweight, comfortable, well made. The negative tradeoffs are: the single tank band and small backplate give you a small bit of "flop" in the tank, not a big deal, really. The integrated weight pouches are quite small, will hold about six pounds max in each one. Correspondingly, the back inflating bladder does not give a lot of lift, so really you should not use it with more than 10 to 12 pounds anyway. There is no dump valve on the right shoulder, which is the only thing I would like to have seen. You still have the dump on the left if you pull down on the inflator. The carabiners supplied with the bcd are lightweight aluminum and are already starting to show corrosion in our salt water environment.
If you are a small person and want back inflation I would say its a great option. If you are an experienced diver & need a travel bcd for warm water trips its also looking good. Sherwood also makes a similar one, and Seaquest.
