I have worked full time in the diving industry for the last 7 years. Mind you tis all in the tropics. I see some BP/Ws from time to time but not all that often and i see 1000s of divers every year. Lots of jackets, a lot of back bladders but BP/Ws take up maybe 2% of the population of tropical divers. (maybe a bit more when we get a group that has come from a tec week in Chuuk)
SB definitely has a huge disproportional % of BP/W users and DIR people (i had never heard of that term before reading SB last year and have never heard it outside of SB to this day...)
Sooo, guess what i am saying is that no, BP/W is not a phenomenom (at least in tropical diving, where it is certainly not needed) [i believe the tropics makes up something like 80% of recreational diving in the world?? but i could be off on that assumption]
In other words, the only place that it is a phenomenon is places like SB where the users are massively disproportional than in real life. Why? I have no idea..
SB definitely has a huge disproportional % of BP/W users and DIR people (i had never heard of that term before reading SB last year and have never heard it outside of SB to this day...)
Sooo, guess what i am saying is that no, BP/W is not a phenomenom (at least in tropical diving, where it is certainly not needed) [i believe the tropics makes up something like 80% of recreational diving in the world?? but i could be off on that assumption]
In other words, the only place that it is a phenomenon is places like SB where the users are massively disproportional than in real life. Why? I have no idea..