Bp/w vs jacket

[The Kraken]

And, in fact, I've heard new open water divers complain that they felt as if their BC's were trying to "float away" from them.

That can be attritubted directly to the fact the so many of the conventional BC's don't have crotch straps.

Just think about it. If you're wearing a conventional jacket BC and you place yourself in a head down position, where is the air going?

Unless you have that thing tightly cinched in (read as "restricted breathing") it's going to want to pull away from your body and float your butt up high.

You know, it's a world of free will.

We make our choices or our own free will and, as such, we must bear the consequences of our choices as freely.

the K

 

[cool_hardware52]

Several years ago, folks started putting those "features" on BP/wings. Anyone want to guess how long it will be before the majority of BP/wings have those cute little "features" that make diving harder?

That day is at hand now. Pre purchase perceptions vs post purchase utility.

Tobin

 

[fnfalman]

Has anyone noticed how some of the BP 'systems' being put out by the BP makers are starting to look like back-inflate jackets?
The OMS IQ pack and its brothers the Comfort Harness system I & II?
The Dive-Rite Transpac?

Weren't BP/W setups supposed to limit failure points in a harness?
Single piece webbing instead of chest and/or shoulder releases?

The only thing being retained is the ability to swap out the wings.

I can't speak about OMS, and I don't know about other gears but the Transpac was designed by Lamar Hires and his people at Dive Rite for the exploratory cave divers who have to lug their gears up and down hills in order to get to remote dive sites. Don't know too many back-inflate jackets that can do that.

As far as the Transpac having a million failure points, perhaps somebody should tell the Dive Rite boys and girls that they should have already been dead a million times over using those silly ass Transpacs to do all the cave/wreck/exploratory divings that they've done and are doing.

 

[The Kraken]

That day is at hand now. Pre purchase perceptions vs post purchase utility.

Tobin

Ahhhhh . . . . wisely spoken, Sensei

the K-rasshopper

 

[it_mike]

It's the 'bling' factor. Why have a basic Jeep Cherokee when you can have an Escalade? Why have a car when you can have a shiny SUV that will never see the outside of the city?

It's human nature to compete, and we're still trying to beat the 'Jones' family. If I'm new to diving, or do it only rarely (vacation divers), I'm often more focused on the 'features' than the utility. Face it, those BCs 'look' impressive, and just think of all the 'impressive' gadgets I can hang off of them.

I went diving a few weeks ago with a co-worker who used a necklace for his primary, a bolt-snapped octo, and had an AAS inflator...not to mention the shoulder mounted sausage and half a dozen other gadgets. I'm sure it made him 'feel' secure, he certainly 'looked' the part.

 

[spectrum]

The gravitational forces exerted upon the body of the diver are so very different from those of a backpacker.
It's not as if one is making a 20 mile forced march with the rig on.

To take the point a few steps further the same can be said for the failure point argument. The stresses on the harness, especially in the water are limited. If a diver wants a quick release to make up for limited range of motion or for another reason then (s)he is not going to die. I have been around and presently still am a jacket diver and have not observed any gear failures.

More to the OP I agree that so many features can be added to some BP&W set-ups like weight integration, padding, pockets and fuzzy dice that the line has become blurred to say the least. At the end of the day, the rig that the diver enjoys and lets them dive with competence is the right one. Hardly anything in scuba is absolute so the notion of a universal plain vanilla configuration in a format that has flexibility as a hallmark is absurd.

Pete

 

[romaf]

Hi everyone!

Currently I'm using a DIVERITE SUPERWINGS wing that is designed for dual tank diving. The problem is that I never dive with dual tanks, so I found proper balancing a bit hard issue with such an enormous wing.

This is getting worse, because I've just started UW photography, where proper balance and stability is a must have.

Will I have the same problem with a wing designed for single tanks? I'm falling in love with HOLLIS ATS but I'm a bit afraid of the problem stated above.

Should I use a full rounded wing, such as APEKS WTX32? Probably this has the best balance between the two wings.

I'd really appreciate some help.
Thanks guys, and have fun diving!

 

[Walter]

That day is at hand now.

I wasn't aware it had gotten so bad that most BP/wings were screwed up.

 

[IceBergSlim]

As far as the Transpac having a million failure points, perhaps somebody should tell the Dive Rite boys and girls that they should have already been dead a million times over using those silly ass Transpacs to do all the cave/wreck/exploratory divings that they've done and are doing.

I placed the term "failure point" in quotes because I agree it is a silly complaint about the Transpack. I have others but that’s not one of them.

But, there was a time that every post on Scubaboard seemed to include the term "failure point" at least three times. Anything without a single piece of webbing caused many board members to go positively apoplectic. A strange response as they were also fans of the Transpack which has (for the record) no less than 26 "failure points" by my count.

I guess the term in no longer fashionable around here.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Romaf,

I dove the WTX32 wing and it has a really good lift and yet it is very small compared to what you have and have shown.

It would be far better for bouyancy and give you the control you need for photography. I take pictures too and the WTX32 is very easy to handle in the water.

MG