BP/W - Which one?!

[UFOrb]

Why not the same wing...??

I know my lift requirements will be different in warm vs. cold based on the weight equations, but diving warm in a 30 pound wing shouldn’t be overkill right?

The wing on the Ghost is pretty big but I never noticed any issues with that in warm water. I was able to release all the air fine with no trapped pockets. It is slightly quirky with the kidney dump valve about a third the way up the wing and the inflator hose coming out the centre of the top of the wing, but it didn't take long to get used to that.
Perhaps that wing's designed to be versatile as it's marketed as a travel system.

 

[Trailboss123]

Hi fellow Brightonian,

Earlier this year I bought an X-Deep Ghost with the integrated weight pockets, and have happily used it on two trips so far. It's very light for travel (3kg for deluxe version incl pockets) but the 37lb (17kg) single tank wing has enough lift for UK diving too.
So far I've used it in Thailand with minimal thermal protection & 4kg lead and in Red Sea with a 5mm full wetsuit (10kg lead) and it was a joy to use. I opted for the deluxe version as I thought the padding on the shoulders would perhaps be nicer for shore diving, esp with a lot of weight, and I like the QR clips (controversial I know!). The standard version is just a simple webbing. The y-shaped crotch strap is very comfy.
Not sure it’s the type of set-up you had in mind but may be worth considering!?
I managed to find a cracking deal from ScubaStore who are based in Spain, saving around 200 quid on UK prices.
Overall I'm very happy with it. It feels very well built and sturdy and I'm sure it's gonna be good for many years of diving.

I also have the exact same setup. I have over 600 dives on it and it is still like new. I use it for cold water, dry suit diving and warm water diving with all sorts of exposure protection thickness and all sorts of tanks (from AL 80's to Steel 120's) - Couldn't be happier. Great to travel with. I wanted one system that could meet all of my needs and found it. Didn't and still don't have a desire to be swapping out plates and wings all the time. I dive too much to hassle with that.

 

[drk5036]

Why not the same wing...??

I know my lift requirements will be different in warm vs. cold based on the weight equations, but diving warm in a 30 pound wing shouldn’t be overkill right?

You certainly can do this. Scubaboard is sometimes a little aggressive with getting the “perfect” combo. I also have two wings, a 23 lbs VDH wing that I use for travel and a 30 lbs DGX wing that I use with my semidry. However, I bought the VDH wing first. If I had bought the DGX wing first...I would have realized having the second slightly smaller wing isn’t really necessary.

it packs a bit better, but under the water, you’re not going to feel the difference. The only difference is the DGX wing is about 8 cm longer. Same width same height.

Along those lines, check out the DGX BPW package they sell. Includes everything with a 30 lbs wing for 350 dollars. Free international shipping, you just have to check what the import cost would be.

 

[Ayisha]

...I know my lift requirements will be different in warm vs. cold based on the weight equations, but diving warm in a 30 pound wing shouldn’t be overkill right?

A 25 - 30 lb wing is quite standard, so it's not overkill at all for single tank diving with less or more weighting requirements (ex warm/cold water exposure protection).

You have weighting distribution options with any composition bp, so which you choose is really just personal preference.

Personally, I'm happy with my Halcyon AL bp with the Eclipse wing with 30 lbs lift for both traveling and local cold water diving. My small bp weighs 1.8 lbs as opposed to 5 lbs for the small ss, so it's a little lighter for traveling. The standard ss bp is 6 lbs.

For local cold water, you can insert a 6 lb STA (Single Tank Adapter) weight into a Halcyon STA (and maybe others). With an AL bp, that would be 8 lbs right there in your bp. You can remove the weight for traveling.

For local cold water, I use steel 80's, so I use very little weight. When traveling to warm water, I can use AL or steel tanks and not be overweighted.

You can also place weight pockets onto your upper and lower tank cambands for more weight or for distribution.

We're talking about 4 lbs difference between the AL and SS bp (all of your other likely ss hardware on it being the same), so it's not a lot of a difference.

For slinging a bottle, you want to make sure you have ss d-rings, which many of them do.

 

[Neilwood]

Personally I am using a Scubapro backplate with their hardware on a new harness (I had trimmed it before getting my drysuit and that made it a bit too tight) with an IST Dolphin wing (40lbs). I have a virtually unsued SP doubles wing that was sold with the original gear (too big and taco'd around the tank).

Never had any issues diving this combination in either UK (saltwater) with a drysuit or Red Sea with both a 3mm wetsuit and 5mm wetsuit. Might have been overkill but it was easily manageable (for a diver who had 7 dives before buying a backplate & wing). I need about 14kg with the drysuit, about 6kg with the 3mm suit and 8kg with the 5mm - you might find you need different weighting though.

I decided that the sums were just too close for me with a drysuit to get away with a 30lb wing. In an ideal world, I would buy a second wing for warm water diving which would make the set up slightly more streamlined and where the additional lift isn't required but I have found the current wing to be easily workable everywhere so far.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

I personally like Dive Rite products.

 

[divad]

I

It is hard to get a BP/W configuration that will work in both warm water and cold.

My Halcyon double tank wing works the same in cold or warm water. Perhaps it has magical qualities.....


If you want to get finicky, you can just switch between an AL BP and a SS BP.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I have a Blue Reef SS backplate which was the cheapest around and I don't see anything wrong with it but lot of people here on SB rave about the "Freedom" plate but I don't know what it is so I don't know what I'm missing I mainly use my homemade wing that uses a Blue Reef snorkel vest to which I added a dump valve and inflator. I have it attached to an old (vintage?) plastic backpack with a single nylon tank band and weight pockets that are currently selling for about 4 for $10 from China. I mainly dive warm water with a 3mm full suit and 18 pounds of lead. I also have a Zeagle horseshoe wing and an OMS donut and both are fine but I usually end up diving with the snorkel vest BC because it's so simple and lightweight and easy to set up and takes up less space in my gear bag and it gives me wonderful trim in many positions. My SS backplate is nice but then I have to haul around an extra five pounds and I end up wearing the weight anyway but at least I don't usually have to carry lead weights around with me everywhere. One of the dive ops here on Cozumel has a collection of removable BC weight pockets that he re-distributes so I'm guessing that they are easy to lose.

 

[jaseUK666]

I use an Apeks WTX D30 wing when diving a single.

My backplate is a 20 year old OMS one, so I need a single tank adaptor, but modern backplates have slots, so you won't need that. You might still prefer it though as it holds the wing firmly in place.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I


My Halcyon double tank wing works the same in cold or warm water. Perhaps it has magical qualities.....


If you want to get finicky, you can just switch between an AL BP and a SS BP.

I should have said optimal.