I am going to buy a new BC and I have it down to three any ideas?
Zeagle Ranger BCD with Ripcord Weight System
http://www.zeagle.com/index.php?submenu=HeavyDutyBC&src=gendocs&link=Ranger
Seaquest Black Diamond BCD with SureLock weight system
http://www.aqualung.com/products/black_diamond.html
Oceanic Excursion BC
http://www.oceanicworldwide.com/p_bcs_excursion.html
I am looking for ideas, so if there is a BC that you really like and it has these features please tell me about it, thanks.
Given your listed criteria and the three possible choices, I'd get the Oceanic Excursion.
It appears that you are planning on using a weight integrated BCD. I hope you will reconsider that approach. Integrated weight BCDs, when combined with a significantly buoyant exposure suit, place a diver in significant danger. If, for any reason you have to remove the rig, you will be positively buoyant and your gas supply will be negatively buoyant, A slip that results in a loss of grip will, at best, result in your being on the surface with your gas supply on the bottom; and at worst ... well, think about being tangled in a net, having to remove your rig to untangle yourself, losing your grip on your rig and making a buoyant ascent into the net which is billowing over you, you’re dead.
If you're thing weight integrated BCD because you’re having trouble keeping a weightbelt in place, try a rubber weightbelt with a wire buckle. Works like a champ and does not need to be tightened during the dive.
Or try the SeaQuest style buckle, the motion that you use to release the buckle is to pull the belt away from your body, it's a brilliant design.
Originally developed by a Graduate Student at Scripps, named Mark Olson, who was also a fine machinist and who went on to found Deep Sea Power and Light. This belt was first marketed by SeaQuest and is currently available from
Trident Diving Supply. It is a positive closing, cam actuated buckle that can tightened easily and securely, yet can be only be released with a motion of pulling it away from your body. It’s really quite simple, inexpensive, and very ingenious. It’s a bit hard to explain, but well worth trying.
Might I share some ideas from the scientific diving community as regards weights and such.
The conventional “airplane” type weight belt buckle” (especially when made from plastic) is, IMHO, an accident waiting to happen. Failures of this type of buckle are frequent enough that I, and many other Diving Safety Officers, have prohibited the use of this style buckle on a weightbelt because it:
1) requires a tread-through to don which can be difficult, at best, with gloves.
c) requires a tread-through to ditch, has often been seen to result in the belt hung up on some piece of gear, rather than being cleanly ditched, esp. with gloves.
d) requires being placed into a highly insecure mode whilst being adjusted for wet suit compression.
e) is easy to confuse with a buckle on a tank strap (conventional backpack or BP/W) and can not be differentiated solely by feel. The diver must trust to position of the body or rigorous application of a left hand release for the tank strap, right hand release for the weight belt protocol.
One of the two weight belt and buckle designs mentioned above solves all those problems.
