Buying my first gear

[lexvil]

Sound advice, thank you.

Any toughts on the suit dilemma?

I’m 6’5” and a 52” chest, not much off the shelf fits me either, it depends on where you will be diving and the temperature you’ll encounter plus your tolerance for those, for most diving other than tropical warm water it is my opinion the a drysuit is a better option. One of the good ones that is custom made is Seaskin, it takes a few months to get but the price is amazing and it will fit.

 

[LuckyLuke]

I’m 6’5” and a 52” chest, not much off the shelf fits me either, it depends on where you will be diving and the temperature you’ll encounter plus your tolerance for those, for most diving other than tropical warm water it is my opinion the a drysuit is a better option. One of the good ones that is custom made is Seaskin, it takes a few months to get but the price is amazing and it will fit.

I had an ill fiting 7mm neopren from SP and was ok, not to cold. So a good fitting semi dry should be great.

To be fair, I am scared of drysuits, as I have witnessed a near death situiation, caused by lack of knowledge. Guess I am going to suck it up until I am comfortable with my equipment and will upgrade later on my path.

 

[lexvil]

I had an ill fiting 7mm neopren from SP and was ok, not to cold. So a good fitting semi dry should be great.

To be fair, I am scared of drysuits, as I have witnessed a near death situiation, caused by lack of knowledge. Guess I am going to suck it up until I am comfortable with my equipment and will upgrade later on my path.

Before going dry, I felt like I was going to die anytime I was in the water for more than 40 minutes.

 

[MidOH]

Theres nothing to assembling a bpw.

Set the shoulder straps so you reach back and touch the top of the plate. Everything else is however you want it. Thats why the experts, nearly all, use them.

 

[Landau]

I've just replaced my Aqualung Dimension BCD (somewhat similar to the exotec) with a Hydro Pro.

Here are my pros and cons:

Dimension:

Pro - the "Wrapture" waist belt sits low on the hips and lets you carry the weight on the hips if you have a long walk to a shore dive, similar to a hiking backpack.
Easy to get on and off.
Cargo Pockets are low and large enough to easily use.
The built in Octo and SPG holders are very good and easy to use - but the exotec doesn't appear to have these

Con - the SureLock weight pockets are more like "SureLoss" very easy to get half clicked in so a small bump dislodges them.
Can slide around a bit in water, Especially at the surface
Bulky to pack for travel
The shoulder straps are very difficult to unclip

Hydros Pro
Pro - the monoprene back and straps grab my wetsuit (or drysuit) so it never slides around at all. Because of this it fits a wide variety of body shapes
The inflator has fine control at putting in tiny amounts of air
Very customizable
Packs quite small for travel (but not super light)
I've never seen Scubapro weight pockets release accidentally
Every Hydros owner I've talked to loves theirs.

Con
The Ninja cargo pockets are a little small for my hands and a little to high up.
Can be a bit tough to get on since it is so grippy
I haven't yet figured out an Octo holder I'm really happy with
D rings are a bit small


Hope this helps your decision!

 

[Marie13]

To be fair, I am scared of drysuits, as I have witnessed a near death situiation, caused by lack of knowledge. Guess I am going to suck it up until I am comfortable with my equipment and will upgrade later on my path.

Believe it or not, some of us actually did drysuit in conjunction with open water. Take the drysuit class. Being warm and dry is much better than cold.

 

[LuckyLuke]

I've just replaced my Aqualung Dimension BCD (somewhat similar to the exotec) with a Hydro Pro.

Here are my pros and cons:

Dimension:

Pro - the "Wrapture" waist belt sits low on the hips and lets you carry the weight on the hips if you have a long walk to a shore dive, similar to a hiking backpack.
Easy to get on and off.
Cargo Pockets are low and large enough to easily use.
The built in Octo and SPG holders are very good and easy to use - but the exotec doesn't appear to have these

Con - the SureLock weight pockets are more like "SureLoss" very easy to get half clicked in so a small bump dislodges them.
Can slide around a bit in water, Especially at the surface
Bulky to pack for travel
The shoulder straps are very difficult to unclip

Hydros Pro
Pro - the monoprene back and straps grab my wetsuit (or drysuit) so it never slides around at all. Because of this it fits a wide variety of body shapes
The inflator has fine control at putting in tiny amounts of air
Very customizable
Packs quite small for travel (but not super light)
I've never seen Scubapro weight pockets release accidentally
Every Hydros owner I've talked to loves theirs.

Con
The Ninja cargo pockets are a little small for my hands and a little to high up.
Can be a bit tough to get on since it is so grippy
I haven't yet figured out an Octo holder I'm really happy with
D rings are a bit small


Hope this helps your decision!

I had a chance to see the hydros in person, and it really seemed nice.

As I have read so far, the apeks semi dry is better than the SP Nova scotia, which means I am looking and two separate local dealers, which I was hoping to avoid.

Thanks for the dry suit recommendations, but for now its a no go.

 

[fred32176]

If you find jacket style BCDs too big around the waist. Be wary of the hydros integrated weights as well. I did my training in a scuba pro hydro and hated the plastic used in the container for weight pockets. There is something about that kind of plastic and wet canvas that makes it difficult to put the weight pockets in while in the water. Except for that hydros are a nice BCD.

I use a scuba pro Seahawk BCD. I went to a huge dive store with lots of brands of BCDs (they do a lot of online sales too) and just tried on every BCD that was back inflate until I got to the Seahawk - which made me feel like goldilocks - just the perfect BCD for me. The Seahawk uses canvas for the container of the weight pockets and it isn't hard to put weight pockets in in the water. It does have the integrated weights in the same location as the hydros, so if you find the hydros with integrated weights has too much space around the waist then the Seahawk would have the same issue.

The other benefit of seeing a lot of BCD's in person was being able to dump weights in a Zeagle BCD. You can't tell the Zeagle weight system is a nightmare online. I felt bad for the sales folks that had to re-string the weight system, but they wanted me to know what I would be getting before I got too attracted to that BCD.

If you have a huge dive store near you. See what works for you. It is well worth your time. Online is not the way to find a BCD.

 

[Robert H. Diver]

I had a chance to see the hydros in person, and it really seemed nice.

As I have read so far, the apeks semi dry is better than the SP Nova scotia, which means I am looking and two separate local dealers, which I was hoping to avoid.

Thanks for the dry suit recommendations, but for now its a no go.

If you’re going to pay that much for a semi dry..why not get a neoprene Drysuit for the same price? Take a Drysuit course…you’ll be a lot happier. Nothing scary about diving dry.

Also get a backplate and wing. You can customize the webbing to your specific size.

 

[LuckyLuke]

If you find jacket style BCDs too big around the waist. Be wary of the hydros integrated weights as well. I did my training in a scuba pro hydro and hated the plastic used in the container for weight pockets. There is something about that kind of plastic and wet canvas that makes it difficult to put the weight pockets in while in the water. Except for that hydros are a nice BCD.

I use a scuba pro Seahawk BCD. I went to a huge dive store with lots of brands of BCDs (they do a lot of online sales too) and just tried on every BCD that was back inflate until I got to the Seahawk - which made me feel like goldilocks - just the perfect BCD for me. The Seahawk uses canvas for the container of the weight pockets and it isn't hard to put weight pockets in in the water. It does have the integrated weights in the same location as the hydros, so if you find the hydros with integrated weights has too much space around the waist then the Seahawk would have the same issue.

The other benefit of seeing a lot of BCD's in person was being able to dump weights in a Zeagle BCD. You can't tell the Zeagle weight system is a nightmare online. I felt bad for the sales folks that had to re-string the weight system, but they wanted me to know what I would be getting before I got too attracted to that BCD.

If you have a huge dive store near you. See what works for you. It is well worth your time. Online is not the way to find a BCD.

Very nicely put, thank you.

Unfortunately, I can only take a look at some scubapro and some aqualung/apeks. Everything else is of the menu here (apart from Mares, which I dont like).

I am definitely going around the stores to see if the have some of the things I like in stock.

Btw, I also like the seahawk, but I think the xl would definitely be too big around my waist. You can tighten the hydros strap much more, so it doesnt wiggle around.