Continuous webbing vs adjustable harness for first BPW

[Badger7]

When I was looking to get a little more standardized and efficient with my diving, I asked many of the same questions, adjustable vs continuous - making it work for different exposure gear - steel vs aluminum plate - quick release - etc.

After doing quite a bit of diving, and a lot of gear tweaking, I have the harness and crotch strap on my heavy steel backplate set exactly where I want for ideal trim. I also ended up with an aluminum backplate with a different harness that I use when i'm diving somewhere warm in a wetsuit, and the length of the harness are where I want them for that configuration, and I wouldn't want to adjust those either or I'd need to dial it all in again. If you're only going to be doing one or the other, you'll never need to adjust your harness or crotch strap once you have them set for optimal trim.

Zero regrets, never wished I had buckles or quick adjusts.

 

[Mike McG]

I switched to BP/W a few months ago and I contemplated this question myself. I went with the one piece webbing and for me it's been brilliant. Most of my diving is with the same exposure gear so it never needs adjusted beyond my initial set up and believe it or not it's actually easier to don than my old Scubapro BCD which was fully adjustable. It's great to not have a load of buckles and little excess webbing tails floating around. Also, my decision was sealed when I was shore diving with my Scubapro BCD one day and upon entry to the water the plastic buckle disconnected. From that point on I realised that it was an inevitable failure point.

 

[mr_v]

I loved my continuous webbing until I tried a setup with adjustable webbing and quick releases. I don't think I'll go to continuous webbing again.

The comfort of quick releases and the ability to adjust the webbing depending on the undergarments is priceless. Btw, I have excellent shoulder mobility, but I prefer the webbing to be dialed in perfectly, as it affects CC counter lung breather comfort and I am also a big fan of working smarter, not harder.

 

[landphil]

I’m continuous webbing on the right side and Subgravity adjustable on the left side. It’s not really for the adjustable part. But it’s tons easier to doff with the quick release, especially wearing a thick drysuit when you need to get your rig off standing and lower it to the ground. And years of crashing mountain bikes has definitely taken its toll on my shoulders

 

[jakehbk]

I dive the sub gravity adjustable harness and like it a lot. The quick releases are metal, pretty robust, but also much lower profile than the ones from Mares.

If you regularly and randomly switch exposure suits like I do an adjustable harness makes life a lot easier. If you have to don and doff your gear in challenging conditions like on smaller boats in choppy seas without a buddy to help you then the adjustable harness will help you don and those quick releases will help you doff.

An adjustable harness is a way to cheat in some sense. If you can get away with using a continuous piece of webbing you'll have a simpler, stronger, cheaper and more fail proof harness system. But if something precludes you from that then grab an adjustable harness.