Ditching the poodle jacket

[MauiScubaSteve]

Wow is right! Believe me I know from experience; you should have seen the Whale Wars thread before over 300 posts were exercised! :mooner:

Just in case there is a lack of fuel, here is my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Over 20 years after my dad taught me to dive and took me on over a hundred dives, I moved to the Island of Kauai. My employer was a certified diver and rented gear from 2 shops so we could dive. I was hooked but had to get certified. I talked my freedive buddies into getting certified because then it was $50 cheaper for me.

After our certification we all, including my boss, made a 3-dive day/night at Tunnels on the North Shore. We dove the outside reef first dive, inside reef second dive and inside again after dark. My freedive buddies and I had been freediving the caverns and lava tubes extensively for months. It would have been impossible for my boss to stop us from going through those same overheads that day.

On the first dive we went to our hardest freedive cavern/tube dive to date. All of us but my boss had been through this overhead numerous times. On our freedives we had not realized/remembered how tight one pinch was. When we all got to that point we either passed our gear through or went back; my boss went back. He didn't really communicate that he would not pass gear through until after the rest of us had already passed through.

Technically that was his first solo dive, back around to meet us on the way back to shore. Oh, and the dyslexic freedive buddy took his BC off to the left and passed it through with his left arm, then "had" to let the reg fall out so he could get through; the only bubbles he blew were from laughing. Maybe that's why the boss didn't follow him/us!

 

[InTheDrink]

So I've added a standard Hog harness to my order to avoid disappointment in case the comfort/adjustable harness doesn't fit. It'll be interesting to make the comparison in diving both anyhow (assuming the comfort one does fit).

So I'm all set hopefully. The only thing keeping me on tenter hooks now is the wife seeing the bank statement.

I'll post back and let you know how I get on. I might even post a pic or two!

Thanks again for all the assistance, including the long and diversionary rants without which no good DB thread is complete

John

 

[Sas]

So I've added a standard Hog harness to my order to avoid disappointment in case the comfort/adjustable harness doesn't fit. It'll be interesting to make the comparison in diving both anyhow (assuming the comfort one does fit).

So I'm all set hopefully. The only thing keeping me on tenter hooks now is the wife seeing the bank statement.

I'll post back and let you know how I get on. I might even post a pic or two!

Thanks again for all the assistance, including the long and diversionary rants without which no good DB thread is complete

John

YAY, enjoy your new shiny dive gear. New dive gear is always awesome fun

 

[Deep South Divers]

Yeah, man... Always fun. Congrats. Pictures! Pictures!

 

[InTheDrink]

I might just do the pictures gig. Especially on my first attempt at ever assembling this kind of rig.

I really do think that the photos, by the end of it, might convince just about anyone that there really are sometimes you need to ditch your rig. Even if it's not a poodle jacket.

(now that, surely, is symmetry)

J

 

[burna]

I hate waiting for new stuff to arrive. I have the patience of a small child!

J,

I recently moved from my Zeagle Stiletto (back inflate) to a Zeagle BP. I only bought the plate and one piece harness and took the wing and tank bands off the stiletto and put them on the plate which saved me heaps of $s.

The diff for me in the water was incredible. It is so much easier to stay horizontal in the water, it must be the way the weight is distributed with the SS plate. One of our buddies described it the best after his first dive with Sas's BP/W. He said it was like being suspended by a thread.

I was really worried about not being able to get in and out of a standard one piece harness, but it is no problem at all. In fact, I'd say it is easier than getting in and out of the stiletto I had.

No good thread would be complete without long and diversionary rants! It is good to see that SeaJay came around to our way of thinking in the end though!!!

 

[Deep South Divers]

I really do think that the photos, by the end of it, might convince just about anyone that there really are sometimes you need to ditch your rig. Even if it's not a poodle jacket.

It might, if I was not experiencing it every day. The only thing that will convince me that it's the appropriate first response to a situation is if I ever need to do it. So far, I've not once ever needed to do it. Maybe if I was looking to sit in a Hellcat?

No good thread would be complete without long and diversionary rants!

Heh.

It is good to see that SeaJay came around to our way of thinking in the end though!!!

You ARE kidding, right? Aussie (I looked you up first so I wouldn't get flamed - wasn't going to assume something just 'cause of the 'roo ) humor again? I haven't, during this entire thread, changed my stance even a little bit.

As someone else mentioned, "Level headed." Or you could consider it stubborn. I think John called it "stuck" or "opinionated" or "closed minded" or something.

Ah, yes... I see your "stirspot" emoticon... Lol... Beer?

 

[BB1]

Inthedrink I hope it works out for you and please let me know how it ges and if you are happy with your choices.

It was a shame your thread, which was of great interest to me, got so shamelessly hijacked! No amount of can make up for page after page of pointless arguing for the sake of it.

Burna, Bugger! is all I can say. Your post in my thread about Zeagles got me thinking and thinking and a couple of very good points made my Sas have also started me shifting more to going down the BP/W road. I had a chat to Chris at Divetub as well - nice guy.

You and Sas mind if I shot you some pm's with some (possibly stupid) questions about plates and wings???

 

[burna]

Burna, Bugger! is all I can say. Your post in my thread about Zeagles got me thinking and thinking and a couple of very good points made my Sas have also started me shifting more to going down the BP/W road. I had a chat to Chris at Divetub as well - nice guy.

Yeah, he'll look after you. Make sure you tell him I sent you!!

You and Sas mind if I shot you some pm's with some (possibly stupid) questions about plates and wings???

Not at all, fire away, but my knowledge of the diff brands is limited. You may get more accurate info/feedback if you post it here though.

 

[Deep South Divers]

It was a shame your thread, which was of great interest to me, got so shamelessly hijacked!

You know, a couple of posts into the hijack, I was thinking the same thing, and considering just shutting my hole about it so it all wouldn't go totally awry - but there were actually some good related discussions happening in all of the noise that were related to the original point. Vaguely, sure, but like I said in one post, it's InTheDrink's "dive," and when he called it, the bickering pretty much stopped.

I think that there were some valuable and related posts made. The personal attacks were a bit pointless, and sometimes the subject only vaguely related to the original question, but not totally unrelated.

No amount of can make up for page after page of pointless arguing for the sake of it.

Just skip over the stuff you don't want to read. Everyone else apparently did.

You and Sas mind if I shot you some pm's with some (possibly stupid) questions about plates and wings???

Backplates and wings = awesome, and if their posts got you thinking about them, then they're pointing you in the right direction. Do your research, though... Based on some of the things I've seen in the past couple of pages, getting information from only one or two sources might not be such a good idea. There's a lot of people out there who have been diving backplates and wings for decades, with many thousands of dives under their belts. Getting information from someone who's got 18 months' and a few dozen dives' experience might be a questionable idea.