iliketopetsharks
Contributor
What does that have to do with a balanced rig? The point of it that 1. you can comfortably hold your last stop with practically empty cylinders and 2. that you can swim up full cylinders even with a compressed wetsuit. Correct weighting just makes it easier to attain neutral buoyancy, even though you only "circle around" the point of perfect balance between displaced water vs. mass. That's also true for Avelo.So let's talk about a balanced rig and neutral buoyancy. A balanced rig isn't actually neutral most of the dive. A balanced rig is intentionally heavy at the start of a dive requiring the diver to fin gently upwards at depth to maintain desired depth. The diver may also keep their lungs more full of gas than otherwise necessary. That's not neutral.
The point is: BCs aren't flimsy bags of plastic that'll kill you if it fails, given that you're correctly weighted. Avelo is an interesting system that certainly has it's niche it fills well, but it's not like conventional rigs are unsafe and should be phased out.