Well, a while back, I posted on some thread here that I was going to Maui at the end of January, and a couple of days later, I got a PM from Tobin, asking me if I wanted to demo the new tropical wing on that trip. After about two microseconds of consideration, I said, "YES!" And a couple of weeks later, a small box showed up at the house with a small Kydex plate and the new wing.
My first impression was that it was VERY small. Not that my LCD 30 wing is big, mind you, but this one was tiny. And I missed the lovely orange embroidery, though, as Tobin explained to me, this is a single layer wing, and embroidering it would rather defeat the purpose.
I had always wondered why people would invest in a lighter plate and smaller wing for travel, because I've been perfectly happy travelling with my 5 lb SS backplate and LCD 30. I was also worried that replacing the 4 pounds lost with the SS by putting it on the cambands wouldn't trim me out well. I needn't have worried. The Kydex plate gave me four pounds of other stuff I could pack within weight limits, and putting the weight on the cambands gave me the same trim I'd had with my other setup.
Why the small wing? Well, there were two big advantages I noted. One was that surface swimming with that tiny profile wing was SO easy. (I suspect it reduces the effort underwater, too, but that wasn't as noticeable.) The other was that, because there's NO "taco" of the wing around the tank, venting is ridiculously simple, and there's no need at all to change position to vent the wing. I used my butt dump more on this trip than I think I ever have before, because it worked so well and so easily.
The only thing about this setup with which I wasn't completely delighted was that I was a little uncomfortable with where I floated with the wing completely inflated. I think I'm quite used to being able to get my whole face and neck out of the water with my single and doubles rigs, and with this one, I rested with my chin just out of the water. In calm water, that was fine, but on the windy day when we inadvisedly attempted to dive, my face was in the water quite a bit. Given that most vacation divers wouldn't even have tried to get in the water that day, I don't know that this is a big deal, and of course, I keep my reg in my mouth until I'm out of the water entirely when I am boat diving.
The bottom line? Well, I wrote to Tobin and asked him how much it's going to cost me to keep the setup. I think that says it all.
]
My first impression was that it was VERY small. Not that my LCD 30 wing is big, mind you, but this one was tiny. And I missed the lovely orange embroidery, though, as Tobin explained to me, this is a single layer wing, and embroidering it would rather defeat the purpose.
I had always wondered why people would invest in a lighter plate and smaller wing for travel, because I've been perfectly happy travelling with my 5 lb SS backplate and LCD 30. I was also worried that replacing the 4 pounds lost with the SS by putting it on the cambands wouldn't trim me out well. I needn't have worried. The Kydex plate gave me four pounds of other stuff I could pack within weight limits, and putting the weight on the cambands gave me the same trim I'd had with my other setup.
Why the small wing? Well, there were two big advantages I noted. One was that surface swimming with that tiny profile wing was SO easy. (I suspect it reduces the effort underwater, too, but that wasn't as noticeable.) The other was that, because there's NO "taco" of the wing around the tank, venting is ridiculously simple, and there's no need at all to change position to vent the wing. I used my butt dump more on this trip than I think I ever have before, because it worked so well and so easily.
The only thing about this setup with which I wasn't completely delighted was that I was a little uncomfortable with where I floated with the wing completely inflated. I think I'm quite used to being able to get my whole face and neck out of the water with my single and doubles rigs, and with this one, I rested with my chin just out of the water. In calm water, that was fine, but on the windy day when we inadvisedly attempted to dive, my face was in the water quite a bit. Given that most vacation divers wouldn't even have tried to get in the water that day, I don't know that this is a big deal, and of course, I keep my reg in my mouth until I'm out of the water entirely when I am boat diving.
The bottom line? Well, I wrote to Tobin and asked him how much it's going to cost me to keep the setup. I think that says it all.
)
(Just kidding Lynn!)
