Equipment Trends: The BCD

[danvolker]

Why aren't they? My understanding is that this was the original purpose of the first BCs. To help divers establish buoyancy on the surface. The early BC were modified aviation life preservers (Mae Wests) so they would float an unconscious individual face-up. The horse collar BC's were an evolution of this design. A jacket BC also floats a diver face up only back mounted BCs don't. As Dan points out a skilled diver doesn't need a BC under water, however a tired diver on the surface with negative tanks does.

I realize that manufacturers do not want to say BCs are life preservers because then they would need to meet Coast Guard regulations which they probably couldn't do. It would also open them up to additional liability.

I am not trying to argue with you and I know you are not the first to say this. However, I don't think this was always the case.

I can tell you that when I was diving in the 70's, the move to using a BC/horsecollar, whatever, was typically about being able to deal with a bouyant suit and the weight changes....and while I did not like adding the drag of these stupid BC's to my nice slick steel 72 and harness....when the boats began mandating BC's in the 80's, and the norm was Oral Inflation, sometimes with a CO2 cartridge for an INFLATION EMERGENCY, the common use was just to compensate for the wetsuit....and everyone just did this by blowing in to the inflator when they got to the bottom--and dumping as we went up. Typically the CO2's were never used, and often would be so rusty they would not have worked anyway. A few years later, shops began giving divers inflator hoses so the diver would not have to orally inflate....some of us resisted using this, thinking it as a waste of air, that we would have better bottom time if the only breaths that went in to the BC were exhales....but ultimately, laziness won, and most divers were using inflators.
But..back in those days, BC's were NOT elevators on a dive....On the surface, if you had a long swim, some would orally inflate their bc, but more typical was to put your snorkel in your mouth, and start swimming on the surface--and you would not want any more air in the BC than neutral anyway.
In the late 90's when many very poor swimmers with little athleticism were added to the scuba diver gene pool, the concept of the elevator and Raft on the surface, became what it is today

---------- Post added February 24th, 2015 at 08:52 AM ----------

Also, how can you forget the Chinese tourist that died diving off Miami Beach two years ago that was found wearing no equipment except for her weight belt.

As you recall, she was in a jacket bc....and her issue had to be absolute panic....I also heard at the time, from one of the diver's on the boat, that this girl had been doggy paddling at one point, so we know her swimming skills were very poor.....put an almost non-swimmer in the water, and panic is a likely complication....I'm thinking this girls panicked so badly that she could not even think of dropping the belt....though in going over the story from accounts on that boat, there is a good chance she had been taking her gear off at the back of the boat, meaning she had removed her fins and bc, but still had the weight belt on...and then she fell off the back of the boat....as a bad swimmer, in sheer and total panic mode, she did not think of releasing the belt. The boat was a complete "party boat", with a massive number of divers, and when she came up, there was no crew at the back of the boat. No one to see her distress.

 

[ams511]

I can tell you that when I was diving in the 70's, the move to using a BC/horsecollar, whatever, was typically about being able to deal with a bouyant suit and the weight changes.

Dan, I am talking about the beginning days of diving. By the 1970s BCs were already well established. Divers did not need to modify a WW2 life vest.

 

[danvolker]

Dan, I am talking about the beginning days of diving. By the 1970s BCs were already well established. Divers did not need to modify a WW2 life vest.

Did they exist, sure. Were they used by many divers, no.... When I was certified by Great Lakes Divers ( Buffalo) in 1972, there may have been a bc or horse collar in the shop, but NO One in the class of ten students, used a BC...I did not see a bc on an actual diver until 1976 when I went on a January Term project at New England college, to study the marine geology of Bucco Reef, Tobago.

Here, I did see a couple of people with Horse collars, but the head professor of the trip, a Phd in Marine Geology, Taylor Loop, would say that "anyone that needs a BC deserves to drown" He was also an ex-Navy diver....When he said stuff like this, he was half kidding....but this was an underlying theme, that real divers had no need for BC's, especiALLY in tropical waters like this, where few divers would consider even wearing a wetsuit.
Also in 1972, when I was buying my gear, along with the sight of the BC I would have not considered buying, there was also a double hose regulator....that I wanted to buy from my years watching Sea Hunt....but the Owner of the shop talked me out of it--he said that the single hose regulators were better...I ended up with a US divers Conshelf. I so wish I had gotten the double hose set up !!!

 

[ams511]

4. deluxe harness (she has a build that truly needs the "pivot points" to fit her properly - another valuable score, and only $50)

I remember a post where someone mentioned (I think TS&M) that she had problems with a one-piece harness fitting properly. The solution was to cross the straps over the shoulder. Some women find chest straps uncomfortable because it rubs against the "girls". You could have probably went with a 1" crotch strap also.

 

[rhwestfall]

She is too short to take up any more space with crossing straps... actually, the "hinge points" of the "deluxe" harness were a key functioning element.... It necessitates a chest strap, but she expects one from her experiences with a jacket BC. This really does work, and for some builds, should not be ruled out. BTW - they cost nearly the same as a regular simple harness... I do not mean the ones with all the quick release buckles.

---------- Post added February 24th, 2015 at 08:36 AM ----------

Great Lakes Divers ( Buffalo)

 

[ams511]

In the late 90's when many very poor swimmers with little athleticism were added to the scuba diver gene pool, the concept of the elevator and Raft on the surface, became what it is today

We are getting a bit off track. I was questioning the fact that a BC is not for surface flotation. US Divers has in their 1958 catalog a primitive horsecollar BC called an "Aqua-Safe" which provided surface flotation. I don't have my old diving books with me but I am pretty sure they do mention surface flotation as one of the purposes of a BC.

As far as the accident involving the Chinese tourist, as with most diving accidents there is much speculation and little facts. All that is known for sure is that she was found with her weight belt on. So even weight belts are not fool-proof. If her BC was weight-integrated then maybe she would be alive today.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

I can tell you that when I was diving in the 70's, the move to using a BC/horsecollar, whatever, was typically about being able to deal with a bouyant suit and the weight changes....and while I did not like adding the drag of these stupid BC's to my nice slick steel 72 and harness....when the boats began mandating BC's in the 80's, and the norm was Oral Inflation, sometimes with a CO2 cartridge for an INFLATION EMERGENCY, the common use was just to compensate for the wetsuit....and everyone just did this by blowing in to the inflator when they got to the bottom--and dumping as we went up. Typically the CO2's were never used, and often would be so rusty they would not have worked anyway.

 

[AdivingBel]

I remember a post where someone mentioned (I think TS&M) that she had problems with a one-piece harness fitting properly. The solution was to cross the straps over the shoulder. Some women find chest straps uncomfortable because it rubs against the "girls". You could have probably went with a 1" crotch strap also.

For my wife, I rigged a Zeagle saddle strap in place of the crotch strap. Made her a happy camper.

 

[boulderjohn]

Cave Adventurers in Mariana, FL offers a replacement for crotch straps that splits below the scooter ring and goes to either side of the BCD in the back. It solves an obvious comfort issue for those being pulled by a scooter attached to the crotch strap D-ring.

 

[rhwestfall]

For my wife, I rigged a Zeagle saddle strap in place of the crotch strap. Made her a happy camper.

I now have a DIY project to undertake... looks like about $10 to make at best, and be specifically made for her rig...

---------- Post added February 24th, 2015 at 09:48 AM ----------

Cave Adventurers in Mariana, FL offers a replacement for crotch straps that splits below the scooter ring and goes to either side of the BCD in the back. It solves an obvious comfort issue for those being pulled by a scooter attached to the crotch strap D-ring.

link? Looked, and don't see it....