MichigandiverJon
Contributor
I agree. When I went to a BPW I was completely on my own as far as fit and adjustments go. I had to research it and learn by trial and error. I am reasonably happy with my results....enough that I'm never going back but i know i have room for improvement. Finally after two years I found a different shop with a Tech instructor and have a class scheduled for this spring to help get the most out of my kit. But its 2 hours away, so I have to make it a 3 day trip to cover the class time.I think a major obstacle (that has so far prevented the bp/wing from a rapid increase in market share with the jacket styles), is that MOST Dive Shops do NOT have divers on staff that could effectively HELP customers in getting custom fit/configured to the bp/wing. As long as they are ignorant of the optimal configuration strategies, they will be afraid to put these in store inventories ( as they rightly should be). Some "could" hire some tech guys that are used to bp/wings, but even here, many divers that use bp/wings are NOT good at adjusting these systems for other people, and were challenged just to get their own system tweaked well.
Better would be having bp/wing manufacturers do a "Clinic" that teaches how to configure the bp/wing and how to do hose routing ( using canisters, or pockets, or whatever--or shorter primary hoses). the clinic SHOULD involve a GUE fundamentals level clinic on finding the correct configuration for proper trim--but this really requires a swimming pool. This IS what the shop needs to be GREAT at fitting their customers, but will not be possible for many shops. Since the jacket style BC gets to a level of sloppy mediocre trim quite easily, compared to what can be almost non-functional with the bp/wing given no a priori knowledge, a majority of Dive shops will continue to resist moving toward the bp/wing, and they will continue to PROPAGANDIZE against the Bp/wing as offering no real benefits to their customers...."to be only for tech or cave, etc."