Freedom Plate's Cousin

[Eric Sedletzky]

Me too. One thing that is really interesting is the stainless doubles band they used. A modern design would be much better than our bands now. They could very precisely control the center-center distance of cylinders making the need for adjustable width isolation manifolds unnecessary. In fact, that might be an interesting product for Eric. I still have one if he wants to see it.

Wow! To try and penetrate the minds of the “established” doctrine of the church of the conventional doubles plate might be harder to accomplish than relocating the Empire State building to the moon!
I remember my times of being accused of heresy and coming just short of recieving death threats over such an idea.
You’re from a time before the indoctrination, you have the knowledge of history on your side, and as such have the mental freedom and unrestricted vision to think of ways to make your Freedom Plate very usable for doubles.
I have to battle a generation that thinks they invented “true” diving, and everything prior is nothing more than sentimental drivel.

 

[Akimbo]

Wow! To try and penetrate the minds of the “established” doctrine of the church of the conventional doubles plate might be harder to accomplish than relocating the Empire State building to the moon!

(general observation, not debating)
I'm getting the sense that some of that hysteria is starting to subside; I hope so anyway. In any case, those with a very narrow view of the world are already ignoring heretics like us anyway.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

(general observation, not debating)
I'm getting the sense that some of that hysteria is starting to subside; I hope so anyway. In any case, those with a very narrow view of the world are already ignoring heretics like us anyway.

It’s possible that the acute stage has passed.
I also think it’s regional. Look at my avatar pic, this pretty much describes what I’m into. I’m about as polar opposite to the “put all weight on your rig” or “balanced rig”, or “hang like a skydiver in “perfect trim””, or modified frog kicks, heli turns, back up, etc.
I don’t need to explain our environment to you, you know. They wouldn’t last 5 seconds where we dive and be able to hold any sort of picture perfect pose, especially around some rocks with a moderate swell and a good surge running.
However, this mentality is what seems to dominate scubaboard. I’m sure it’s limited to SB though and not the real world (or my world) as I see nothing remotely close to anything like it when I’m actually out diving at one of my favorite sites.

So the way this relates to my plate is that I design and build something that works very well as it is for where I dive, and my general layed back carefree California style of diving. Then what happens is a doctrine of an entirely different geographical place and mindset, who incidentally dominates the online venue that I use, tries to impose what they believe to be the “correct” way for me to design and set up a plate.

This is the age of the internet.
The question is, do I stick to my beliefs, or do I accommodate?
Is it time for me to return to a simpler time of regionalism?

 

[Akimbo]

This is the age of the internet.
The question is, do I stick to my beliefs, or do I accommodate?
Is it time for me to return to a simpler time of regionalism?

One of the big differences now is you have a significant group of Freedom Plate evangelists to share your communications challenge. The best advertising in the world is a satisfied group of customers. I wouldn't call it regionalism since your customer base is geographically fairly diverse. I would say it is time to ignore the noise and just worry about the the growing group of divers that appreciate your products.

 

[Couv]

ignore the noise and just worry about the the growing group of divers that appreciate your products.

Well said.

 

[BenjaminF]

Sorry for the impolite question, but when should these new backplates finish their testing phase and move onto the production phase?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Sorry for the impolite question, but when should these new backplates finish their testing phase and move onto the production phase?

I’ll do some diving with it, actually quite a bit of diving. After a time, the bugs begin to show themselves after the initial love affair wears off. Then make adjustments if necessary, and look for a water jet cutter that is willing to do runs of quantity and doesn’t insist on retiring on each and every unit (I do want to make something). After that I’d day a few weeks to get some units hammered out.
I’ll say four to six months if everything goes right.

 

[Fish&beer]

?Believe it or not?
I actually replicated the sister plate to that one (Aqualung) for a friend by taking his old broken plastic one, glueing the pieces together with crazy glue and making a perfect mold from the original pack and making an identical plate out of fiberglass.

Here is the fiberglass plate that Eric made for me to replace my old broken USD Kam EZ Pac. So far it has held up great as it is more robust than the original. It is one of my favorite plates when I dive vintage minimalist gear.

 

[REVAN]

I made a custom design fiberglass back-plate. I used an aluminum Daycor back-plate from the '70s (that looks identical to the fiberglass one shown in the post above) and a modern plastic SeaTec unit as models. I took the features that I liked best from each, and I made a few custom changes as well. One big change was I extended the length slightly, and added a lumbar swell for better tank support when out of the water. It works great!

Bottom line, fiberglass is an excellent material for a back-plate (if you can afford it).

 

[Akimbo]

lumbar swell for better tank support when out of the water.

"Lumbar swell" is a great term. It is amazing how much weight can be transferred to you hips when you get the right fit. You can never do that with regular doubles backplates.