help with four choices for travel bcd

[ASA400]

Hi guys!

I'm traveling off to Hawaii this year and Cozumel (and possibly Fiji) next year. i'm getting ready for the Hawaii trip in a couple of months and weighed my bcd (Scubapro Equator) and found it weighs a whopping 9 lbs! So, I'm in the market for a tropical weight bcd. Looking online, I've come up with four possibilities. They are, in no particular order:

Scubapro Litehawk at 5.2 lbs
Zeagle Express Tech at "less than 5 lbs"
TUSA BCJ 1800 Voyager Travel at 4.4 lbs
Hollis Ride Wing Travel at 5.5 lbs.

Now I realize that whatever I get will be a bit heavier since these are all mediums and I will most likely need an XL. Price wise, the Zeagle beats the competition at $261 with the others all around 350-400. Both the Zeagle and Hollis have replaceable bladders.

Any thoughts?

 

[diverzach]

I have the express tech. Don't have any experience with the others. Imo, the ET would be very easy to travel with.

 

[DevonDiver]

In my mind there are 2 types of BCD that allege to be "travel" worthy:

1) Cleverly designed minimalist BCDs, that provide what you need, but nothing superfluous, without sacrificing durability.

2) Regular BCDs, with little design innovation, that simply replace rugged materials with flimsy ones.


The Tusa is definitely in category 2. So are the Scubabpro and Hollis, to a lesser degree.

The Express Tech Travel is much closer to category 1. From your list, that'd be my choice.

However, my preference is the Oxycheq MachV 17lb with Ultra-Lite travel plate. Very, very rugged... very functional... modular and you can easily dissassemble it for travel. Packs to nothing and weighs substantially less than 5lbs. Swap the 'Ultra-Lite' plate for a nice SS or Ali plate when you diving at home...and you've got a full-blown, sturdy BP&W.