Don Janni:
You may have said it nicely but your own personal bias' is showing.
If your intent was to properly advice the less experienced diver, as you said it was, why didn't you tell the full story with some words like these:
"I'm a technical diver diving mostly in very cold water and usually in a dry suit. I take pride in my 330' deep dive and in my longest of 3 hours. For those reasons I almost always dive with twin tanks and stage bottles. I've found the best BC for the conditions in which I dive and the exposure protection I wear to be a BP/Wing. A BP/Wing is my High-End BC and now you know why."
Hi Don Janni, and thank you for balancing the table here.
You are absolutely correct that I do technical diving which requires this sort of gear and I will concede that I receive some benefits from using the same setup for recreational diving as I do for technical diving.
Let's look at why this gear is better for technical diving and compare it to the requirements of recreational diving:
For technical diving I need something that:
1. That is reliable so I don't have to worry about something breaking in a bad spot.
2. Is easy to operate so I don't have to worry about grabbing the wrong controls in an emergency.
3. That can support the weight that I need to carry.
4. That is reasonably standardized so I don't make mistakes trying to help my buddy in an emergency.
For recreational diving:
1. Reliable, check
2. Easy to operate, check
3. Weight - not so much of an issue
4. Standardized - check
5. Comfort - I may be wearing a lot exposure protection which means I'll feel the BCD more.
6. Ease of setup - I'll be doing more dives so easy tank switches are important.
I find the bp/w to be perfectly comfortable over a 3mm suit, and acceptably comfortable over a T shirt. I find the bp/w to be better for tank changes due to its rigidity (compared to my Ranger).
I truly believe that many of the fancy bcd setups are a disservice to the wearer. I understand that a company has to differentiate themselves from the competition but I think a lot of the bells and whistles don't really help and may hinder.
Some of the features I've seen on fancy BCD's that I don't care for:
1. Regulator integration
2. Large numbers of dump valves
3. Low quality integrated octopuses (a high quality integrated octo is ok)
4. Fancy tank retention systems
5. Excessive buckles, zippers, etc such that the diver has to fumble around to find the one they want
6. Fabric in bad locations such that a dry suit inflator valve is under the material of the BCD and the hose cannot be quickly disconnected if the valve gets stuck
In closing, there are a lot of gear choices available. One good rule of thumb is to check out what the dive professionals in your area are diving and to talk to them about their likes/dislikes. I like this approach because it gives you the benefit of their experience in the local dive conditions.
I've expressed my opinion about what I think works best for my environment. Lake Tahoe is on the colder side so we're in heavy wetsuits or drysuits. We've had issues with some makes of weight integrated recreational BCD's not having the capacity to hold enough lead to sink a person given the amount of neoprene they end up wearing (a weight belt solves this problem). In the tropics I wouldn't expect to see as many DUI weight & trim systems because divers wear lighter suits and don't need as much lead.
I went to Cozumel this spring with my bp/w and was pretty happy with it. There was another couple on the boat diving bp/w's as well, bringing the ratio to 25%.
EDIT: Spelling Correction
