Is mixing different brands okay to do?

[halocline]

My first set of Jets costed me $66.

I recently got my first pair of jets, and they were free! They are really good fins.

 

[Bob DBF]

I look like a total garage sale diver.

Na, you just look like someone that has been diving the North Coast for years. As for home made gear, that backplate of yours has been working well for me for years now, I plan on handing it down to my daughter when I get more old and decrepit.

I get what works for me where I dive and how I dive, if it doesn't wear out I keep using it. As the phrase goes, "Something old, something new...

If someone can match all their gear and have it work for them, more power to them. It just has not worked that way for me and the divers I know.


Bob

 

[Johanan]

Scuba Nat, you have received many insightful replies which I didn't manage to read in entirety. I'm sure, it was mentioned that SP MK25/700 is a great flow-through piston, and that a sealed diaphragm would be prefferable for diving in cold or contaminated waters. Something like the British made Apeks XTX100 or 50. Perhaps it was also pointed out that Luna costs the same as a Shearwater Perdix which is arguably the best computer on the market with a proverbial customer service. I just wanted to add, that I don't quite agree with you about the backplate and wing setting as uncomfortable. A Deep Sea Supply rig is very easy to assemble and to take apart, and it is soooo much easier to rinse, dry and store that I don't want even look back at my jacket BCD. If I tried, I could pack it in a briefcase. Enjoy your diving!

 

[divad]

Their gear is also all handmade and assembled in italy.

You've obviously never owned a Fiat.

 

[divad]

Biting my tongue....out of deference to the OP, we should start our own crapilly-made-itallian-cars thread somewhere else.

 

[kelemvor]

My how times change when everybody has fixed trim weights and the wing is the darling of the diving world you would think though the only person using one that I ever see is me. I did not see a single wing/BP other than mine in my recent Florida trip, not a one anywhere.

To be fair, I think it's mainly just scubaboard users, tech divers, and DIR divers that hold BP/W in darling status. The vast majority of divers have probably never even heard of one.

 

[redacted]

I suspect that if you looked more carefully at the variables, it is only divers who have tried a bp/w who prefer a bp/w.

 

[cburgert]

I'm a Scubapro only person and I've bought from leisurepro.com. Now I prefer buying from the local shops. Nothing beats going to a shop and checking all your options before you buy.

 

[uncfnp]

Too bad the original poster has not participated in her thread since the second post. Would be interesting to hear her thoughts after all the advice.

 

[Nemrod]

To be fair, I think it's mainly just scubaboard users, tech divers, and DIR divers that hold BP/W in darling status. The vast majority of divers have probably never even heard of one.

I suspect that if you looked more carefully at the variables, it is only divers who have tried a bp/w who prefer a bp/w.

I have no real reference point to say. I have used a BC jacket/vest exactly once, all my diving life has either been no BC, a horsecollar BC or a wing type BC. Okay, maybe I put on a Stab Jacket when I worked for the shop back when they first came out and I think I recall telling the owner and (then) my mentor that it felt like I was wearing a potato sack and excuse me boss but no thanks.

But, the one jacket/vest I did use, a SP Equator, it had pockets, it positioned me horizontal, it floated my head high and required no effort on the surface to stay that way and it fit close to my body. I liked it enough to buy one.

N