f&rdiver241:
I am new to diving and I am in the process of helping establish a search and recovery team with the fire department I work for. The question I was wanting to ask is this, if money was not a factor and you wear diving murky water in the 50 80 degree temp range, what reg and bc would you buy. We are looking at the scubapro mk25/x650 reg and either the knighthawk or rec tec bc. Any input will be greatly appreciated
The shop I work with has provided equipment to several dive rescue squads. For the most part they go with the Mk 2 or Mk 16 rather than the Mk 25.
As indicated above most of the diving is shallow and in potentially dirty environments and a great deal of performance is not really required. In this area at least, a Mk 25 is normally a waste as most of the members on most of the rescue squads are out of their element on deep dives and are not well trained or equipped to deal with deep water recoveries.
Dive rescue squads also tend to use full face masks to enable the use of comm equipment and the increased flow rates associated with full face masks really aggravate the MK 25's freeflow tendencies in cold water.
The Mk 2 scores points for having 1 moving part, only 2 HP o-rings (both of them static), and no high pressure areas past the seat so there is very little to go wrong. They are super simple, will stand up well to the abuse most dive teams dish out and are great regs in cold water. The TIS kit is inadequate for the Mk 25 but works very well on the Mk 2 due to it's lower flow rate. Divers in this area use them routinely ice diving with zero problems with freezeups.
The Mk 16 socres points for better performance and for a balanced design that makes for a lighter breathing second stage through out the dive. It is a diaphragm design and while the ambient area is not sealed it is very open which provides excellent heat transfer and makes it virtually impossible to trap dirt, water etc. The Mk 16 is also a excellent cold water reg.
The S-tek makes more sense than the Knighthawk. The S-tek is basically a copy of the original Dive Rite Transpac and offers the advantage of interchageble aircells and a cleaner and more technically oriented approach. SP used to sell an X-tec harness that incorporated a real live backplate but discontinued it.
I would agree that if possible a backplate and wing makes the most sense. But if you are using a local dealer and SP is the only way to go, I'd go with the S-tec harness.
rescuediver009:
I would agree that you should stick with Scubapro because of your location and serviceability. Don't be phased by people that try to coax you into their reg, because it will always be the best in their opinion. Otherwise they wouldn't have got it right?
Scubapro used to be the "golden boy" with the GUE crowd but there was some political bickering that occured with the result that Apeks is now the "chosen one".
In truth both companies make great regs and both will do the job very well, but Apeks fans don't usually present it that way. I agree that in the end you will be far better off getting a reg that you can get support and service for locally.
