Made the leap and ordered my BP and harness.

[NorthWoodsDiver]

I'm sure most of you read my recent posts asking about back plates, harnesses, hardware, and wings. I made the jump today and ordered 2 9lb stainless plates from FredT and 1 heavy STA from him as well then I went to reefscuba.com to order all th webbing and hardware I needed. spent about $510 (shipping included) on everything which includes some extra boltsnaps, webbing, bungee, D-rings, stage bands, and the like. So I figure about $450 for 2 plates and harnesses and STA, Thats not bad at all when I was gonna buy everything from dive right or oms, I saved a couple hundred dollars and all I didn't get was a brand name and some stickers.

I'm sure someone is gonna ask why I got 9lb plates so I figured I would add a bit and explain. You see I dive in cold water with heavy exposure protection on and right now I carry a lot of lead with me to compinsate so I figured a heavy plate would both be heavy duty(er) and help with trim much better than lots of weight on my hips. sure its more weight to lug around in a way and travel with the heavy plates would be difficult but I never travel so I dont see it as an issue.

 

[annasea]

Congrats! What wing(s) are you planning on using?

 

[DutchDown]

I made the jump today and ordered 2 9lb stainless wings from FredT

Stainless wings! I want some too! Sorry...couldn't resist.

Phil

 

[bolantej]

I feel your need for extra plate weight. Congrats dude. These things fit like nothing else.

 

[David P]

I figured a heavy plate would both be heavy duty(er)...

yeah I hate it when those cheapy 5 or 6 lb back plates wear out after a few dives!

Thats cool I seriously considered buying some gear from Fred. The question i gotta ask is why two? Not that I dont have a spare back plate, wing, tanks
, regs, fins, or anything...

 

[RiverRat]

Awesome! I ordered Fred's 9# plate and STA's right out of AOW about 4 years ago. Then I ended up getting an Aluminum plate from him, spring straps, P-weights and other goodies. Not only does he make high quality gear he really went above and beyond answering all my newbie questions and helped me dial in my rig rather quickly.
Great to see he's back in business and helping divers.

 

[tatonkadive]

oh no! geez was that a mistake!



...just kidding! glad you pulled the trigger! looking forward to hearing how much you enjoy them.

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

Thats cool I seriously considered buying some gear from Fred. The question i gotta ask is why two? Not that I dont have a spare back plate, wing, tanks
, regs, fins, or anything...

Well I dive alot (not in comparison to some people though) and I dont like dealing with switching hoses, wings, and other crap around so say in the morning I want to do a deep dive on doubles I can and than I can just suit up with the singles setup for a afternoon dive instead of switching wings over and reconfiguring hoses ya know.

Also if I want to do a dive with other people I can give them a plate to use so they dont need to deal with a BCD :14: nothing stupider looking than a person with a bp/w setup standing next to a guy wearing a dacor BCD