My first back inflate/zeagle dive

[iflyprops]

Well...saturday I dove my brand new zeagle escape, it was also my first dive diving a b.i. bc. It went very well! I dove Blue Spring here in Florida with a 3mm farmer john, alum 80, and 14 pounds of lead. I put six in the rear trim pockets, (which may have been overkill) and I didn't notice any face planting sensation! I think I dove with a little too much weight but I am glad I did as the flow from spring is very noticable. In fact I was sitting at 60ft blowing air donuts to the surface when my buddy got caught by the swirling upward current and I had to grab his fin and pull him back down! Dive went great except my depth gauge died...but that's another story! I am very happy so far with my Zeagle Escape, thanks everyone for your input and help!

Adam

 

[UCFDiver85]

Man, you're dive buddy sounds like an idiot

What's up Adam?? It's "the dive buddy". Let's go divin again! See ya around.

 

[iflyprops]

lol....

that was my dive buddy!

 

[fgray1]

I only use rear inflate. It acuualy makes the dive easier. Freedom of movement under the water and a great back rest at the surface. If you fully inflate the BCD you can lean back and you have a head rest It's like sitting in a recliner.

 

[Sean326]

Yea I just dove my Ranger LTD last weekend for the first time, I'll never go back. Partially inflated it gives you a comfortable vertical surface position fully inflated it's a horizontal raft you can lay back on while waiting for your buddies.

 

[dragonclaw19]

I just got certified lat wekk. I am not an expert on the topic of BC's but I was using in class the Oceanic and found that to be an adequate piece of equipment. Well I bought the Zeagle Ranger BC because my instructor swears by it and I have heard others who love it. My take on it is that it has some problems. One of the problems is that when you descend it tends to want to make you roll either over or under. The other most troublesome rpoblem I encountered was the fact that the BC is not great at letting aire out I have numerous times ended up comiong up from a dive not being able to realease the air in the BC properly. The other things about this BC are great but there must be some real solution to this problem of letting the air out properly. Anyinformation on this would be appreciated!!! Thanks!!!

 

[fgray1]

In my experiance most times its the driver thinking hes in the right position when they are not. Air rises to the highest point in the BCD. You have to make sure if your head down you release the air from the bottom of the BCD. If your heads either raise the inflater hose and press the release button or simply pull down on the inflater hose to release the air. I've watched someone with there head down try to release from the inflater hose and couldn't figure out why the air would come out. I went to her and had to put her hand on the lower release. She forgot it was there.

 

[mwilding]

I just dove my Zeagle Ranger (picked it up used) for the first time this weekend. I had a lot of trim issues, but I was dealing with a crappy rental weight belt and a heavy HP Steel 120 tank. I got it pretty well sorted out by Sunday and aside from that resolved issue, I was VERY happy with the BC.

I am still thinking about going for a BP/Wings rig though...

 

[jfarmer31]

I just started diving this summer and my first purchase was the Escape BC. So far I am very happy with the ability to trim my weight on front and rear. My DM says that I have the bouyancy control of someone that has been diving for several years. To me that's a real compliment. I attribute some of this to the ease of weighting my BC.

 

[Sean326]

mwilding once bubbled...
I just dove my Zeagle Ranger (picked it up used) for the first time this weekend. I had a lot of trim issues, but I was dealing with a crappy rental weight belt

Yeah thats right you will have trim issues with a weight belt and a ranger... It's designed to be weight integrated and worn very low on the hips. both the web page and the owners manual spend a lot of space describing the correct center of gravity.
The first time I dove a zeagle I used a belt as well. My instructor showed me the err of my ways and it makes a big difference as as far as performance.