Name that bc

[Rapid Rat]

Post 5! Hi all. I’m looking for a tank backpack like strap that has no air for buoyancy. I’m not diving to great depths, maybe 15 to 25’ depth for the work in the river. What is the proper name for these? 5

 

[Endler's]

Plastic Heavy Duty Style Backplate w/ Harness

Plastic Traditional Style Backplate

 

[lowwall]

Commercial Diving Harnesses and Backpacks

American Diving Supply offers a variety of Commercial Diving Harnesses and Backpacks. We are authorized dealer of Miller Diving & Atlantic Diving Equipment

www.americandivingsupply.com

 

[lexvil]

Why do you feel that you wouldn’t want some buoyancy on this river dive? From your other posts it feels like you may be rushing toward an accident.

 

[lowwall]

Why do you feel that you wouldn’t want some buoyancy on this river dive? From your other posts it feels like you may be rushing toward an accident.

Good heads up.

@Rapid Rat

I just looked through your previous posts and I'm not sure what you are planning on doing with this. If you tell us more about your situation, we can provide better responses.

For example, as lexvil noted, you would normally want some source of buoyancy on scuba, especially if you are weighted enough to do treasure hunting at the bottom of a river. There's a poster here @calabash digger who dives blackwater rivers for bottles and relics. He uses a lot of weight to stay down in the current which requires a big wing to get him back to neutral to ascend.

You probably don't need something that extreme and if you are worried about bulk or entanglement, there are very streamlined backplate and wing systems that basically disappear when diving.

Speaking of posters who dive rivers, maybe @John C. Ratliff can chime in once you post some more info. I don't think he picks up anything other than trash from the bottom, but he has thousands of river and other dives over the last 50+ years and is very familiar with appropriate gear options. He actually designed and built his own harness system.

Here's calabash digger explaining his setup

 

[John C. Ratliff]

@lowwall

I dive differently than most every other diver who dives rivers. I dive neutrally buoyant. I use the bottom rocks to stay in place, not weight at all. Much of my diving is in high river currents. I dive both single hose and double hose regulators (which I collect). I use my own, patented (it's now expired) Para-Sea BCD with my own style of a harness. It is a 4-point harness, which I think is much better than any commercial system now in existence.

@Rapid Rat I use these kinds of setups for diving rivers, and they work well. As opposed to many divers today, I maximize streamlining so that the current cannot gain more of a "hold" on me. So if someone like @lexvil says you are headed for an accident, that probably is not really happening. Watermanship and streamlining are what I try to maximize. Buoyancy can always be attained by dropping a weight belt.

Rather than explain it further, I'll let you watch my video, "Lampreys Spawning," which I shot in 2017. It shows my equipment and diving style much better than I could explain it. It was made not for divers to watch, as it is fairly long, but rather to document the biological aspects of spawning lampreys for researchers and aquatic scientists. Here it is:


SeaRat

 

[Rapid Rat]

Thank you both. I was tired when i posted. I dive the rivers for things the tourists lose and to pick their trash. I like to be a little heavy whereas I can fin and use my hands to crawl. In deeper water I have a carabiner attached to a rope where I float an inner tube that is also fitted with a mesh net to place things in. I tore apart an old bc and a back pack and it looks like hell and is falling apart. This season my goal is to get a lighter tank, a better harness and possibly a Fischer CZ 21 Metal detector to replace my Garrett. I am tough on my equipment as I dig behind boulders in rapids And don’t use a tank as that would be too much drag