Need Advice: Best Value Travel BPW

[Alekseolsen]

Great point -- I have already setup my notifications for "German Craigslist" -- but so far, the market is moving very slowly.

Do keep looking as well, most good purchases I've made have been from people seemingly not sure what they're selling - so sales description not the best

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

Get a basic wing, XDeep Zeos is great. You can swap aluminium backplate for a steel one when you start diving cold water. You will trash the wing anyway if you dive it a lot. If you plan to dive doubles, you keep the backplate and swap the wing.

You could also look into OMS or Tecline if you are based in Europe.

If you need pockets, get Apeks Tec shorts or something similar. Skip any comfort harness, special pockets on the harness and so on - you will throw it away quite quickly.

If you want to attach weights, use trim pockets around cylinder cam bands and maybe a weight belt with remaining 1-2 kg if diving wetsuit with no other source of buoyancy.

“Travel” stuff is usually just marketing. You might end up carrying your regs, torches, spares, fins, suit (even drysuit) on trips soon, saving 0.2kg on some “travel” kit won’t help

 

[CanadaDan]

I travel with my ZEN (steel) without issue. It's not carry-on sized but it fits well in my checked baggage. Actually travel with three of them with my kids' gear (another steel and one aluminium). I use mine in the Caribbean and caverns with my 3mm & 5mm wetsuits and at home in cold water in my drysuit.

I do wish I had bought the AL plates all around... even though my daughter and I would have to wear a little more lead it would save a couple of kilo's per plate for other gear/clothes in the suitcase.

 

[lexvil]

Thank you! What makes you lean towards to Hydros pro?

It’s simple and complete so you don’t have to agonize over all of these options.

You’ll have plenty of time to get into a backplate later if you still feel the need to get into dogma diving (DIR) for just dive when you can and piece together a backplate later.

 

[Nemrod]

Just build a hogarthian style wing and plate. These discussions get over complicated. Three D-rings, two cam bands, a buckle and a few feet of medium stiffness webbing. And if you want weight integration and trim, a few additional weight pockets, a departure from minimalism I am okay with for my purpose. When does one thing, a weight belt, become more complicated than other things, weight integration pockets.

Hogarthian

The Hogarthian harness, sometimes called the 'DIR' harness, is a version of the continuous webbing harness with some specific refinements for a minimalist approach to dive gear configuration.

www.divegearexpress.com

Hollis ST Travel System, 208.8001.022 - Harness, Backplate and Wing - Scubatoys.com

Hollis ST Travel System, 208.8001.022

www.scubatoys.com

I intrinsically dislike the use of a bent doubles plate for single tank use. I use either a flat metal plate or the Oxy soft plate. I like the Oxy rig a lot and use it most of the time. It is a warm water intended rig, take that into account.

Cave Adventurers - Cave Adventurers Harness, OxyCheq Wing and Ultra Lite Plate - Marianna, Florida USA - Never Undersold!

Cave Adventurers Harness, OxyCheq Wing and Ultra Lite Plate

www.caveadventurers.com

Think you may adventure into Dogma Diving and if so that will entail specific equipment and arrangements and most likely a doubles rig. You will need two rigs.

The Hydros is not compliant with hogarthian minimalist concepts.

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

It’s simple and complete so you don’t have to agonize over all of these options.

You’ll have plenty of time to get into a backplate later if you still feel the need to get into dogma diving (DIR) for just dive when you can and piece together a backplate later.

I wouldn’t call Hydros simple. You have 3 dump valves to check, clean and service as opposed to a single kidney dump on a normal wing - major risk of a buoyancy loss if one fails. Inflator is some custom design instead of a standard K-style power inflator - where can I get tools to service it or replace an o-ring? Obviously the ditchable weight pockets are a good way to embolize yourself on any marginally deeper dive. Harness is non-standard, probably not easy to replace and OMG the plastic buckles. Also the harness is not fixed in place so you need to adjust it before each dive? Tank is attached only with a strap and a single camband, compared to a standard and more secure attachment with two cambands on any regular BP/W setup. Backplate seems to be made out of plastic??

You asked for DIR dogma, I’m delivering .

On a serious note, I would either buy the cheapest, possibly used recreational jacket BCD you can find or a proper backplate and wing with no gimmicks. Anything in-between will include a compromise.

 

[Nemrod]

Look at what you minimally need to make a scuba rig. Boil it down to that essence, the least amount of things with the least number of straps, connections, buckles and carry that thought throughout your gear selction and rigging. No extra swivels, no more or less amount of hose length than needed, no pieces that do not perform a required function for your dive.

The Hydros is just too much. Too much money, too many dongles (I hate dongles and cut them off), too many straps and plastic buckles and with all that, I think it only has a single cam band!

I prefer weight integration for tropical diving where exposure protection is none or minimal and loss of a weight or loss of buoyancy has little effect except for inconvenience. Moving into temperate waters with full suits of 5mm and multiple layers of neoprene, weight integration makes less sense and the weight belt plus trim pockets is probably a better choice for most.

 

[lexvil]

I wouldn’t call Hydros simple. You have 3 dump valves to check, clean and service as opposed to a single kidney dump on a normal wing - major risk of a buoyancy loss if one fails. Inflator is some custom design instead of a standard K-style power inflator - where can I get tools to service it or replace an o-ring? Obviously the ditchable weight pockets are a good way to embolize yourself on any marginally deeper dive. Harness is non-standard, probably not easy to replace and OMG the plastic buckles. Also the harness is not fixed in place so you need to adjust it before each dive? Tank is attached only with a strap and a single camband, compared to a standard and more secure attachment with two cambands on any regular BP/W setup. Backplate seems to be made out of plastic??

You asked for DIR dogma, I’m delivering .

On a serious note, I would either buy the cheapest, possibly used recreational jacket BCD you can find or a proper backplate and wing with no gimmicks. Anything in-between will include a compromise.

If you’re scared don’t use one every negative is a positive for a new diver, although a agree there are way to many dumps for my taste I don’t use any of them, with a zip tie the inflator can be anything you want. It can be easily adjusted even during a dive, scubapro cam bands are excellent and don’t slip.

For a ready to use b/c the hydros is excellent, like all commercial b/c’s it’s complete and ready to dive and the hydros is not floaty.

Buy it used

If OP continues diving he can easily get into a generic bp/w for about the same money as he can sell the Hydros for (if bought used)

If one has a tolerance for the learning curve associated starting with a BP/W is a good idea, but the Hydros travels well and packs easier than a BP