Thanks guys for the replies.
As far as how often I will be diving, I don't know, I suppose that will vary each year, but so far this year I have plans to go to Belize, Honduras, Hawaii, and Curaco. All in all probably 40 dives this year?
I'd dare say that sort of dive vacation would warrant having your own gears. That way you can get your gears dialed in and don't have to readjust because each shop rents different gears.
What is different about a BCD that has a backplate? Is it only the Transpac by Diverite and Halcyon that have it? or is the backplate something that can be added to all BCD's?
A hard backplate is primarily handy for double-tank mount because it provides for a solid base. However, single tank divers also benefit in several ways:
1. More weight on your body and less on your weight belt/weight pouches - this helps distribute the weight more evenly across your back, and aids in getting you good trim (horizontal body position instead of head up or legs up).
2. Freedom of movement - no jacket or vest to wrap around your body. You have shoulder harness and waist belt that will fit any body style. You also have a crotch strap that keeps the rig from rising up when you're in a vertical position. The whole rig conforms to your body and doesn't wiggle around as much as a jacket style BC.
3. Modularity - you can switch the harnesses out for different types of harnesses. If you want quick adjustable harness, you can put it on. If you want a Hogarthian harness (fixed length, pre-adjusted single piece of webbing), no problem. If you want harness with paddings, no problem. You need a small wing for warm water diving? No problem. Big wing for double-tanks diving or harvesting games/doodads? No problem. You want pouches on your belt? Sure. Don't want pouches at all? Sure. Weight integrated or separate weight belt? Whatever floats your boat.
One plate does it all and the rest are accessories to be fitted and used as needed.
Lots of people make backplates. I just happen to like Dive Rite products (Dive Rite hard plates and Dive Rite Transpac which is a soft plate) but let's make a quick count of BPW manufacturers (I might even miss some): Dive Rite, Halcyon, OMS, Hollis, Apeks, Freedom Plate, Deep Sea Supply, Oxycheq, IST, Golem Gear. I'm sure that I probably missed at least one or two other smaller and lesser known manufacturers. Some manufacturers allow for a soft plate that can be added with a backplate.
It seems most of the shops by me are big on sherwood and scubapro, so for these other brands, where do you guys recommend I buy them from (online?) ?
Most people get into scuba for once-a-year fun. They don't mind buying gears but most of their gears are not going to be expensive, top-of-the-line gears. Thusly, the shop must stock with they can sell instead of what they want to sell. You can buy these backplate/wing BCs online or you can search for a local shop that sells it.
I've been interested in Atomic after reading about them, can anyone give me more information on the T2x? Is it worth the price? Also I've heard that the Scubapro S600 is a good regulator how does that stack up against the T2x?
The T2X is a very fancy regulator. It's extremely light because of the titanium first stage. You gotta ask yourself if the cost is worth the weight saving. I'm told that the S600 is a great regulator. I just happen to like Atomic Aquatics because they are extremely well engineered and well built, not to mention that they are a specialty shop and not an industry giant. You can call them and get a human being to answer the phone, and this human being (Darcy) is pretty much an expert on all of their gears and not just their regulators. If she doesn't know, then the customer service people will know. You don't see too many scuba manufacturers having owners/presidents visiting the shops and talk to John Q Public divers about their gears.
Any input on the Aqualung stuff? I was looking at the BCD's Zuma, and the Pro QD with I3. Also was recommended the Legend X regulator over the S600 and the T2x, because it has the same breathability with the ability to do cold water diving too.
Aqualung makes good stuff and had been around since Day One (Jacques Cousteau and all that). As far as breathability goes, I'd like to see a laboratory printout between the S600 and the T2X before I'd believe that it is just as good as the T2X. BTW, the T2X has an environmentally sealed 1st stage so it will do cold water diving just fine. There is one caveat about titanium regulators: they can't take high Nitrox contents too well. The T2X is rated up to 40% O2. Other regulators can go higher, for example the Atomic M1 goes up to 80% O2.
The local dive shop I went to said that Atomic packs a lot of silicon into the first stage making it tedious and expensive come maintenance time?
There are two ways of sealing the 1st stage:
1. Pack it with special grease (not your normal silicon).
2. Use a mechanical device or mechanical means.
Pack it with special grease such as Christolube or Tribolube is more expensive because the lube is expensive. Cleaning is not a big deal because Christolube and Tribolube make degreaser for it.
Mechanical devices or mechanical means are less messy but also prone toward failure.
Six on one side and half a dozen on the other.
Atomic recommends 300-dives or 2-years service schedule, and when you send your reg back to their factory for service, they replace a lot of innards AND outside plastics. The reg comes back looking like it's brand stankin' new AND they put the reg on the breathing machine to make sure that it works per specifications.
My dive buddy sent in his ST1 with octo for service and it was spendy - around $250 with shipping. But he got the packed 1st stage which was like $70 for grease & service, and the octo. I sent my B2 in without octo (my Atomic octo only has 1-year in so far) and it costed me $160 (no packed 1st stage) with 2-days shipping AT MY request (ground is cheaper).
If you're not diving cold water, then when you send your reg to Atomic just tell them not to repack and save some money. The beautiful part about Atomic is that your warranty doesn't tie into your service schedule. If a part that isn't suppose to fail yet fail because of design or manufacturing issues, regardless of whether or not you have had your reg serviced at 300-dives or 2-years, they will fix it for you. Other regulators' warranties are tied into their service schedules. If you don't do an annual service and something went kaput? So sad too bad for you.
BTW, Dive Rite is like Atomic. You pick up the phone and call, you will talk to a human being who KNOWS the stuff. Dive Rite staff are all hard core divers. I'm talking about cave/wreck/nasty divers and not your regular plain jane rec divers.
inaccle - 
