New in N. Cal! - Question about BC

[Chavodel8en]

I'll take everything into account. I don't think I'll be buying a BC immediately, but I wanted to get people's opinion, as i think I'll be buying the BC online. Hopefully I'll be able to drop many pounds as I realize that I am currently way overweighted.

Thanks LittleFrog! I'll PM you. I'm gonna do some more DM supervised dives so that I feel I'm not someone that needs to be nannied and hopefully I wont be a drag to buddy with.

In response to a question above, I'm not necessarily saying that I would never do a backplate, but I'm mainly interested in recreational dives, swimming with the fishies, and I like the convenience of a jacket BC. The few dives I used them, and I felt fine in them. If there's an opportunity I'll try to rent a backplate, or even a back inflate and check it out, but so far jacket BCs are fine for me.

 

[ERP]

FWIW I never had a problem with Jacket BC's until I tried a back inflate BC and I never had a problem with backinflate BC's until I tried a BP+Wing.

You should at least try back inflate and if you can BP+Wing before you make a decision. I ended up replacing almost all of my first set of gear (Still use the regs) within 6 months, but if you can try a lot of stuff and talk to a lot of people you can avoid that.

 

[jb2thdoc]

I know that if you have read this board there seem to be a lot of bp and wing disciples, but do not let that keep you from actually trying one before you purchase a bc. There are a lot of satisifed people because it is an awesome setup. BTW it is also great for travel. Take it from someone who had to learn the hard way. I bought a Zeagle Ranger and then ebayed it for a BP and Wings. I am not saying that it is for everyone, but definately worth checking out. PM me if you want to know what I did not like about the Zeagle BC.

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

Chavodel8en your current issue seems to be buoyancy related not B/C related.

New divers tend to hold in a lot more breath than relaxed divers. You can shed a lot of lead weight by relaxing. This comes with experience.

Divers who dive with farmer john wetsuits have 14mms of neoprene covering some parts of their bodies. That is a lot of neoprene, and it requires a lot of lead weighting to compensate near the surface. The farmer john wetsuit is a $300 solution to a $750 drysuit problem. Drysuits are not cheap, but they are the best solution for West Coast diving.

Aluminum tanks also require an additional 4 to 6 lbs of additional lead weighting, if you are diving aluminum tanks as well.

Its no wonder you are loading close to 35 lbs of lead on your body.

There are lots of things you can do to chop down your lead weighting requirement. Good luck with that.

 

[renpirate]

There are actually several very good stab jackets on the market. If you want to go that way a good jacket is the Scuba Pro Classic. It's fairly streamlined and you can get it with integrated weights if you want.

I know you will hear a lot of people extol the virtues of B/W with good reasons, but a stab jacket will do you fine as a beginner. I would defintely recommend buying it used though. I actually know a lot of experienced divers who have a stab jacket for playing around and a B/W for more serious stuff. Go with what is comfortable.

 

[paulwlee]

Although I have never used one, I heard nice things about the Seaquest Pro QD+.

I like the Seaquest BC's. They have been making great BC's for a long time. I really liked the Balance (a back inflate) and would have bought one had I not instead gotten a BP/wing due to future aspirations.

If possible, rent and try a few different BC's in the ocean to try them out. You may not be able to get the exact models you want to try out (rental stock is usually limited to a few models), but at least you may develop a preference for products from particular manufacturers, and then you can go from there. Different BC's from the same manufacturer tend to have similar traits.

 

[scubaxris]

bwerb once bubbled...


You still didn't answer the west coast/east coast BC question.

I'm waiting to hear his answer to this as well...should be good!

 

[skynscuba]

Spectre once bubbled...


This is incorrect. Your wing capacity needs to be able to offset two things. The negative weight of the gas in your tanks, and the negative weight of the compression of your exposure suit.

I disagree. You need to be able to take off your tank/bc/whatever integrated weights/anything you clip to it, in the water without it sinking. That's one of the reasons I split my weight between integrated and a belt.

 

[chickdiver]

skynscuba once bubbled...


I disagree. You need to be able to take off your tank/bc/whatever integrated weights/anything you clip to it, in the water without it sinking. That's one of the reasons I split my weight between integrated and a belt.

I think you misread. If the wing has enough bouyancy to offset the negative bouyancy of FULL bottles, plus wetsuit compression, it will float tanks alone (removed fromte body) just fine.

 

[Soggy]

Karl_in_Calif once bubbled...
The problem around here (SF Bay Area) is that a lot of the popular jacket B/Cs are really East Coast designs not meant for the West Coast.

I'm struggling with this one. How are the properties of west coast water different from the properties of east coast water? Is it thicker or something? I thought only Lake Erie had that problem.