New Scubapro S-Tek (BP/W BC's) Line

[Diving Dubai]

As an Engineer, I certainly appreciate the effort to re examine the plate and harness design and optimise it. Certainly the rounded edges of the plate, the recesses for the bolts and the fact they've questioned the angles of the webbing slots, and again refined to give marginal improvements.

I think the option of adjustable harnesses is great. I know a couple of people who suffer from restricted movement who would love this

Sure it's expensive, so was the pointless Halcyon Carbon fibre backplate - didn't stop people buying those

No cam band slots on the plate. You have to bolt the wing and use an STA for single tank.

Maybe not. I haven't seen their wing, I do know my Dive Rite Trans Plate I don't have slots in my plate, and obviously my Trans Pac has no plate. The Cam bands thread through slots in the wing (which is attached to the harness with the convention 2 bolts. I've had my Trans Pac for 8 years, don't close to 1000 boat dives on it with a Steel HP 120 equivalent and never had a problem

 

[Kofferfisch]

But hey it got a handle to throw it in the bin.

 

[BoltSnap]

The tech market is very small and very saturated.
The main premium brand right now and the one that was started by the GUE community from ground zero is Halcyon. If someone want’s to blow a wad of dough just buy that.
Scubapro never really made it with their old system because they were not the innovators of that style BP/W. It was a dude in his garage cutting up an old stop sign. Diverite, OMS, Halcyon, and many more have been doing this for way longer than SP. SP was a band wagoner that jumped on very late in the game.

SP is the second largest, if the not the largest, manufacturer/supplier of dive equipment in the world in the civilian market by a very wide margin (it competes again AL for the first spot with a narrow margin, at least before AL was sold). The manufacturer that comes after SP is about half of what SP sells annually. SP is a "full liner" that supplies to the whole world. It is also the "biggest" recognized name out there with a long established loyal following and network of dealers that are fiercely very loyal. A good percentage of the dealers around the world can't afford to have too many brands in their stores/schools and hence expect to buy everything from SP including the parts that aren't the main specialty of SP. This attitude is even stronger now with the pandemic and the very destructive implications it has had on the global economy and the dive business.

If they want to get in with the tech divers and take some market share back then a better place to start would be to offer independent reg service classes and sell them service kits. That would compete with Hog, Deep 6 and others.

You are living in a bubble assuming that what may appear to be happening and is a trend in the US is actually the reality in the rest of the world beyond the iron curtain surrounding the US. The manufactures you mention are so small and insignificant in the overall picture they don't matter and not to forget to mention that the odds are against them to survive in this market. What SP does in one deal with a government or some rescue/police team in some third world country is a lot more (tons more) than what one of these companies does in business in a whole year. Poseidon has been offering regulator service classes to the public for MANY years before the other tiny companies and it is still an insignificant company in the whole international market compared with SP, AL and Mares. Poseidon didn't offer the training out of conviction or 100% belief in what is said about it in public, it was offered to overcome the extreme lack of dealer network in the tiny market where Poseidon is present. Poseidon almost disappeared for a while from the US market with no rep. or disti. as an example. Simply put, they had to do it this way to survive their not having a distribution/retail network not because that's what their initial dogma in doing business. Despite of their shifting their way of doing things, Poseidon is still insignificant in the market place. It is more so with the practically non-existent tiny other companies you mention (in the international market). Many in the business believe that it is a "fad" and a localized practice rather than a true change in mentality that meets a significant percentage of the market needs.

 

[BoltSnap]

I don't think they care much about actual tech divers. I suspect this is about keeping hold of some of the rec divers they are losing as word of the advantages of the BP/W continues to spread
....

Or maybe they are so disconnected from what's going on outside their bubble that they can't accept that rec divers could really be interested in a BP/W instead of a traditional BCD? It's certainly possibly. It would also explain why the only singles wing they sell has 30 pounds of lift. Where's the 18 to 24# option?

The BP/W market is tiny world wide and SP isn't losing much of it actually. SP has strong following around the world and it represents the only manufacture/supplier of dive equipment for many markets in the world. Jacket/back inflate systems are king in the world. Your view is grossly skewed by the people you hang out with not by the market realities. There is a term in psychology used to describe this scenario but I forget it now

 

[Searcaigh]

No cam band slots on the plate. You have to bolt the wing and use an STA for single tank.

That was my first observation too as I use cambands to hold my single tanks in place without a STA using a DiveRite plate.

 

[Diving Dubai]

But hey it got a handle to throw it in the bin.

Because lifting my gear around a boat using the valve is so much easier...

That STA is a cheap piece of crap. It's thin aluminum, only uses one tank strap

And... What's your point? The STA is carrying little load, and he's right about the single cam band being sufficient, since the tank is held in compression against the STA. My wife for instance prefers what we call "stumpy" 12l With a boot on the bottom and the short height of tank, there's zero vertical adjustment because of standard band spacings.

Similarly the wing. While it might be true that it's a bit overkill with an Al 80, I'd certainly be up for a 40lb wing. Even though I dive warm tropical, we dive in currents and specifically encounter down currents frequently. Lift is king

Just because a product doesn't suit your type of diving, nor is at a price point that you think provides value to you, doesn't mean that's the same for everyone

I'm not dedicated to any brand in particular, I prefer it's one that has dealers around the world for easy access to spares, and I tend to mix an match parts to build a rig that's ideal for my needs. I'm not even in the market for a new rig, I'd rather not face the wrath on my wife adding a 4th BP/w to my collection - however I do like some of the thought processes Scubapro have gone through to fine tune the rig, and it has some features I'd personally like

As for appeal to the wider audience. AL did fine with the rogue and the outlaw, not everyone want to mix and match and faff setting up a rig, just as some (myself included) wouldn't buy an off the shelf package

Horses for courses

 

[loosenit2]

I just watched the video. Who do they think they are kidding? That STA is a cheap piece of crap. It's thin aluminum, only uses one tank strap, and is oddly wide because apparently the S-tek wings are actually doubles wings and they are trying to keep them from tacoing too badly.
.

I think I agree with you about the same wing being used for both single tank and double, probably would not be good at either, but open minded enough to see it in action, maybe they came up with one.

I watched the video on one the STA, and one of the reasons they offered for the single band was that it allowed those who preferred to have the tank lower on their back to do so, whereas a double band STA forces you to have the tank higher on your back. This is true, but I'm not sure it is a good thing. One thing that is not taught well in recreational diving is the placement of the tank in such a way that the diver can reach and manipulate the valve. Putting the tank too low on the back prevents this entirely, and likely creates some trim issues. That is a criticism of that small gap in rec training though, not the STA itself.

 

[lexvil]

Well thought out, offers some refinement over traditional backplate/wing. The wing isn’t to my liking but assume it will be, as a package, be pretty popular with the general public who can’t wrap their head around the idea of mix and match from various makers.

 

[Compressor]

But hey it got a handle to throw it in the bin.

The handle is nice in my opinion. Especially if it's cushioned.

 

[Wibble]

Flexible webbing…

In the vid the shoulder strap twisted as he put it on — backplate only over a T-shirt and he’s relatively skinny, imagine that over a drysuit in the winter. They had to hack the chest D-ring tri-glide to be a "quadglide" to fix the position as soft webbing would allow it to move.

The need the soft webbing as a "Cinch"/Agir-Brokk Harpa style adjuster — both of which are more trouble than they’re worth (canister torch and Waist D-ring(S) placement).

Of course, they could have used normal stiff webbing and not have annoying twisty straps.

Wingnuts…. Use large knurled knobs. Don’t need more plastic widgets.

Holes: need more holes on the (divers) LHS to mount a suit inflation bottle and safety bungee.

Otherwise it’s a large meh for fixing things that don’t need fixing and charging an arm and a leg in the process.