Newbie buying his first gear

[formernuke]

Beginners Guide To BP/W

 

[Stefos]

Just a note on proper terminology

It’s a BP/W (backplate/wing). Not wing BC and definitely not wings! It’s a modular system of backplate with harness attached with the wing. It’s all bolted together. For doubles, there are twin steel bands on the tanks with long bolts to attach BP/W.

For single tank, you either thread both cambands through wing and plate, if wing has camband slots, or use what’s called a single tank adapter that carries the cam bands and bolts to BP/W.

All backplates can be used with either single tank or doubles.

I don’t know about Cressi in Europe, but in the US, you don’t find tech divers using them. Buy once, cry once is the motto. Buy cheapo crap now and you’ll have to replace it when the time comes for tech. Apeks and ScuaPro also seem to retain their value for reseale later.

I was pretty sure that my terminology was wrong!

Yes i'm not planning to buy the cheapest possible but also not the most expensive!

No, you don’t want the octo. You want both second stages to be the same. Might as well buy the XTX50/DST doubles set and be done with it.

Can you explain me why? I know they do the same thing and usually the octo does not have the quality of the "main" second stage but I can't think of a reason apart from quality

 

[formernuke]

Can you explain me why? I know they do the same thing and usually the octo does not have the quality of the "main" second stage but I can't think of a reason apart from quality

Would you want to use a lesser quality breathing device? Bear in mind in a OOA situation you might be the using your octo if the other party panicks and rips your primary from your mouth.

 

[James79]

Can you explain me why? I know they do the same thing and usually the octo does not have the quality of the "main" second stage but I can't think of a reason apart from quality

3 Common answers to that question:

If you do primary donate (which you probably will eventually if you go tech) the octo is for you.... and you want it to breathe well!

Commonality of parts/maintenance.

In an OOA emergency, at least one person may be near panic... a smooth breathing (not detuned and cheap) reg can help with calming them once air is provided.

Respectfully,

James

 

[Marie13]

Plus, if you want to be on doubles eventually, you want a set with two identical second stages. Use the doubles set for single tank now. You’ll just have an extra first stage, which you’ll put to use when you do doubles. See how nicely that works out? You’d have to replace the octo as you wouldn’t be using that on doubles.

 

[Stefos]

Thanks for the answers. As I said i m new to the "sport" and have many many things to learn and of course there are way to many things that I cannot think about just because of ignorance.

 

[formernuke]

Thanks for the answers. As I said i m new to the "sport" and have many many things to learn and of course there are way to many things that I cannot think about just because of ignorance.

You just don't know what you don't know yet. Keep asking questions there is no stupid question.

 

[Tripp]

My dad taught me the only stupid question is the one that goes unasked...

 

[Marie13]

Thanks for the answers. As I said i m new to the "sport" and have many many things to learn and of course there are way to many things that I cannot think about just because of ignorance.

You’re not stupid.

 

[kelemvor]

After talking to a friend I made the decision to go for BCD Wing, one that can take 2 tanks for later , with Hogarthian setup.

You do not want to use a doubles wing for single tank diving. The wing will taco around the tank, you may have issues venting air, and all around not good.

There is a wing type called "single/double" such as my Diverite REC EXP. They're very much "jack of all trades, master of none." I'm not recommending you go this way just so I'm clear. I was in the same boat as you - bought a BP/W as my first BCD. I got the EXP because it was supposed to be able to handle both. The problem is that it's not great for either, either. It's big enough that it tacos a good bit with single tanks. It's small enough that you lose some of the volume with doubles. You can see it doing a slight taco in my profile pic on the left. That's the rec exp with a single tank.

I would suggest you just get a single tank wing for now. Who knows, maybe by the time you embark upon technical diving (that's generally where you start to use doubles) you may decide on sidemount instead of backmount. You could do both sidemount and backmount of course - but you don't have to (i.e. it's not a progression stage where you learn one before the other).

In summary (because I rambled): Single/Doubles "convertible" wings are not a good choice.