No BC, no Wing, Plastic Backplate?

[bober99]

I was on the Great Escape dive boat in So Cal and met three people (Carol/Bob and someone else) that used only a Plastic Backplate/harness with a PST Steel 120 tank. They used an H-valve on the tank with two 1st stages as well as a sonar tracking system. Bob used 8#s with a henderson hyperstretch wetsuit and said he was neutral at all depths down to 130 feet with no BC. He dove down to 120 feet and grabbed a bunch of lobster!

I asked where they got the plastic backplate and they said they made it for about $20. It was pretty cool, doubled as a tank carrier.

Anyone know where they sell tiny hard plastic backplates like this? I saw dive rite sells an ABS plate but I want one of the tiny ones with the tank holder (especially if it's only $20)!

Is it pretty common for advanced divers not to use a BC of any sort? Are BCs/wings for newbies?

 

[ZenDiver]

I was on the Great Escape dive boat in So Cal and met three people (Carol/Bob and someone else) that used only a Plastic Backplate/harness with a PST Steel 120 tank. They used an H-valve on the tank with two 1st stages as well as a sonar tracking system. Bob used 8#s with a henderson hyperstretch wetsuit and said he was neutral at all depths down to 130 feet with no BC. He dove down to 120 feet and grabbed a bunch of lobster!

I asked where they got the plastic backplate and they said they made it for about $20. It was pretty cool, doubled as a tank carrier.

Anyone know where they sell tiny hard plastic backplates like this? I saw dive rite sells an ABS plate but I want one of the tiny ones with the tank holder (especially if it's only $20)!

Is it pretty common for advanced divers not to use a BC of any sort? Are BCs/wings for newbies?

You can buy a plastic backpack like that at many dive shops for about 20 dollars. They used them alot in the old days. As to diving with out a BC, that is a personal decision. Weigh the risk -vs- comfort factor diving that way. This is not the norm in the dive industry and some charter operations may not allow a diver without a BC to dive from their boat.
A BC is not a life preserver but can be used to provide flotation on the surface. This can be helpful in many situations that come up while diving. So from a limited position a BC can give you certain safety margins. I have dived both ways and like the freedom and the non-bulkiness of diving without a BC but I feel alot safer having a BC on. I am weighted properly and rarely have to use my BC underwater either. I am generally neutral at just about every depth so the only time I generally use it is to float on the surface and conserve energy while waiting for the boat to come pick me up. One option to look at is a rear inflation BC. Gives you the freedom from bulky BCs but provieds flotation on the surface if needed.

Brian

 

[drbill]

Yep, we dove with 'em for many years. I used them from 1962 until 1989 when I tried my first BCD. Most of the time I have my BCD on it is fully deflated anyway. Of course I'm sure glad we have gauges and other stuff now!

Dr. Bill

 

[Nemrod]

I have three of those--sorry, not for sale. You should be able to find some fairly easy. Yeah, in 1968 when I was certified there were no BCs to my knowledge and if there were we did not have them. We learned how to weight ourselves to achieve neutral bouyancy. The entire class was very different from what is taught today. No, it is not common for experienced divers including me to dive without a BC but I do it regular enough. I rarely if ever actually use my BC for anything other than floating my tank at the surface after I have removed my gear and await the boat to pick me up. I do just fine without them and have never actually needed one and was trained as a diver without them.
Back to the plastic backpacs. Mine are shaped to fit the back and they are very comfortable. They fit the steel 72's I dive them with and they work great and work with most aluminum tanks as well.
I suggest you not dive without a BC unless you are trained by someone who learned that way in the old days. I have sat in on modern classes, they do not cover the knowledge and methods we used for that style of diving. They rely heavily on guages and BCs to offset mandatory over weighting. Take care--good luck. Oh, you can probably adapt those old type back plates to a wing or the back inflation BC like the Seatec Seahorse. N

 

[Desa]

Man, are we telling our age or what? I still have my old Dacor plastic backplate and nemrod horseshoe collar. They hang on a wall for nostalgia.

Hey Dr. Bill, remember when you dove until it was hard to breathe and then reached back to pull the J-vallve, only to discover it had allready been triped? My very first "accessory" was an SPG. You know if we dove like that today we would die!

Bobber99, the closest/safesest to get to that "freedom" feeling is to go with a back-inflate.

 

[Scubakevdm]

I was on the Great Escape dive boat in So Cal and met three people (Carol/Bob and someone else) that used only a Plastic Backplate/harness with a PST Steel 120 tank. They used an H-valve on the tank with two 1st stages as well as a sonar tracking system. Bob used 8#s with a henderson hyperstretch wetsuit and said he was neutral at all depths down to 130 feet with no BC. He dove down to 120 feet and grabbed a bunch of lobster!

I asked where they got the plastic backplate and they said they made it for about $20. It was pretty cool, doubled as a tank carrier.

Anyone know where they sell tiny hard plastic backplates like this? I saw dive rite sells an ABS plate but I want one of the tiny ones with the tank holder (especially if it's only $20)!

Is it pretty common for advanced divers not to use a BC of any sort? Are BCs/wings for newbies?

It's pretty common for me to use a backpack for cleaning boat bottoms or doinig some types of salvage. I wouldn't want to use one out on the reef. You can only weight yourself to be perfectly neutral for one point of the dive. The rest of the dive requires that you control your bouyancy with lung volume, which I have found causes me to use more breathing gas. It's also not as comfortable (for me) to breath like that. I don't need a very big bc, but I prefer to use one.

 

[Nemrod]

"Hey Dr. Bill, remember when you dove until it was hard to breathe and then reached back to pull the J-vallve, only to discover it had allready been triped? My very first "accessory" was an SPG. You know if we dove like that today we would die! "

Maybe. I used to safety wire my J rod with a copper wire that I could break. That way it was less prone to get tripped and I also check it often during the dive to make sure it had not been pulled. The safety wire breaks easily enough with a sharp pull and voila--300 psi to go! There are some nylon ties that could be used the same way but best be careful there--some of those are designed to break--the beaded ones and some are stronger than you or at least me. N

 

[Desa]

"Hey Dr. Bill, remember when you dove until it was hard to breathe and then reached back to pull the J-vallve, only to discover it had allready been triped? My very first "accessory" was an SPG. You know if we dove like that today we would die! "

Maybe. I used to safety wire my J rod with a copper wire that I could break. That way it was less prone to get tripped and I also check it often during the dive to make sure it had not been pulled. The safety wire breaks easily enough with a sharp pull and voila--300 psi to go! There are some nylon ties that could be used the same way but best be careful there--some of those are designed to break--the beaded ones and some are stronger than you or at least me. N

LOL
I know, we figured all that out as we went. But I bet you didn't wire it open until you had at least one baad experience with it Or am I the only one that said to my self "self, sumptin aint rite heer?"

 

[simbrooks]

Go for a BP/W combo, should feel about the same as a plastic backpack thing, but with the added advantage of not having to do everything with your lungs (which could be a pain when you are at substantial wetsuit compression depths) as suggested above. I guess its just the cost that puts you off - see ebay

 

[The Chairman]

Simon,

there is NO comparison. Those things always pinched, even when we were in the water.

We were doing good to afford that! I think my first dive was one inch strap tied to the valve neck and sorta tied to the tank. It didn't work too well, so we looked for something else, and this was all there was!

No bladder, no SPG, no Depth Gauge, no wetsuit, No problem! Diving was merely an act of not dying before you reached the surface.