No wing on a backplate harness and tank for Caribbean shallow diving -how does this work?

[Angelo Farina]

Perhaps it's accurate for 1970's Italy?

In all the mediterranean sea: Italy, France, Spain, Greece, etc.
Which at the time did account for 60-70% of the whole number of recreational divers worldwide.
Yes, 5mm suits were available, and used during winter. However they were even harder than my 3mm one. I borrowed a 5mm suit for diving under 1m of ice in Lago Santo, march 1977. It was like wearing a car's tire.
Compression with depth was minimal...
And yes, there were BCDs, of the anular type. I did buy a Fenzy in 1978.
You see it in my avatar photo...
But we used then only for diving deep (50m or more) and using twin tanks.
For shallow diving with a single tank a BCD was considered superfluous.
This changed quickly at the end of the seventies. In 1980 a BCD had already became quite standard.
In a decade the evolution of diving equipment had been dramatic.
In 1970 most people here were using pure oxygen CC rebreathers and no diving suit.
In 1975 it was neoprene wet suit, air tanks with reserve and a single regulator. In 1980 it was air tank with two regulators, a pressure gauge, a BCD and the first analog deco computer, made by SOS and called DCS (bent-o-matic).
I think that in no other decade the evolution was so fast...

 

[Nemrod]

The early BCs did not have "power" inflate and were orally inflated by removing the reg and blowing into the oral inflator. Unlike the Mae West safety vest they had an overpressure/dump valve and the oral inflator could be pushed to release air and there was a corrugated hose of good diameter rather than just a little tube. My first BC was a Nemrod hose collar, mid 70s, rubberized canvas, I still have it somewhere and it is oral only inflation. I bought a Dacor "SeaChute" circa 1976 and the "power" inflator was optional and I added it sometime later. Then a year or so later I got a Scubapro back inflate BC (a wing) and I could be wrong but I think I aded an inflator to it also. Could be wrong there.

 

[rx7diver]

The early BCs did not have "power" inflate and were orally inflated by removing the reg and blowing into the oral inflator. ...

The earliest Scubapro Stab Jackets were orally inflate, too: Remove your regulator from your mouth after taking a breath. Place the end of the SSJ's corrugated hose into your mouth and press it against your teeth (which pushed open the spring-loaded end), and blow/exhale into it. Pull it away from your mouth (which closed the mechanism). Recover your regulator, purge it, and take a breath. Repeat.

The university where I did my open water course (in 1986) still had a bunch of these early SSJ's.

rx7diver

 

[Akimbo]

The earliest Scubapro Stab Jackets were orally inflate, too: Remove your regulator from your mouth after taking a breath.

Didn't all BCs with power inflators supported oral inflation too?
SCUBAPRO: REVOLUTIONIZING THE DIVE INDUSTRY SINCE 1963

It is interesting that the first Stab Jackets had power inflators and CO2 cartridges.

 

[Bob DBF]

Didn't all BCs with power inflators supported oral inflation too?
SCUBAPRO: REVOLUTIONIZING THE DIVE INDUSTRY SINCE 1963

View attachment 745275

It is interesting that the first Stab Jackets had power inflators and CO2 cartridges.

All the BCs I've seen that had power inflation also had oral inflation, although the were not necessarily on the same inflator. CO2 cartridges, as well as crotch straps were on BCs into the 80's. Also notice the generic plastic backpack shown in the picture, the feature being a carry handle.

 

[johndiver999]

Note, they are claiming that this BC DOES support the diver in a heads up position. The pull dump is in the wrong location, I wonder when that was moved to the upper right shoulder?

 

[Angelo Farina]

Didn't all BCs with power inflators supported oral inflation too?
SCUBAPRO: REVOLUTIONIZING THE DIVE INDUSTRY SINCE 1963

It is interesting that the first Stab Jackets had power inflators and CO2 cartridges.

I remember this first attempt to a "jacket style" BCD. Scubapro sent it to me for being tested, and I returned it after one month with a very bad report. It was 1978. This device was terrible, providing buoyancy exactly where you did NOT need it, causing the diver to finish invariantly belly-up.
Luckily enough it went quickly out of production...
It was really a step back, considering that the previous year, 1977, Scubapro was selling a very successful backpack+wing BCD. See it here in the 1977 Catalog:

As you can see, it is quite similar to BP+W systems we are using today. Despite Scubapro stopped making it, other Italian manufacturers copied this BP+W design, which was really nice and stable.
I own a Coltri one, made around 1989, which employs the same plastic backpack, and a wing with slightly different shape.

<<< OFF TOPIC >>>
As you see in this picture, Scubapro was also selling a Diving Manual titled "underwater education". I missed it at the time, as it was English-only, and at the time my English reading capabilities were poor. Now I would really like to get a copy of it... Does anyone happens to have a copy of it?
<<< END OFF TOPIC >>>

 

[rx7diver]

Curious that all of those earliest SSJ's that the univ scuba course owned were all fitted with an oral inflator. The long-time instructor must have ordered them that way deliberately. (The instructor was a Scubapro dealer, too.)

The instructor gradually replaced these earliest SSJ's with newer SSJ's that came fitted with a Scubapro power inflator. However, students were not allowed to use the power inflate function during the pool sessions. In fact, no LP power inflator hose was attached to the regulator first stage!

The very first time the students were allowed to power inflate was during their half-day "gear checkout" pool session, when the students were checking out with the gear they would be using for their upcoming open water checkout. (This non-university-owned gear almost always was fitted with an AIR 2.)

This approach (i.e., no power inflating during the pool sessions) is still used to this day for this course.

rx7diver

 

[Angelo Farina]

And one year later, in 1979, that crap orange Jacket-style BCD disappeared from the Scubapro Catalog, and the good old black wing was back:

 

[Jcp2]

https://ww2.scubapro.com/en-GB/HKG/bcs/products/classic-zero-g.aspx

Still available, just not in North America.