Been off doing the salary continuation plan for a couple days, so let me take these on one by one...
Originally posted by scubabunny
...so I assumed Buff was asking from a recreational divers point of view. And, he asked if anyone had any negative feelings about the backplate. I just stated my opinion.
You played, and I quote devils advocate and I was just responding with solutions to the specific complaints that you brought up. I always strive to supply answers or make points. If I dont have an answer or a point to make I dont respond. [yes I get hot under the collar when it comes to cylinders
, but there was always a point].
You mentioned some problems; I offered some solutions, thats all.
Should I or anyone use gear that is uncomfortable in the store?
Hypothetically, if there was something that felt really, really comfortable in the store but didnt work well in the water versus something that was a little bit uncomfortable in the store and it worked exceptionally well in the water, which would you choose? I optimize for diving, not standing around in the store.
When correctly adjusted, a backplate is very comfortable. Problem is, most non-technical shops dont know how to get one even in the ballpark. If backplates werent comfortable out of the water I wouldnt be able to make the trek from the parking lot down (and up at the end of the dive) the 1,375 stairs (at least it seems like that many!) that lead to Little River spring with 130 pounds of gear on my backplate.
Backplates take some fiddling over several dives to get setup right, no denying that. But once setup theyre very comfortable and they NEVER go out of adjustment.
I was simply saying that not all divers needed the same equipment. Whether you like it or not, the dive community has expanded quite a bit. I am one of those "recreational" divers that you seem to dislike so much (although for the record..I hate pink too). I have NO desire to go "tekkie", much less go into a cave. Does that make my opinion less valid in this forum?? I don't think so.
I think the majority of the people on this board just want to go down and look at the pretty fishes and experience first hand what they only saw on TV as a kid.
Where did you get the idea I don't like recreational divers? I count myself among them! This is in fact why Im such a backplate proponent. I dove a backplate for about a year recreationally before I took my cave class. From Cozumel at 40 in a skin, an AL80 and a scout backup light to Twin Lakes in February ice diving with a dry suit, argon, canister light and twin 104s, the backplate is the same. I do the California Channel Islands once a year too. I gotta get a bumper sticker made one of these days that says I [heart] Kelp. The backplate works exceptionally well from cave penetration to watching pretty fishes.
I dont merely recommend backplates for folks that want to go tekkie. I recommend backplates because I feel its superior to the mainstream equipment out there, all the way from recreational to technical. RAN came up with the phrase that Ive been searching for for quite some time: Unlimited Potential.
Theyre a couple advantages to a backplate in the recreational arena. New divers dont know where their diving will take them. If all they do is look at pretty fishes (nothing wrong with that, thats what I like about Hawaii) a backplate will give them better trim and better streamlining than a jacket BC which results in a more enjoyable dive. Its less complex and easier to maintain. I even think its easier to break down into more packable units. If that recreational diver ever decides to move into the technical side of things, not only is their minimal gear to buy (a wing) but theres nothing for that diver to unlearn and relearn. Their interface with their base equipment remains the same, they just add to it. Going from an AL80 to twin 104s a diver will notice only a change in mass of the entire system, nothing else (until they get out of the water, that is!
).
I'm glad you have a passion for what you do, but please don't be-little people when they state their opinion.
I did not mean to belittle you in the least. I did, however, have every intention in pointing out how the its for technical divers argument is not valid. If this conference were around 20-25 years ago I could see the two of us having a debate over SPGs. To fantasize for a moment, youd be saying how there was no need for a recreational diver to have an SPG, which only the cave divers use. You might state something along the lines of I have NO desire to go tekkie, much less go into a cave. Following it with 300 PSI can get anyone safely to the surface from a recreational dive, so a J valve is sufficient for a recreational diver.
And youd be 100% correct. Even now on most (not all) recreational dives Id argue that a J valve for a recreational diver is sufficient. But moving from the sufficient to the superior we both realize that an SPG is superior to a J valve. And Im arguing that a backplate is superior to a jacket BC even when diving recreationally. And if you do move into technical diving, you've got a head start, both financially as well as skill-wise.
Unlike some DIR folks Im not going to tell you that youre going to die if you use a jacket BC. Jacket BCs are safe and sufficient for recreational diving. My argument is that backplates far exceed sufficient.
Roak
Ps. Just noticed something. Though separated by time, we are neighbors. After getting my PADI Basic certification in NY in 1973, my family moved to Saipan, where I spent the summers of 73 and 74 diving. There wasnt even a compressor on the island in 73 so it wasnt until 74 that we actually SCUBA dived on the island. 27 years ago I knew the Grotto like the back of my hand!
. 
