Recommendation for a BCD and Regs

[lucianocunha]

Hello all,
I know this is a tough one as I know everyone has their favorites. There are so many options out there but I though I would post a question anyway.

I am about 30 dives into my diving life and thinking about acquiring more gear. I already have had my snorkel gear and my Petrel dive computer (which I got recommendations from here and LOVE IT!) for a while... I have my suits too. So now I am on to BCD and Regs. Getting my Rescue Diver Cert soon but most of my dives have been overseas so I just take minimum gear due to loads of travel. This year I plan on spending more time in the water locally (lakes) to get more dive experience so thought having a BCD and regs would save me some money. ($50 rental for all gear for 1 day around here)

So the questions:
- what BCD do you suggest I get? Or should I get one?
- what should I watch out for?
- I may also be in the market for the regs. Any opinions or advice?

what are your thoughts? Stick to renting? Get travel gear?
Looking forward to the discussion.
Thanks in advance!

 

[hotelconucc93]

I think you can get a good aqualung setup for about $800-$900. Of course, that was assuming you needed a computer. Might be less.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

For BCD I would get a BP/W (back plate and wing) and forget the rest. There are a lot of different jackets and back inflate crossovers, but ask anybody who's made the switch from jacket to BP/W and they'll tell you it was the single best move they ever made. Buy your second BC first as they say.
For travel they make stainless steel plates, aluminum plates, kydex plates (light weight polymer), or Oxycheq makes a sewn fabric soft plate specifically for light weight travel. The wing part you'd only need around 18 - 20 lb lift.
For regs, if you don't want to deal with services yourself and just let someone do it go with Atomic.
You can send Atomics back to the factory for service every two or three years and they rebuild it like new, no dealing with weird dive shops or the hassle/annoyance of incompetent techs.
If you want to someday learn to do your own services and really get into that scene then Hog brand (Highly Optimized Gear).
There are a ton of other brands and opinions both for both BC's and regs, and I'm sure you'll hear something about every single one of them throughout this thread.

 

[stuartv]

The Hollis DC3 + 212 reg set has been on sale recently for $199. If you can still find it anywhere at that price, I think it's the best deal going.

Or from here for $235:

Hollis 212 DC-3 Regulator w/MFlex

For a BC, check out the Deep Sea Supply (DSS) back plate and wing. Their rigs have a couple of unique features that make them stand out from the rest, in my, admittedly limited, experience.

 

[Scared Silly]

Like many I dive a backplate and have found that to serve my style of diving from cold to warm waters. There are lots of options in that category and I recommend people look at deep sea supply (deepseasupply.com). If you do not want a backplate then I would look at Zeagle's BCDs. I dove with their gear for many years and found their BCD to be very functional and comfortable - though a bit bulky. They also have some backplate options.

As for regs, been diving with Atomics for many years now. Great regs that are simple to work work. I service them myself.

 

[Johanan]

When I was looking to buy my gear, I did extensive reeding and consultations here on Scuba Board. Regarding the BCD I came to conclusion that Deep Sea Supply offers the best combination of quality, price and outstanding customer service. Regarding regs, I chose Apeks and since then I have becoma a die-hard Apeks loyalist. I found this post helpful for making up my mind. If you look at Apeks regs, DST with 5th port might be the most versatile as you can use them for backmount, sidemount and stages. The swivel turret helps in good hose routing. However for single backmount use FST (XTX100) is perfect, indeed.

 

[lucianocunha]

For a BC, check out the Deep Sea Supply (DSS) back plate and wing. Their rigs have a couple of unique features that make them stand out from the rest, in my, admittedly limited, experience.

Can you expand on the unique features? How about maintenance given I am not close to their resellers?

---------- Post added March 22nd, 2015 at 08:12 PM ----------

Like many I dive a backplate and have found that to serve my style of diving from cold to warm waters. There are lots of options in that category and I recommend people look at deep sea supply (deepseasupply.com). If you do not want a backplate then I would look at Zeagle's BCDs. I dove with their gear for many years and found their BCD to be very functional and comfortable - though a bit bulky. They also have some backplate options.

As for regs, been diving with Atomics for many years now. Great regs that are simple to work work. I service them myself.

Given that the size of the wings depends on the exposure suit you have so you use the smallers setup for the need how do you use a generic setup? or do you have multiple wings? Can you share more?
I dive both in the Indian ocean (warm), Netherlands/California (cold) and home at lakes (who knows ) so would like to have a more generic setup.
Thanks for the info and help

---------- Post added March 22nd, 2015 at 08:15 PM ----------

do you have any references of places I can read up more on how to use BP/W setup? I have not yet been able to find a place that has a lot of info on how to use it. Maybe because it is a pretty simple setup.
Anything you can share would be useful. Thanks!

I like the idea of sending in to redo for regs. How much does that normally cost you?

 

[runsongas]

you could get a 32 to 40 pound single tank wing and dive it in warm water, it just wouldn't be ideal. could be an option to get a cold water rig first and then a smaller wing later on.

 

[stuartv]

Can you expand on the unique features?

I did that in this thread :

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bu...s/503302-questions-concerning-backplates.html

 

[lucianocunha]

I did that in this thread :

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bu...s/503302-questions-concerning-backplates.html

Thanks really enjoyed reading through the details and the discussion. Thanks for sharing the issue you had and thoughts on solving it.
I appreciate it.