RecWing Taco

[TheRedHead]

Just returned from my first dive trip with a BP/W! I can't tell you how much I loved it. I've never had better trim in the water. I dive mostly in warm water and this trip was using the Dive Rite SS plate with STA, Dive Rite "deluxe" harness (not transplate), a 3 mm full suit plus 3 mm hooded vest for 6 mm at the core and 4 lbs on a weight belt. I used a 100 cf steel tank (not sure about the brand, but dove with Aldora in Cozumel using their tanks). I felt a bit overweighted at depth, but 2 lbs was a bit light at my deco stop.

My buddy noticed and took a photo of (attached) that one side of my wing would taco over the tank and the other side not. At times, I felt as if I had too much wing and was often over-burping it and I would have to add another shot of air. It seemed to burp a lot of air or none at all.

I'm thinking about the Venture Wing, but wondering if that is enough wing for a SS backplate. I don't forsee wearing anything more than a full 5 mm suit plus hood. I am scheduled to take Adv. Nixtrox/Deco Procedures and Intro to Cavern in March with Mateo at Aldora and may be using a 120 cf steel tank plus a pony. I don't plan to dive doubles at this point.

Should I keep the RecWing and if so how to solve the taco problem or should I go with a smaller wing? I bought the RecWing 2nd hand on ebay so I'm sure I could sell it pretty easily without losing too much money. I also have a Zeagle Brigade with a 32 lb wing, but I haven't tried to fit it to the backplate and am not sure it would work.

Thanks!

 

[DA Aquamaster]

In my experience with a rec wing and a single tank, you need to keep the bungees quite tight to keep things more or less even side to side and to prevent excessive tacoing.

 

[halocline]

If you're only using 2 lbs of weight on your belt or in pouches, I'd be really surprised if the venture wing was not enough lift. You'll probably be happier with it for single tank warm water diving, and you could use the rec wing for doubles or some cold water when you're carrying alot more weight.

 

[Robert Siverby]

Try to tighten up the bungies real good. Hopefully this will prevent the wing from "hugging" your tank.

 

[Mr.X]

Just returned from my first dive trip with a BP/W! I can't tell you how much I loved it. I've never had better trim in the water. I dive mostly in warm water and this trip was using the Dive Rite SS plate with STA, Dive Rite "deluxe" harness (not transplate), a 3 mm full suit plus 3 mm hooded vest for 6 mm at the core and 4 lbs on a weight belt. I used a 100 cf steel tank (not sure about the brand, but dove with Aldora in Cozumel using their tanks). I felt a bit overweighted at depth, but 2 lbs was a bit light at my deco stop.

My buddy noticed and took a photo of (attached) that one side of my wing would taco over the tank and the other side not. At times, I felt as if I had too much wing and was often over-burping it and I would have to add another shot of air. It seemed to burp a lot of air or none at all.

I'm thinking about the Venture Wing, but wondering if that is enough wing for a SS backplate. I don't forsee wearing anything more than a full 5 mm suit plus hood. I am scheduled to take Adv. Nixtrox/Deco Procedures and Intro to Cavern in March with Mateo at Aldora and may be using a 120 cf steel tank plus a pony. I don't plan to dive doubles at this point.

Should I keep the RecWing and if so how to solve the taco problem or should I go with a smaller wing? I bought the RecWing 2nd hand on ebay so I'm sure I could sell it pretty easily without losing too much money. I also have a Zeagle Brigade with a 32 lb wing, but I haven't tried to fit it to the backplate and am not sure it would work.

Thanks!

From what I can tell it's not a super massive taco. Not knowing how you'll config. your pony (how many cu3) can't say much. In the late 80's I was diving a SeaTec wing and it looked like the same taco config. Not great, but didn't have much of a choice then. When it ballooned to one side I simply grabbed the lobe and shook or massaged it to get the air to migrate. Of course, these days you can certainly get better wings. X

 

[TheRedHead]

Aw, shucks, guys. I'm really looking for a rational, logical reason not to use this wing so I can justify getting another one. I doing a TSandM here. Can't you think of anything potentially disasterious or life threatening about it?

I don't like it mainly because it's sluggish. Takes forever to burp air then burps all of it. I don't know if that is a good enough reason to change.

 

[aquaoren]

Aw, shucks, guys. I'm really looking for a rational, logical reason not to use this wing so I can justify getting another one. I doing a TSandM here. Can't you think of anything potentially disasterious or life threatening about it?

I don't like it mainly because it's sluggish. Takes forever to burp air then burps all of it. I don't know if that is a good enough reason to change.

This is safety hazard. You'll kill yourself if you continue diving with this wing. Imagine losing all air from the wing and dropping into the abyss on a deep drop off or a wall.

 

[terrasmak]

Just get the right wing fo rthe job , the venture wing is just fine. My dive buddy uses one and had no problems this weekend with a 3mm farmer john and a Steel 120. He still had plenty of lift. If your still not convinced just get a 35 to 40 pound wing thru Agir , Halcyon , Golem etc etc.

 

[Mambo Dave]

I'm new to all this, so you may want to take my experience with a grain of salt.

Buy whatever ya want. Just do it.

I found my RecWing's bungee system did need to be tightened up for my single tank. The only problem with really tightening the bungee is it seems to fold the wing material over the dump valve, making it just about impossible to find (it gets hidden up in the fold). To get the valve to stick out, on the dump valve side, I re-routed the bungee to not go through the bottom-side guide.

The RecWing also has fabric tabs with grommets that correspond to holes in the Dive Rite BP. I tied these down to the plate with black cord, so the wing provides a more spread-out lift across the backplate (and it probably prevents taco'ing to a good degree).

I called up Northeast Scuba Supply to ask them about the tabs and the corresponding BP holes. They said that people do tie the wing down to the plate - especially when using it as a side-mount for cave diving.

If I had it to do all over again, or had more $$$, I think I would have gone with the smaller Venture wing. The idea of the RecWing's hidden bungee system didn't bother me until I realized I had to tighten the system so much that it interfered with the dump valve. Perhaps someday I'll like the wing a whole lot if I ever switch to doubles. IMHO I, and you, already dislike at least two, if not more, components of the design of the wing, thus it probably needs changed out. It just ain't all that.

 

[MSilvia]

I'm really looking for a rational, logical reason not to use this wing so I can justify getting another one.

I don't like it mainly because it's sluggish. Takes forever to burp air then burps all of it.

Those sound like good reasons to me. Sell it, and get a smaller wing. If you don't plan to dive doubles, get a wing that's designed exclusively for single tank diving. Personally, I've been using a Halcyon eclipse 30, and I've found it to be a huge improvement over my old DiveRite RecWing.