R
redacted
Guest
Testicles or crotch strap?
:11:
At this point in my life, both.
I completely disagree, as many have said here, if properly adjusted you won't even know it's there. The one time I forgot to connect mine I could immediately tell the difference because my BP/W was much less stable than usual, especially on the surface. I fought the crotch strop idea too initially, now I'm very glad I got talked into it.
I made my own BP. When I first dove it, I used a crotch strap and had no problem with comfort but it was an extra step in donning and doffing. So I tried it without and found no difference in stability UW and the little bit that it road up on the surface just didn't matter. It was easily controlled by rolling over on my back if I was going to spend any time waiting on the surface, or pulling down a little on bottoms of my shoulder straps.
It might be that my BP has no channel so the single tank sits a little closer than conventional plates. But it is probably that I wear the plate fairy high and my waist strap snug and have enough extra gut to keep the strap from riding up. In my case, the crouch strap had no effect on stability during a dive. The rig stays rock solid unless I release the waist strap (which I have to do to reach my valve). YMMV