SS or Al BP for tropic

[Indodive]

I decided to buy Halcyon BP with 27 lbs Pioneer wings. I only dive in South East Asia (tropic) and wearing 3/2 wet suit. Which BP will be suitable for diving in the tropical region, SS or Al. I normally use 5 weights on belt, so around 11lbs??? The Halcyon dealer here suggest me to buy Al BP.

I assume if I use SS BP then I do not need to add much weights to go down???


:bonk:

 

[erich]

You are correct. Keep the 6 lb in your plate and off of your back. With your configuration you will still have 5lb of releasable weigh.

 

[lanun]

my set-up is ss (6lbs) bp. with my 3mil wetsuit, al80, one dive light, i am still a bit heavy with 500psi in the tank.

by the way, i have a SS BP because i used to do drysuit diving in much colder waters.

if you plan deco dives somewhere down the road, you might rethink what you have for a BP. twin al80's when empty is ~ 8lbs or so bouyant. suggest you do a search for more on that.

 

[Indodive]

lanun once bubbled...
my set-up is ss (6lbs) bp. with my 3mil wetsuit, al80, one dive light, i am still a bit heavy with 500psi in the tank.

by the way, i have a SS BP because i used to do drysuit diving in much colder waters.

if you plan deco dives somewhere down the road, you might rethink what you have for a BP. twin al80's when empty is ~ 8lbs or so bouyant. suggest you do a search for more on that.

I think my set up would be similar to you, I used 3/2 mil wet suit and al80. I am 173cm and 70 kg, and has only logged 25 dives. I do use 5kg weights on my last dive, which is around 11 lbs, so I guess SS BP and little additional detach weights will be quite suitable ???

I do not have any plan for double tanks right know.

 

[Spectre]

I'm assuming your saying you currently wear 5 kg with your regular BC?

One thing to take note of. When I moved from a BC to a BP/Wing setup, I noticed I dropped about 6 more lbs then expected. I figure it had to do with the difference in bouyancy characteristics between the wing and the BC.

If you find the same thing, than -6 lbs + -6 lbs for BP = -12.

If at all possible, I would try out an aluminum plate and see how much weight you _really_ need.

 

[Fetch]

From your suit description, and *at a guess* you should try out the aluminum backplate. You'll still probably drop weight from your belt, but you want to have SOME ditchable weight, at least.

As a point of comparison, when I went from BCD to a steel backplate, I dropped about 6 pounds off my weight belt.

jeff

Indodive once bubbled...
I decided to buy Halcyon BP with 27 lbs Pioneer wings. I only dive in South East Asia (tropic) and wearing 3/2 wet suit. Which BP will be suitable for diving in the tropical region, SS or Al. I normally use 5 weights on belt, so around 11lbs??? The Halcyon dealer here suggest me to buy Al BP.

I assume if I use SS BP then I do not need to add much weights to go down???


:bonk:

 

[Indodive]

Thanks so much, it makes so much sense now.

5 kg weights belt I use is indeed with my regular Beuchat 420 jacket style BC, which probably has somewhat positively bouyant characteristic. So the weight calculation when I change to BP wings is not linear, aha. If I use SS BP which I think has negative 6 lbs bouyancy I may not need any additional weights at all.

For a choice beetwen SS or AL BP, isn't it better to have more weight at your back (ie. SS than AL BP) thus it will balance the tendency of back floatation BC of pushing one face down??

 

[cyklon_300]

with a single Al 80 and a 3mm suit, I don't need weights. (I'm 6', 175 lbs.)

Most of my diving involves traveling, a SS plate is a bit of a load to lug thru airports.

 

[lanun]

if i had had extra to spend, i'd get me an AL BP. the SS BP was more weight than i need; figure i can drop 2 or 3 lbs more which gets it very close to the SS BP - AL BP difference. carry 2 instead of 1 scout light and those probably cancel out tank bouyancy.

and the 3 Mil suit is probably nicely offset by 1st stage / brass+glass spg / d rings / waist/tank buckles.