Strange 'inflatable' BC?

[TheFinland]

Hi all. I'm brand new to the boards. I've recently been slowly sliding to double hose and vintage diving, especially after snagging a Kraken. I ran across, and purchased, this BC/backpack over from Vintage Scuba Supply and wondered if anyone here knew more about it? It mentions 15lbs of buoyancy in the advertisement, but no amount of reverse image searching has led me anywhere.

The pictures are unfortunately recycled, but I will update with more once it actually arrives in the mail.

 

[sbijou]

It's an Imperial Turtle if I remember the name correctly, developed in the early 80's when many manufacturers came out with back mounted buoyancy units featuring hard air shells including the Dacor Nautilus and the Scubapro Scuba System. Some manufacturers chose instead soft bladders such as Watergill covered by a fairing unit or some featured just featured horseshoe wings such as the Scubapro BCP or Sportsways Hydronaught.

 

[TheFinland]

Cool! Was there any consensus on how well/bad it worked? I expect to find out myself in a week or so.

 

[sbijou]

I never actually saw one in person as Imperial was primarily a wetsuit manufacturer that added a limited # of products including a regulator, fins and the B.C. you featured. I'm surprised at the length of the inflator hose attached. That thing looks huge and might be really difficult to inflate/deflate the unit and it's a manual inflator , not the one featured in the ad. Let me know how it works for you. I'm really curious.