Thoughts on the Oceanic Excursion BC

[eurotin]

OK so i am in the market for a BC, i am new to scuba, but want to get something that i can use as i grow with scuba. i am leaning towards a back inflate weight integraded BC and something that has enough D rings that i can use as i add more equipment. I have been looking at a few Genesis BC's, Seaquest Balance, Sherwood Avid CQR2 and the Oceanic Excursion.

i think teh Oceanic Excursion seems to meet all my needs and the price isn't that bad, looking to get some other opinions or sugestions.


thanks,

 

[Scotty_Aus]

my advice to you, after having owned much oceanic gear is as follows:

no matter HOW much you like diving NOW, and no matter HOW much MONEY you can spend, it all means NOTHING without RESEARCH.

EVERY new, keen diver wants to try buy a great product, with all the bell's and whistles they can afford, they want as many D-Rings as they have torches, cameras, liftbags, gauges, occys, SMB etc etc...

THEN, the novelty of carry all this crap wears off, REAL fast, especially for people that dont have boats to dive out of...

soon enough, you'll see BP/W and say "it can't fit any worse than this BCD i'm wearing now" and you'll look into "swapping over" and while you're in the thought process to swap over, you'll realise you dont need weight integration, and that a weight belt is actually more comfortable cause it puts the weight down low, not hanging off you above the hips, and it feels more stable. then'll you'll ditch this and that, and only bring it in the car with you, but you'll stop carrying it in the water, then you'll buy a BCD cause you read to many good reviews on the forums and wish you hadn't have taken the same course we all do....

 

[terrasmak]

BP/W like something from DSS , Halcyon , Salvo and Dive Rite all have what your looking for . The are back inflate , capable of carrying the equipment for a tropical vacation dive to carrying what you need to penitrate the deepest caves and wrecks. The can easily be changed around as your needs change ( even size).

I made the mistake of not listening to the guy at the shop who sold them and went to another shop down the road and bought the latest and greatist (BS) backinflate on the market. No i dive a BP/W and diving is better , to bad i wasted lots on money on the other stuff.

 

[eurotin]

well i have been doing research and reading about the different features that a BC can offer. The dive show where i got my cert recomended getting something along these lines. I just figured i would ask others opinoins from people who have been using them and not a dive shop trying to push a product.

also.. what does BP/W mean?

 

[cerich]

back plate and wing. They have been crossing over from tech to recreational divers the last few years.

I teach tech yet still grab a Islander in warm water and a Excursion in other when diving recreationally. I have a dozen BP/W combos as well.....

Best,

Chris

 

[bubble-head]

I have the Excursion and love it! It's very comfortable and much less bulky than my old jacket style Scuba Pro. The cordura nylon is very heavy duty. The D-Rings are very useful and there's plenty of them to carry lights, sausages, etc. The weight integration system works very well and donning and removing weights is quick and easy. My cylinder stays very secure and does not shift any. I like having the hard backpack covered by the padding. The small inflation mechanism took a little getting used to as I sometimes hit the power inflate button when meaning to dump air out but have now mastered it. It's a great BC and I highly recommend it.

 

[snwelf]

I own an excursion and love it. I dive cold water most of the time; but just got back from a trip to Roatan and this BC was awesome. I dive steel tanks in cold water and don't have to use the back weight pockets; but when I was using the AL-80s on vacation I used 2 lbs in each pocket and it was perfect. Also I think Oceanic has some kind of 30 day guarentee on it; but check their website to verify.

Good luck on you choice.

 

[Vicente]

The trend these days is very "minimalist".

A back-plate is just that. Take a plastic, aluminum, or stainless steel backplate as the skeleton. This backplate will have slots cut for webbing to be threaded through.

Now buy some webbing material and thread it through the holes. One continuous piece makes the shoulder harness and waist belt. Add D-rings and buckles.

Fasten to your backplate a wing with the right lift, and off you go. Warm water, use a small wing. Cold water use a bigger one. It's that simple, and you can switch them. "Size" is nearly a non-issue, moderate variations in users can be taken up by adjusting the straps.

You can put your own together, this is not at all difficult. Most shops now sell or will assist with Halcyon or similar setups. For the less DIY crowd, DiveRite makes the TransPac and Transplate units.

The only pocket on mine is a little mesh single-zip DiveRite pocket. Big enough to hold my table, wetnotes, a safety-sausage, and a small folding knife and that is all.

This leads to a trimmer and more flexible setup. For airline travel I have a plastic backplate and small wing that weighs nearly nothing, less stuff to hump through the airport.

The 80's are dead except for nostalgia videos on MTV. The jacket BCD in 42 different colors and trims, 8 sizes, and doo-dads is a mullet hangover.

 

[dbombtek]

I love the excursion I have a whole 4 dives on it now and it works great. Weight integration is awesome if your using a lot of weight and dont like it on the hips. It has amazing lift which can be a problem if its fully inflated on the surface it will push you forward a little to far but the easy fix is to let a little air out of it and you will be fine.

 

[CrackedConch]

I looked at the Excursion and the Outrigger. I have not yet needed or used the HLT bladder on the Outrigger. One option you might consider is getting the Outrigger and using a standard cumber belt rather than the HLT bladder.

You might be thinking, "what a waste" to buy a BC with a front bladder feature and then not use it. But one main reason I went with the Outrigger over the Excursion was because of how it feels/dives and because of the pockets. I prefer to have my safety sausage, bc knife and small light tucked away in a pocket rather than clipped and hanging off me like a Christmas tree.

-something you might want to think about...