Travel BC owners, why?

[Ontwreckdiver]

Both my setups are Sub Gravity Paragon single tank packages.
For travel, I have a Sub Gravity 3mm aluminum BP, 26 lb wing, drop down small weight pockets and adjustable harness.
For diving at home with a dry-suit & 108 LP single steel tanks, I have a 6mm stainless BP that weighs 10.1 lbs, 37 lb wing, drop down weight pockets and adjustable harness.

My BP/W for home is way over kill and way to heavy for travel.

 

[Rilelen]

I’m also curious about this. My recreational set-up is the same at home and when I travel…

 

[TooCold]

I'd guess that for backmount divers using a different BC for travel correlates pretty well with warm vs cold water diving (or wetsuit vs drysuit).

I have a steel BP / 40 lb wing for local drysuit diving that's too bulky and too heavy to want to travel with. My travel is to tropical sites and my travel BC is light, compact (so travels nicely) and has a much smaller wing so it doesn't flap around like the big 40 pounder would.

 

[Chavodel8en]

Because I dont want to take my 5 lbs steel BP -- optimal for local diving -- on a plane with a 40 lbs bag limit. (And it would be too much ballast if I was diving in my swimsuit)

And I dont want to rethread a different plate when I travel. So I got a cheap travel BC for travel.

 

[boulderjohn]

And I dont want to rethread a different plate when I travel.

That's why STAs were invented.

 

[Shasta_man]

BC capable of wet suit cold water diving vs simple BC for warm water diving.

 

[Shasta_man]

when "home" means cold water

 

[Nemrod]

My fully rigged VDH 18# tropical wing on an Oxy soft plate weighs 5.5 pounds. My Oxy 30# temperate water wing on a stainless Freedom Plate is around 9 pounds. I could certainly use the Oxy 30 and Freedom Plate in warm water but the near 4 pounds difference is a spare wetsuit so I always have a dry one or almost another regulator or other things I need. Resorts generally have plenty of lead so carrying heavy plates around in airports and dragging it all over is not appealing to me.

 

[Wibble]

In a similar vein, I am very interested in getting a travel rebreather, something that is smaller and lighter than my current unit which would fit in carry-on luggage. The Triton is the current front runner, which also happens to be pretty nifty in wriggly caves.

Then again, I also need lighter fins, regulators, torches, drysuit…. The list goes on…

Just arrived in Lanzarote for some hydrobaric therapy and have my minimum weight kit down to 26kg/57lbs for the Revo Mini in a Pelicase and 23kg/50lbs for the regs, drysuit, fins and other miscellaneous diving essentials. Have another case for clothes, etc. This has to be made lighter as the baggage costs are considerably higher than the actual plane ticket.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

That's why STAs were invented.

Actually no.
STA’s came about because those doubles style were originally set up for doubles exclusively. I don’t know who was the first to come up with a Single Tank Adapter, it was either OMS, Dive Rite or Halcyon, probably Halcyon, but divers really liked to use their plates for everything. They got used to them, had them adjusted, knew where everything was, etc. so why not use it for singles too? This is why STA’s were invented.
Then Halcyon was the first to invent slots in the plates and wing to eliminate the STA. I remember Mike Kane boasting about how “now the tank is now even closer to your back and more streamlined”!
Ironically, Halcyon did away with wing slots and went back to STA’s, while everyone else continued on and perfected STA-less systems.
STA’s were a bandaid to adapt a single onto a doubles plate.