Travel BCD Recommendation for a Petit Woman

[pelan-pelan]

The agony of finding a jacket that fits. Very important to try it on with a tank. But there is nothing like getting in the water. Perhaps try on other people's - jump in, climb out. Climbing out - very important that the thing is balanced.

As for chest straps - don't get me started. Tried on a BC, perfectly comfortable and balanced with a tank on land - giant stride in and the blooming (you know what I mean) thing rode up and the chest strap nearly garotted me. Left a mark.

I have an ancient BC that fits fine. And it doesn't have integrated weights because integ weights are too high up my body for good buoyancy. My strength is in my legs, not my shoulders and chest. Weights round my waist as low down as possible and I can hang on to the ladder and climb out. Integ weights, too high, weight up near chest, boat pitches and I lose grip and fall backwards. This is a very bad thing to happen.

One of the people I owe most to for diving is the woman who allowed me to try her much loved woman's BC. I then discovered that I would never ever waste my money on that model. So wrong.

I hope if anyone wanted to try my BC for a quick jump in and climb out that I would say Yes.

 

[ZzzKing]

OK, I have to ask... If you (medium sized) and your wife (small) have already discovered and love the infinitely adjustable lightweight soft BP and travel wing solution that also fits me well (at 5'11" and 215lb), why did you not also buy this solution for your kids (who presumably are a new size every month or two - or at least annually). I would think this would have been a no-brainer vs. putting a growing kid into some jacket BC that makes you buy new components periodically to keep up with their changing sizes?
And since I'm already on a roll, let me give some anecdotal evidence that a BP/W setup is perfect for a growing kid. One of my buddies, an instructor, taught his daughter to dive at age 6 when she was (as you might expect) kid sized, using a small BP/W and a AL19 as a main tank. The next year she was in the same BP/W with double AL19s in bands he custom fabricated, then later in the same BP but with a wide wing with double AL30s. She's only 10 now, but pretty much adult sized (about 5'3" I think - almost as tall as Mom) and still in the same BP/W (I think he did have to add some longer webbing for the harness) and has claimed my friend's double LP45s as "hers" now. The bottom line is in these 4 years she has changed significantly in size and her tanks have changed 4 times (also increasing in size and volume), but the same BP/W setup is still a perfect fit and will be for the foreseeable future.

I know it’s been a couple of years but I just found this thread again and thought I would ‘splain myself. My daughter actually did her checkout dives at 11 in an Oxycheq softplate w/ 17# Oxy Razor wing (no longer made) and you are correct, it was easily adjustable to her size.

Her instructor in Akumal (also a cave instructor) thought she was the coolest junior diver ever. When baby brother got old enough to dive, I bought two of the Outlaws so the kids would have the same kit and my wife could have her softplate and wing back.

Fast forward about 5 years and the boy has outgrown the Outlaw. He now has a steel plate and wing like me and the girls use the Outlaws. I understand that it’s Scubaboard and anyone that gets their kid anything but a plate and wing is committing child abuse and should be reported to CPS immediately, but the truth is that the Outlaws and quite a number of other compact back-inflate BC’s are good equipment and can grow as the diver grows. That said, I personally use a steel plate and wing exclusively for all my diving but the girls are happy with their gear and it’s about 5 pounds lighter than our plates although not quite as compact.

My main complaint about the softplate after using one for several years is that the tank tends to feel a little floppy unless the shoulder webbing is cranked down tight so that is why I no longer use one.