Travel BP&W For Warm Water Diving

[uncfnp]

I almost always have issues with security when traveling, if it's not my lights it's my computer, if not computer it's my regs...I often wonder if they actually know what they are doing. Or perhaps it's just because I look like a crack head, gaunt, skinny and bald. I must confess to sometimes getting lippy which never helps the situation particularly when the person in "authority" is on bit of a power trip, but sometimes the ridiculousness of the questions is too irritating to ignore. Yes, I cut off my nose to spite my face.

HaHaHa. As opposed to a petite ditzy middle aged white female hyper excited to be on vacation. They probably can't get me out of there fast enough!

 

[RJP]

Meanwhile they confiscate my 9/16" open end wrench from my camera gear consistently. I am pretty sure somebody would stop me before I could disassemble the plane one bolt at a time...

After an extended trip to Egypt in 2009 I was flying home: Hurgada-Cairo, then Cairo-JFK. At both HRG and CAI I was stopped and had my carry-on searched... multiple times. Understandably my steel BP and can light battery (which looks like five sticks of dynamite taped together with a fuse sticking out) caused concern. Each time they looked at the stuff, I explained what it was, they swabbed it, said OK, and I went on my way to the next checkpoint. Only to have the process repeated 1-2 more times in each airport. Probably a total of 6x that day.

When we were about halfway across the Atlantic headed to JFK I went to the overhead and opened my bag to get a book out. Only then did I realize that in all the concern about the BP and can light... that no one ever noticed the titanium dive knife, trauma shears, and Z-cutter attached to my rig.

 

[Nemrod]

Steel plates are pounds heavier than the fabric travel plates. The Oxy may weigh like 6 ounces and the VDH aluminum plate maybe 12 ounces. For travel purposes that is big. Using plastic cam straps and buckles can save weight. N

 

[AggieDiver]

Thanks for all the info and advice! Keep it coming. I notice at least one, and possibly several of the wing manufacturers have their rear dump valve on the front of the wing. From an ergonomic perspective, it certainly makes it easier to reach, but in a horizontal face down trim, it seems having the dump on the front of the wing would be pretty much useless. I don't spend much time face up with my feet above my head, which would be the best way to use such a dump valve. Anybody have a wing like that and have any input on how easy or difficult it is to dump?

 

[RJP]

I notice at least one, and possibly several of the wing manufacturers have their rear dump valve on the front of the wing. From an ergonomic perspective, it certainly makes it easier to reach, but in a horizontal face down trim, it seems having the dump on the front of the wing would be pretty much useless. I don't spend much time face up with my feet above my head, which would be the best way to use such a dump valve. Anybody have a wing like that and have any input on how easy or difficult it is to dump?

Most (All?) wings have the dump located there. No problems at all.

Think about where/how the dump valve is oriented in reality when you're horizontal and there's some air in the wing. Simply reach back and pull the string UP to vent.

If the valve were on the other side of the wing you couldn't reach it... it'd be between the wing and the tank.

 

[AggieDiver]

Steel plates are pounds heavier than the fabric travel plates. The Oxy may weigh like 6 ounces and the VDH aluminum plate maybe 12 ounces. For travel purposes that is big. Using plastic cam straps and buckles can save weight. N

I totally agree. My wife and I are now up to two camera rigs in addition to our base gear. I need all the help I can get trying to keep travel weight down. As far as carryons go, on the major airlines, they haven't gone after weight yet, but on Cayman Airways Express flights over to Little Cayman, your carryon is supposed to be 15 pounds or less. There is no place to stow a large carryon on the plane anyways. It can get kind of tricky trying to pack for those flights, because on the flights down to Grand Cayman, you can have a carryon, a personal item, and as many bags as you are willing to pay for, as long as the check bags are under 50 lbs. The flight to Little Cayman allows two free check bags and one small carryon, but the total of the 2 check bags has to be 55 pounds or less and the carryon has to be 15 or less. The overweight fee is only $0.50/pound on the Cayman Airways Express flights, but is $75-200 depending on which domestic airline you fly. With all the camera gear and scuba gear plus a minimal amount of clothing and toiletries, I am always going to go over the 70 pound total on Cayman, but the trick is packing it in a way to minimize the chance of incurring bag fees on the domestic airlines where it will be much more expensive. Any weight I can save via a lighter BC/backplate setup is worth it in the long run.

 

[ScubaMarc]

Thanks for all the info and advice! Keep it coming. I notice at least one, and possibly several of the wing manufacturers have their rear dump valve on the front of the wing. From an ergonomic perspective, it certainly makes it easier to reach, but in a horizontal face down trim, it seems having the dump on the front of the wing would be pretty much useless. I don't spend much time face up with my feet above my head, which would be the best way to use such a dump valve. Anybody have a wing like that and have any input on how easy or difficult it is to dump?

As a photographer, I find myself head down, feet up (upside down )and the top of the BC is where the pull dump is. I use the dump a lot.Also when I jump into the water I sometimes decend head first and the dump works well there too

 

[phoenix31tt]

Don't worry about the dump.. its easy... at most (if the wing is almost empty) you may have to tilt right for the air to escape

 

[halocline]

The dump valve is located on the 'outside' of the wing as the edges naturally wrap around the tank. If you imagine the wing doing this it makes sense.

I would look carefully at the DSS kydex plate with one of the small DSS wings. I use a freedom plate with an oxycheq 18 lb wing and I like it a lot, but if I were starting over I'd go DSS. The rigid plate stabilizes the tank much better than the soft plates; in fact 'soft plate' is a bit of a contradiction in terms. The rigidity of the plate is part of what makes it work.

If you only use 4lbs of weight with a jacket BC, don't get a steel plate, assuming the same cylinder. With such a small ballast requirement, you'll be overweighted. It's easy to put 4lbs on the cambands.

 

[Nemrod]

The fabric plates work fine with aluminum 80/63 tanks. You will notice some rolling especially if you like the shoulder straps loose. The BC that dives closest too a fabric BP/wing is the AL Zuma which also essentially uses the tanks as the back plate. And is also made for aluminum 80/63 tanks and also suffers from, uh, shall we say, tank instability .

Between my camera and my solo need to carry a pony and reg for that pony, I am being squeezed for sure on my baggage weight allowance.

N