Trying to Decide on First BCD

[BoltSnap]

Far greater? I taught many a Rescue Diver class, and they were mostly done with jacket style BCDs. I never saw any case where we floated a "victim" in which the victim was not floating face down. That is why the first step in the chief rescue scenario is to turn the victim over. If you are floating motionless with a BCD on, you will be on your face, no matter what style you have.

Really?? Have you tried it with a SP Stab jacket?

 

[MidOH]

This is a very big issue indeed. The instructor referenced isn't a bad instructor and one can't summarily dismiss his opinion. There is FAR great chance for floating face down for an unconscious diver, in water, with a BP/W or back-inflate BC than with a properly fitting jacket BC. Try it with the Scubapro Stab jacket.

Maybe yet another good reason to go to the surface vertically, not in the dogmatic cave trim.

Bubble in my BPW will be at the top, possibly keeping me head up.

Overinflated on the surface, yeah it'll push me face down a bit.

 

[BoltSnap]

Even my best life jacket holds me face down. It gives you a chance to be rescued, or if you awake, rescue yourself.

If you remain unconscious and nobody finds you, you're dead.

Maybe there's some freaky life jacket designed for unconscious people. I've never worn one in the water ever.

We rescue people who are unconscious on surface and they are on their back with their life-jackets. Are there ones face down, sure. I can't imagine that you have more people rescue than we do here in Libya. We have lots of accidents with boats carrying "irregular" immigrants trying to reach Italy, by the hundreds!!

 

[BoltSnap]

Oh, btw, the people who are floating face-down are people who are either wearing their jackets wrong, wrong size or did something wrong. Many are already dead not because they floated face down but rather because they died before they floated face down. Perhaps they drowned due to very big waves, thirst or other causes. Life-jackets SAVE people when used properly!!!!

All of you folks in the pretty US of A have NO experience with this matter at all, you don't deal with the numbers we deal with here in North Africa. You rescue maybe one or two people on occasional basis, we deal with 10's and even 100's of people in one accident many times during the people immigration season, summer time.

Experience from teaching rescue courses means nothing. What I learned from experience here in Libya vs. what I learned and believed to be the truth in the US is that a lot of what you take for granted as the truth in the US is just BS coming from theoretical BS.

Advice, when you come to rescue or recover a body, NEVER look into the victim's face, NEVER!!! The image will haunt you for a very long time. You won't sleep for at least a week.

 

[LFMarm]

Over the past 15 years I have dived most types of BCDs and owned quite a few (including soft plates, aluminum and steel backplates, bare DIR webbing, webbing with mesh pads, ditchable wieght pockets, trim pockets, …). My suggestion to anybody starting out is to go with the simplest version of BP/W because you can customize over the years, use for any type of diving and exposure protection and is as comfortable to wear as anything else as long as you have at least a rash guard. I would get a stainless steel BP to have optimal placement of some of the weight you will use in any case, a small single tank wing (no more than 30 lbs), a harness with continuous webbing and no mesh pads, a couple trim pockets if you know you will need weights, stainless steel STA. After a few dives you will figure out if you want to make changes (add D-rings, pockets, etc.).

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I’ve never had a BC “serviced” by a dive shop. What is there to service?
Just rinse well and if the inflator takes a crap then get a new inflator or inflator rebuild kit and do it yourself. It’s easy.
Why don’t you just use what you have and when the thing finally disintegrates into powder go find another used one and do the same thing. There is a ton of very lightly used gear sitting in closets and storage units just begging to be rescued and used.
If it’s an integrated model or something you’re not used to, just learn to use it.
All gear works. Trick new gear by itself does not make the diver, experience and learning to use different gear makes the diver.

 

[KJ.]

I’ve never had a BC “serviced” by a dive shop. What is there to service?
Just rinse well and if the inflator takes a crap then get a new inflator or inflator rebuild kit and do it yourself. It’s easy.
Why don’t you just use what you have and when the thing finally disintegrates into powder go find another used one and do the same thing. There is a ton of very lightly used gear sitting in closets and storage units just begging to be rescued and used.
If it’s an integrated model or something you’re not used to, just learn to use it.
All gear works. Trick new gear by itself does not make the diver, experience and learning to use different gear makes the diver.

I must say I certainly like this as it's enabling what I am planning to do!
Here is my gear setup plan for the dry suit course:

Tusa Liberator (or rent for $15 to try out either weight integrated or BP/W)
Mako freedive rubber belt with soft lead weights
Bare D6 HD Pro Dry
USIA undergarment
Bare 7 mm dive hood
neoprene wet boots (not rock) to go over dry suit booties
Tusa Freedom Elite mask
Scubapro Jet Fins
U.S. Divers Conshelf 21 regulator set
single steel 95 cylinders
Suunto D6i wrist computer (only one high pressure hose port so not using transmitter but instead SPG)

cheap accessories:
JZLiner DSMB, 4 ft with open bottom and 100 ft finger spool
Genwiss 2000 lumen dive light
Orcatorch hands free flashlight glove
Storm Safety trauma shears

Hope I'm not forgetting anything.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I must say I certainly like this as it's enabling what I am planning to do!
Here is my gear setup plan for the dry suit course:

Tusa Liberator (or rent for $15 to try out either weight integrated or BP/W)
Mako freedive rubber belt with soft lead weights
Bare D6 HD Pro Dry
USIA undergarment
Bare 7 mm dive hood
neoprene wet boots (not rock) to go over dry suit booties
Tusa Freedom Elite mask
Scubapro Jet Fins
U.S. Divers Conshelf 21 regulator set
single steel 95 cylinders
Suunto D6i wrist computer (only one high pressure hose port so not using transmitter but instead SPG)

cheap accessories:
JZLiner DSMB, 4 ft with open bottom and 100 ft finger spool
Genwiss 2000 lumen dive light
Orcatorch hands free flashlight glove
Storm Safety trauma shears

Hope I'm not forgetting anything.

You'll need to put pockets on the MAKO belt if you plan to use soft weights. Conventional hard weights work well and simply do not slide around unless you move them purposely. I tested the belts I was given by MAKO with up to 25 lbs of lead.
No, I would never need to use that much on a belt, but I was told to test them. And test them I did.
And consider getting some of the oversized plastic keepers to keep the pockets in position. Although with the new material they are using, even nylon pockets don't slide around that much once you have it on.
I have two of the new belts that MAKO gave me to test when they first decided to go with them, and four of the older rubber belts I kept for students.
Rubber weight belts were all I recommended to my students.

 

[happy-diver]

All gear works. Trick new gear by itself does not make the diver, experience and learning to use different gear makes the diver.

 

[KJ.]

You'll need to put pockets on the MAKO belt if you plan to use soft weights.

Yes, I have the pockets from my XSScuba belt as well as 18 lbs of shot lead.

So I shouldn't need to use keepers then to keep them from sliding around? Someone mentioned getting an extra buckle but not sure why or if this means to just get an extra belt?