Trying to Decide on First BCD

[Eric Sedletzky]

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.

I like hard weights on belts. I have a weight mould I bought which can make 4 lb weights. I used to go around to tire shops and ask for their buckets of old tire weights. I casted enough weights that I pretty much have a lifetime supply.
Those rubber belts are great!
I like the Conshelf 21 idea, in fact I have one that was free and I use it for beach dives. Easy to rebuild too. Parts might get kinda interesting to find now that Aqualung is about to take a crap. But those Conshelfs can go a long time between services if you keep the innards clean by keeping it hooked up to a tank and pressurized as you soak it and hose it off. I think we will still be able to find NOS parts kits into the future if we scour well enough.
One thing you might want to look into is getting a few of those all metal 1085 Aqualung second stages to go with your Connie. They are very simple and seats can be had easily by the DIY community here on the board.
Steel 95’s, perfect
All your other stuff is great.
Have fun.

 

[happy-diver]

When I was smashing the back beaches of the Mornington Peninsula shore diving in Melbourne Australia



and I wanted to remove some of the weights from my pouch belt for other things I went the TUSA Imprex

Sewed two magnificent shot pouches to fit three kilograms each pouches, sewn into the back inflate wing

grabbed my first sewing machine twelve bucks

Lived and dived here by myself

When it was like this, why take two so what you gonna do



to put other stuff with a few weights at the front AND no interference between bc and belt

And when it was hot or I wasn't diving

I'd swim over to that rock over there with a few smokes and some beers

 

[johndiver999]

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.

You are missing some significant concerns. The first is that the plastic fittings can disintegrate and can result in catastrophic failure. Something to be aware of and check for. Another big issue in my experience is checking the OP valve(s) springs. they can and do go bad and can fail catastrophically causing the BC to be more or less useless in an instant.

 

[johndiver999]

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.

Don't get soft weights! Get cheap hard ones - they will be comfortable with a rubber belt. I really like the silicone freedive belts- more expensive but they seem to have the optimal stretch for moderate amounts of weight.

If you are going on nice boats, then it is much more polite to buy exclusively the vinyl covered hard weights, since they leave no ugly marks and are a little more forgiving to the deck than solid lead weights.

 

[Learner Diver]

Enjoy Scuba diving with little regard to price and quality. Hire for the short term.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Don't get soft weights! Get cheap hard ones - they will be comfortable with a rubber belt. I really like the silicone freedive belts- more expensive but they seem to have the optimal stretch for moderate amounts of weight.

If you are going on nice boats, then it is much more polite to buy exclusively the vinyl covered hard weights, since they leave no ugly marks and are a little more forgiving to the deck than solid lead weights.

I bring a five gallon bucket and keep all my stuff in it, including weightbelt.
Nice and tidy.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

You are missing some significant concerns. The first is that the plastic fittings can disintegrate and can result in catastrophic failure. Something to be aware of and check for. Another big issue in my experience is checking the OP valve(s) springs. they can and do go bad and can fail catastrophically causing the BC to be more or less useless in an instant.

I think that’s a little melodramatic.
Just periodically check the stuff.
OP valve is down on the bottom of the BC.
Even if it craps out it’s not the end of the world. Air will still stay in the high parts of the wing. Go up more vertical.

 

[Still Kicking]

I think that’s a little melodramatic.
Just periodically check the stuff.
OP valve is down on the bottom of the BC.
Even if it craps out it’s not the end of the world. Air will still stay in the high parts of the wing. Go up more vertical.

Many BCs have shoulder exhaust and/or a rapid pull dump at the top of the inflator elbow.

 

[happy-diver]

Yeah like on my smashed bc up there still fully functional with heaps of pulling left without pulling off, 30yrs later

It's an overinflation valve a dump or an elbow

 

[johndiver999]

I think that’s a little melodramatic.
Just periodically check the stuff.
OP valve is down on the bottom of the BC.
Even if it craps out it’s not the end of the world. Air will still stay in the high parts of the wing. Go up more vertical.

That is an interesting perspective. As mentioned above, there are OP springs at the top of the BC as well on some BC's. So your advice is worthless if not dangerous in some situations.

Have you experienced a complete failure of the OP spring in deep water? I have.. It is a big F'n deal and could easily kill someone, especially someone new who does not have a good working knowledge of how this sort of failure can occur and can therefore quickly formulate a Plan B.

This issue strikes home for me - I was involved in a potential fatality a while ago with my friend. We were diving in 135 feet on a deep ledge in a screaming current. He was diving a big HP 120 steel which is very negative. He had no wetsuit on. He was doing the first dive with a kinda old BC I just sold him that worked PERFECTLY when I sold it a week or two before. He reached a depth of around 110 with me and the whole BC failed at the top, the plastic fitting where the inflator connects, completely failed. The BC held no air and he was quite negative, had zero ditchable lead and did not notify me. He took off for the surface swimming up a lot of negative weight. I did not see it and suddenly he was just gone - so I continued my dive without him.

He was a very strong and fit man. He did not think to use an SMB or come to me, since I could have (and would have) used the excess lift in my BC to get him to the surface. When he finally arrived on the surface he was exhausted and had a tough time staying there (he was in trouble) and had used a ton of air in the tank for the ascent. The boat picked him up quickly and put him on oxygen and he was fine, but got a good lesson.

When I describe a potential catastrophic failure (to a new diver) and have personally seen people die scuba diving and have also seen my friend almost die (from a failed BC I sold him), it gets me riled up to read that I am being "melodramatic". Not everyone dives in a thick wetsuit in 30 feet of water and within (underwater) walking distance of the shoreline.

I still feel guilty that I did not more carefully check the integrity of that fitting, but I had used it a week before the sale/failure and it performed perfectly (until it tore out/crumbled). I have since seen literally a dozen or more BC's fail in this exact manner.