Here goes.
It is no secret on here that I am a massive fan of Deep Sea Supply. Their plates allowed me to get back into diving one piece harnesses a few years ago and I have been thoroughly impressed with their plates and wings.
A few things spurred me into buying another single tank rig. The main one being the fact that while I rarely dive single tank, I bought a Kraken last year and wasn't really happy with how it was working with my long pattern plates. Add to that, I don't like having to move rigs around, and with my SS plate on my rebreather, Kydex on my doubles, I was left high and dry for single tank. I grabbed a Freedom plate late last year for the double hose and it isn't compatible with my DSS LCD30 wing. I thankfully have a Dive Rite Travel wing, but I've never really liked it. Barely enough lift for most of the diving I do, the lower dump is on the outside of the wing, on the right so doubly wrong side for it, and while it worked on the Freedom plate, I wasn't happy with it.
My wife is also starting to get into scuba so I stuck the LCD30 onto a normal people sized SS plate for her, and decided I needed a bigger wing for single tank diving.
Research phase started. Obviously DGX is offering a great deal on what is essentially a Dive Rite Travel wing, SS plate, and HOG harness for $300, or $200 for just the wing. My problem with the DR wings is that there is no inherent roll control built in, nor can there be for compatibility with the Transpac. I'm not a fan, and the 25lb of lift wasn't quite enough. I wanted something in the 30 ish lb range, compatibility with my Freedom plate, ideally made in USA, something beefy, and reasonably priced.
Knowing
@OWIC647 was working with a legit wing manufacturer, knowing that I was going to use it quite a bit with my Kraken, and wanting to support the little guys, I took a gamble. I grabbed a complete bp/w rig since I wanted a spare bp/w setup to have as a loaner, and off we went.
Backplate arrived, looked really nice. Good flexibility with cam band locations, good finish, felt good. It's a piece of steel, so not a whole lot that you can really say about it other than it easily met expectations. If you're in the "normal" height range, it'll be a good choice for you.
Harness is just a harness, so nothing really to comment on for that.
As a textile engineer, and having done some wing development work with several manufacturers, this was the part that I was very curious about. Wing looks/feels/basically is an Oxycheq Mach V. Very impressed with it. Nice thick bladder, heavy duty outer cover, embroidery looks spot on. Fit and finish of the sewing is spot on and not something I've seen from a lot of the DR wings, and the couple DGX wings I've seen.
Now, at $225 for the wing vs $200 from DGX, I think it's a no brainer, especially if using on a normal backplate, if anything due to the integrated roll control. Both wings use SS grommets for bolt hole alignment, and if you use sex bolts to hold the wing on, the combo if the wing nut and the sex bolts will cause the tank to easily slip off the spine of the plate. Lots of frustration with that years ago and caused me to use STA's for a long time. The roll control helps to keep the tank from cocking off at an angle and is nice. Build quality again justifies the extra few bucks as I think this is a. a much better profile, especially for a larger wing, and b. it's just a more robust product. I will be exchanging the dump for one from Deep Sea Supply though, Tobins are much better.
At $300, their base price as a package is the same, but to get a SS plate *which unfortunately they are out of stock atm, same with the big wings*, and to go to SS cam bands, you're looking at $365 I think from VDH vs. $300 from DGX. Makes the price gap a bit bigger, but you get Highland SS cam bands vs. generic SS cam bands, but I personally prefer the nylon cam bands. Much less painful if you cock up and get a finger pinched, and I just prefer nylon bands, so there's that.
So if DSS were still shipping, or if you're reading this after Tobin gets up and running, where do I stand? The DSS rigs are around $500, so significantly more than either option up there. I'm torn. I believe Tobin makes a wing that is easily on par quality wise with this one. If you're doing a lot of diving, especially in salty stuff, I think the fast removal from the plate is super convenient. I prefer his plates, both SS and much prefer kydex to aluminum. The kydex plates are super comfortable if diving single tanks because the sides flex more similar to a fabric plate, and they're nicer for doubles/ccr than aluminum. Being as tall as I am, I need the long backplates to dive comfortably and my Freedom plate is also an extra long plate. For me, the comfort would be worth the extra money and for those that fall outside of that height region for a normal plate. As for now, I'm convinced that I'm changing my opinion on the best "value" backplate and wing on the market from DSS to this VDH plate and for those that are in the market, I highly recommend you give Bryan a call
