In subsequent posts it may be that the OP is reacting to the idea (expressed by some) that a BP/w is the superior choice for all divers, regardless of their circumstances.
This is the eternal conflict. I can say that I could and would use anything anywhere
if it mean't getting in a dive somewhere unexpectedly if I wasn't prepared otherwise with my own gear.
I used to be one of those that liked to throw gas on the fire with BP/W as the only way to go, but I don't care anymore.
I understood "Warped Dive World Evolution" to mean that the evolution of diving began with a tank and straps, then quickly the plate evolved, followed eventually by large padded BCs, and now there is a resurgence (or perhaps just a surviving evolutionary arm) of divers using plates. Personally I saw no insult or malice.
I understand "warped" as not necessarily being a good thing depending on the context in which it is used.
I read it as the dive evolution being warped as in getting badly off track and going a direction the OP sees as awry or not in a favorable direction. Maybe it has, I don't know. All I know is I'm very happy diving in my warped little world.
Maybe it's like somebody saying "Dude, that's sick", meaning it's good in a sick and twisted fun way.
Here is the evolutionary cronology:
Tank diving starts with tank held on back with straps. That goes on until very early 60's when plastic, fiberglass and moulded thin aluminum packs came out. That held all the way up into the 70's when full BC jackets began to get developed around a plastic pack. The plastic pack was eventually ditched out of the unit with further developement of the padded up jacket BC.
The plastic pack was eventually phased out completely in virtually all recreational diving except for a very small minority of old time veteran divers.
Jackets went all the way up to current times with back inflates coming in sometime in the 90's along with weight integration and finally the "elevator lever".
Meanwhile the tech community develops what is now the current style of plate with the channel and wing. This happens in a parallel universe to the recreational jacket world.
In the late 90's tech BP/W find their way into the recreational market thanks to the internet. Later so does plastic pack and vintage gear again thanks to the internet and message boards and a growing interest in dive history.
So the minimalist approach of using a pack and or a BP/W (similar) has come full circle. What's old is new, and less is more.
But this is an internet phenomenon not an LDS or mainstream manufacturer trend. The mainstream is trying but they don't get it.
The dive shops now have been left behind in the BP/W world because they missed the bus, but they really don't care because they need to sell more Scubapro and Aqualung stuff anyway to keep their pricing tier up on the highest level. And besides those pesky plates and wings are for tech divers and wannabe's and self righteous A holes anyway so screw 'em.
So, as long as their customers stay off the internet and don't find out about the whole internet diving world and the evils of the BP/W, and only go into their LDS and buy what they're told they need, everything will be just ducky!
