Hank49:
I haven't done the actual numbers but it seems that most of the folks using and loving bp/w are more cold water, thick wet or dry suit divers. I have never tried a bp/w (except my first dive in 1980 but I don't remember much about it) but I hardly notice I'm wearing a bc jacket. (The one i use now is more comfortable than the first one I tried) I use relatively thin wetsuits in the warm waters where I've dived. Does the bp/w add the same comfort increase in these conditions as it seems to for cold water divers?
I believe the breakdown comes from the location of the divers and their frequency in the water. Last year before my shoulder surgery I was diving almost every weekend and some in between. Almost every bit of that was in the cheap (meaning I got a gooood deal on it), comfortable little Mares jacket I am wearing in my profile. I love that thing! Its very light and great for most any of the diving I have done thus far..
Then came this little bug planted in my ear by some folks when I dove with them at Ginnie Springs and some others at Venice Beach. The power of observation is a powerful tool! I read MANY threads on SB about the BP/Wing, who makes BP's, different wings, etc., and finally, about the time Charley came along and was blowing down on our coast here I had my very own FredT Plate and OMS wing. I spent the time we had no power putting it together, playing with the straps, etc., learning about this new beast thats been intriguing me for a few months.
Finally I jump in on a dive with it. My surface swim was amusing as I learned about the need for MUCH LESS AIR but I nolonger felt like I was wearing a girtle and could breathe more relaxed, hence I wasn't panting when I got to the drop down point. In fact, it was like swimming with a little inflatable boat once I figured it out. Then came that moment of truth..... well, as best as it could be considering it was a shallow dive.
I dropped down to the bottom a whopping 18' down and out of sight with the poor vis. The single AL tank made the wing taco up once I added some air to get me off the sand (I planned ahead and got a wing that works with dbl and singles because I have some dive goals) but that was no big deal. I gave a little nudge with my finger tips to get me just a little higher so fossiling was easier and when I lifted my hand I noticed that I was dead flat level. In my head I'm saying "WOooooooo!", so I frog kick a little to see how it feels.. Amazingly, I am able to control myself with little movement of the torso in the direction wanted (up or down) and fin pivots were so very easy. After about 70 minutes of barely noticing I was wearing a rig and having collected a LOT of teeth, I surfaced with my buddy.
Normally, no matter how I weighted or adjusted the tank, I would always have a sore neck after this type of dive.. the tank would float up on the bottom as it got emptied, or the tank was to close to the back of my neck and my head would hit it, but the bottom wasn't floating up. Not this time. My neck felt fine, my head didnt have a dent from the tank being to close and the swim in was like the swim out.. like swimming on a little inflatable boat.
My next 9 dives were all similar experiences in deeper water up to 60' deep, both fresh and salt. For me, the difference once I switched was amazing. It felt like a promotion into the next level of diving. It also really helped me see how well I had done at working on skills that I thought I was only mediocre at previously.. lets just say it put an underscore in my confidence level of my skill set.
Why does it seem disproportionally numbered for BP/W divers on SB? Because as they meet divers from other places and learn about new techniques and gear they wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise, it challenges us to try new things and improve ourselves. I'm not saying the BP/W is superior for all diving, but in what I do I have noticed that it performs better for me... I can't wait to see how it does when I'm allowed to dive again later this year!
