I am going to continue to use my horse collars for diving where I am wearing little or no exposure gear and therefore need little or no lead and therefore need to put little or no air into the horse collar BC (to upset my trim). And might enjoy the surface flotation benefits when shore diving with long surface swims.
You are right, I also enjoy how sleek I feel when swimming with the horse collar BC. But can I say it is any different than a small wing, no. And again, even though I do use mine still, I have spent decades trying to minimize and streamline (from the point of simplicity and function, not necessarily hydrodynamics
) my scuba kits and I while find there is a place for the horse collar it is a small place, a tiny niche.
I really dislike having anything in front of me or under my chin. A cluttered office causes me anxiety and claustrophobia. I was working at a Scubapro shop when the first back inflate wing kit came out (mid 70s). I was there when we got the shipment of goodies. It was always like Christmas day opening all the boxes and inventory and placing the items on the shelf to sell to customers. When we opened the box with the new BI BCs everybody gasped. That is no good, nobody will want this, how can we sell this, dangerous, blah, blah. I grabbed one and told my boss it was mine. Finally, a way to achieve neutral trim, buoyancy assist and nothing in my office to clutter. Never looked back. The wing is the thing but I will keep my horse collar for when the wing rarely is not. A few years back, okay, probably a long time ago, I did a dive that lasted over 4 hours in total, beach to beach, I swam out to the third ledge, 1.4 miles, out of Commercial Blvd Pier in LBTS and I had no BC of any kind. I did have a surface float, do not need no stink'n BC:
My wife just asked me what I was doing and I explained the thread to her. She said, yes, they (horse collars) are now worn on the back. Yes, exactly, a wing is every bit as simple and clean as a horse collar and it is not in front of me getting in the way of my camera or other enterprise. And that is why they faded away. She started out with a Dacor horse collar also because she got my hand me downs, circa 1979.
Graduated to a "comfy and safe" jacket circa 1984ish of which she had several over the intervening years:
And finally now for several years, a VDH 18 wing and plate.
Evolution.
N
You are right, I also enjoy how sleek I feel when swimming with the horse collar BC. But can I say it is any different than a small wing, no. And again, even though I do use mine still, I have spent decades trying to minimize and streamline (from the point of simplicity and function, not necessarily hydrodynamics
) my scuba kits and I while find there is a place for the horse collar it is a small place, a tiny niche.I really dislike having anything in front of me or under my chin. A cluttered office causes me anxiety and claustrophobia. I was working at a Scubapro shop when the first back inflate wing kit came out (mid 70s). I was there when we got the shipment of goodies. It was always like Christmas day opening all the boxes and inventory and placing the items on the shelf to sell to customers. When we opened the box with the new BI BCs everybody gasped. That is no good, nobody will want this, how can we sell this, dangerous, blah, blah. I grabbed one and told my boss it was mine. Finally, a way to achieve neutral trim, buoyancy assist and nothing in my office to clutter. Never looked back. The wing is the thing but I will keep my horse collar for when the wing rarely is not. A few years back, okay, probably a long time ago, I did a dive that lasted over 4 hours in total, beach to beach, I swam out to the third ledge, 1.4 miles, out of Commercial Blvd Pier in LBTS and I had no BC of any kind. I did have a surface float, do not need no stink'n BC:
My wife just asked me what I was doing and I explained the thread to her. She said, yes, they (horse collars) are now worn on the back. Yes, exactly, a wing is every bit as simple and clean as a horse collar and it is not in front of me getting in the way of my camera or other enterprise. And that is why they faded away. She started out with a Dacor horse collar also because she got my hand me downs, circa 1979.
Graduated to a "comfy and safe" jacket circa 1984ish of which she had several over the intervening years:
And finally now for several years, a VDH 18 wing and plate.
Evolution.
N
.
