Well... I grew up in Canada so that makes me double nice ... LOL
No, I actually think that they may have something here. Every innovation in scuba diving is initially met with resistance. When the octopus was introduced, people hated it. We spent 10 years in trench warfare when DIR hit the mainstream, we're STILL debating if computers should be considered standard gear or not.... Innovations are adopted slowly in diving because divers (and rightly so) are very risk averse.
Redundancy has been on the radar, even for recreational divers, for some time. Solo diving, the slung pony, the growing awareness that buddy separation and OOA situations are triggers for a great many accidents etc etc etc. There are *good* reasons... REALLY GOOD reasons why people should be taking "bail out" seriously.
Obviously there are several variants available but I actually like this one to some extent. The mounting across the chest is actually quite comfortable and unobtrusive in a jacket style BCD as long as the tank is made from aluminium, which this one is. Don't take my word for it. Try it. ...... you know.... I have two kids and if I cook something new for them, they aren't allowed to have an opinion about whether or not they like it unless they try it at least once. I kind of think this is like that. There is a lot of push back happening on this thread that sounds to me like children saying something is "yucky" before they've even smelled it.
That said, if *I* were designing the system I might have made some other choices than the manufacturer did (and I have pointed those out) but I have no monopoly on being right or knowing what is good for all divers, let alone for the business case of the manufacturer.
What I really like about this is that (finally) a manufacturer has developed a "plug and play" system for bailout that will appeal to the "average" diver. There is a need for this. There is a market for this, I'm sure of it. What's really nice about it is that it will clip to just about any BCD on the market, jacket or otherwise. If it can travel then I think the value only goes up. How many of us (I for one) travel to foreign countries and end up renting gear -- most of the time non-redundant -- on the hope and the prayer that it has been at least marginally taken care of?
Are there other solutions? sure there are.... but this solution -- and by that I mean in particular the rigging -- is definitely an innovation and adds another option to the tool box of safety gear available to divers.
I really don't see the need to be sawing him off at the knees for this.
R..
. Were we all to follow your suggested course of (in)action, Scubaboard would simply be a font of ads for products, instead of a forum for debating the relative merits of the various offerings in the marketplace. You're certainly free to advocate for PonyPak, DiverGuard, or any other ill-conceived piece of gear you like - the rest of us are free to disagree as vocally as we like and state the bases for our objections. And as always, the proof will come over time as the market either adopts or does not.
