bcds

royvoss

Member
looking to get a new bcd, mine is about 10 years old, not shore what brand do not think it is made anymore, i read about oceanic ans sea elite, can anybody give an opinion. thanks roy
 
My wife and I have ScubaPro Nighthawks. We choose that brand because we are quite tall (both 6'1) and it fits nicely. The octopus is located on the bcd so you dont need another reg floating around. Basically it comes down to getting comfortable with using it. Has an attached whistle. Easy to clean and store, has multiple valves to release water. I'm happy with it. It was within our budget too, despite being a scubapro. I figure life-support equipment is worth the cost. :D

Hope this helps, as far as the other brands I'm not too sure. I think I had an oceanic about 10 years ago myself.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14349710#post14349710 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Grunt
My wife and I have ScubaPro Nighthawks. We choose that brand because we are quite tall (both 6'1) and it fits nicely. The octopus is located on the bcd so you dont need another reg floating around. Basically it comes down to getting comfortable with using it. Has an attached whistle. Easy to clean and store, has multiple valves to release water. I'm happy with it. It was within our budget too, despite being a scubapro. I figure life-support equipment is worth the cost. :D

Hope this helps, as far as the other brands I'm not too sure. I think I had an oceanic about 10 years ago myself.

I also endorse this.
 
Now that you've been diving for a while, what sort of diving interests you most? What have you done, what do you plan to do, and where do you think you're headed in your diving? Are you into tropical water only? Temperate waters? Cold? Are you into photography or videography? Shipwrecks? Does caving interest you at all?

Ever considered diving doubles? Does a rebreather interest you? Are you "rec only" and rent tanks, or do you own your own?
 
I'd stick to either scubapro or oceanic. I've been down with both, like'em both, and own oceanic stuff. Very good stuff, very dependable and somewhat cheaper than scubapro if that means anything to ya. Just my 0.02 Good luck
 
mostly open water,reef at tropics, here a home (nj) there is wrecks, other then that it is basilly a desert. i have my own tanks, i fill them myself. my wife and kids are getiing ther open water certs now, she want to take pics. kid just want to see fish. do not plan on going in cold water.


thanks everone for your input. i am open to for more input.
 
Very cool - hey, I used to live in NJ... Medford Lakes, near Cherry Hill.

How do you fill your own tanks? Do you have a compressor? Do you find it financially worthwhile to do that and service your tanks annually rather than just rent them?

You say that you're just diving in the tropics, but if you live in NJ, that means that you're only diving on vacation a few times a year... In which case I would tell you that you shouldn't buy a BC at all, and just rent one every time you go on vacation. That way, you're always using a BC that's the "latest and greatest" and in a good state of repair. Most vacation-only divers find that by the third year of diving, their own BC is generally outdated and in a bad state of repair from sitting and collecting dust. The bottom line is that the investment generally isn't worth it, and it makes much more sense to rent gear. Besides, who would want to lug wet gear back on a plane or in the trunk of the car when you can just leave it at the dive shop? Same goes for the tanks - every year, they need to be visually inspected, and every five years they need to be hydrostatically tested. Can you really justify the price of maintaining these items, plus the price of the initial buy, plus having to lug them around as compared to the price of renting a tank from the LDS when you arrive on vacation? Even more difficult to justify in this case is the price of the compressor. Since you're likely not going to take it with you on vacation, you'll probably be getting fills from the LDS anyway - so why buy one unless you have no other option, especially if you aren't going to use it?

The only way it begins to make sense is if you're diving several times a month... Which, unless you live on vacation, means that you're going to be diving in NJ and the surrounding area... Which means that you're going to be diving cold waters and your needs are going to be considerably different than if you were a "vacation only" diver. In that case, longevity and durability would be paramount, and you'd probably want to consider a backplate and wing. Backplates and wings also work best for doubles and what most recreational divers consider "tech gear," which is probably the direction you'd be moving in if you're diving in cold waters and shipwrecks off of NJ... Not to mention that most divers prefer a backplate and wing when diving in a drysuit, which is likely what you'll gravitate toward if you regularly dive in waters below 75* or so... But that's not what you've said you're doing, and underwater sightseeing tours with the wife and kids probably isn't on the agenda in those cases. You seem to me to be in that mindset, however, with purchasing your own tanks and your own compressor, which is usually a precursor to gas blending and a "tech" mindset.

...So if you really are the "vacation-only" diver, I would say "don't purchase a BC at all, and let the dive shop deal with maintenance and the initial cost of ownership." If you lived in an area where you were doing a lot of diving (say, Ft. Lauderdale, for example), then it would make a lot more sense to purchase your own.

Since you've apparently already decided to purchase your own BC, you must have a reason... Why? What advantage would it give you?
 
thanks for the input, the wife and kids want to dive in the summer here and to gain experience. not sure if they would go to any of the wecks. they may want to vist some of the man made reefs. i live i ocean gate (toms river area). we own a marina and ever sunday we spend it on the water in the summer months. lds is about an hour from were i live. i fill the tanks with the compressor at the fire house. i just needed to buy and adapter to make it work. the air is checked yearly and exceeds hospital requirements. plus i have 24/7 access as a member and it is about a block from my house.
 
Ah, I gotcha. Your situation is a lot like mine was when I got serious about diving.

Yeah, I can understand about taking the wife and kids to a NJ shipwreck (or any shipwreck for that matter). Real shipwrecks are a complete disaster area, in the most profound sense of the term. There's cable, lines, rust and jagged metal everywhere, and they're often draped in fishermen's nets to boot. Entaglement and collapsing hazards are everywhere, not to mention the danger of fuel and acids and... The worst... Entrapment hazards. True wreck diving is serious stuff, and a certain mindset is an absolute requirement to engage in the activity with any degree of safety margin. Many an experienced, educated and vastly qualified diver has lost his life on true shipwrecks.

The artificial reef, the "on-purpose" shipwreck, on the other hand, nas been sanitized for the safety of divers. Typically, lead-based paints, batteries, engines and petroleum products have been removed, and many ports have been cut to ensure that entrapment is a very small risk. They're also placed in areas such that the "wreck" sits within recreational dive limits (usually), on a sandy bottom where there's good visibility, and current is either a non-issue or a very small issue, comparatively speaking. Properly researched, the artificial reef can be introduced to your family with comparatively little risk while still offering them the thrill of diving a wreck.

Combined with your ability to obtain fills, it sounds to me like the purchase of a good BC would be very beneficial to you, and enable you to do a lot more diving than you would do otherwise. I recommend seeking professional training locally for the "hardest core" diving that you're planning on doing - which it sounds like will be NJ wreck or artificial reef diving. I think that once you (and your family, if possible) takes this sort of training, you'll find that the sort of BC that you gravitate towards will be the same sort that most wreck and reef divers gravitate toward - the backplate and wing. For performance, trim and balance, they simply can't be beat, and they offer the ability to swap and change wings from lightweight, tropical "travel" wings to heavy, large wings to doubles wings (a requirement for any sort of overhead diving - especially wreck diving... Which you at least want the opportunity to do if NJ's famous wrecks begin to interest you). Backplates and wings also have the incredible advantage that they don't wear out or become outdated, and the entire harness can be replaced by you for around $12... Which you'll probably end up doing every couple of years if you're rough with your gear, which NJ wreck divers typically are. Backplates and wings are incredibly streamlined and don't "parachute" in current like regular BCs do, making them the choice for performance-oriented divers, and pack completely flat for traveling. There's even an aluminum plate available that weighs about one pound, making it lighter than the vast majority of BC's, especially when wet... Making plane travel to tropical destinations a breeze.

Backplates and wings also have the distinct "cool factor" of being uber-tech in appearance, which definitely draws a lot of people to them - but my favorite feature about them is that they still look uber-tech years later, when most people's BCs look like they're on their last leg.

Backplates and wings have the reputation for being super-expensive, but that's not really true... Sure, there's a lot of BCs out there that are only a couple of hundred dollars, but the top of the line stuff can run $700 or more. The last I looked, Halcyon's Eclipse 30 MC pack (recognized as one of the best, if not THE best) runs just a tick over $500. Interestingly, the Eclipse 30 is what the main character in the movie "Into the Blue" with Jessica Alba wore during the entire movie. Even more interesting, if you watch the "making of" portion of the movie in the "bonus feature" section, you'll see that almost every photographer and videographer filming the movie also wore a variety of makes and models of backplates and wings. Frankly, that's for a reason.

Years ago I wrote an article about backplates and wings, along with two other types of buoyancy compensators, here: http://www.deepsouthdivers.org/old/homebc.html . I hope you'll read it and find it informative.

If a backplate and wing seems too "hardcore" for you at first, reconsider and try one. Alternatively, Dive Rite makes a Transpac, which is simply a backplate and wing without the backplate. It, too, is very streamlined, offers a variety of snap-in wings of different sizes and lifts, and can handle doubles if you find yourself wanting to venture into the wrecks. It also offers an optional backplate which simply snaps in, so that if you find yourself longing for a plate, it can be easily added without having to buy an entirely new system. A lot of "tech" divers I know use a Transpac with a plate, then remove it so that their BC can simply fold up for plane travel to exotic vacation destinations.

It's interesting to note, too, that if you go to eBay and look at what used BCs are selling for, you'll find that backplates and wings (loosely including the Dive Rite Transpac) tend to never go out of style and retain their value much more than an off-the-shelf BC like an Oceanic or Scubapro. This speaks volumes about their life expectancy and longevity, and how they are valued by experienced divers. It also means that if you ever decide to sell your scuba gear, you'll be much better compensated for your gear, making the cost of diving considerably less in the long run.

Hope that helps.
 
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yes it does help, i do not plan on hardcore, i also believe i would never go into a wreck, never really wanted to, always thought the risk was too high, even more so with a family that i need to support. i do not want to put the wife and kids in unnesasary risk. the artifical reefs i enjoyed,but never went in them. thanks for the article link.

roy
 
If you have an aqualung dealer in your area that will let you test out a BC, check out Aqualung Pro QD i3. The reason I say try it first is that it uses the i3 technology which completely changes the way you add and release air. It completely changed my style of diving and made it so much easier to release air without having to change my angle in the water.
 
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