looking for a great BCD

[obada.jandali]

sorry for that, still a newbie

i'm getting a Jacket or Regular BCD !!

fire away the advices ppl!!

Kindly:cheeky:

 

[Crush]

I love it when someone tells you what gear to buy when they have less than 25 dives under their belt. And then you have another guy telling you you have to have a back plate, and he has 100 times as many post's as he has dives, and does not have one picture of him self near the water. It is what type of diving you do. I do a lot of salvage work and need pockets and lots of stainless D rings for lift bags, I like ti carry 2- 50 lbs and 2 -100 lbs. Mostly I use my Seaquest QBC I have 3 of them, I do have a Zeagle tech. and OMS double bladder, and a dive team issued Lifeguard systems bcd (junk). Stay away from the airsorce and air-2 octo's save your money and put it towards a pony set up.

I agree with 25dives, they are very knowledgeable about gear:shocked2:

Two excellent examples of why SB has many more readers than posters. I don't see a problem with new divers (like me) offering their advice based upon their personal (limited) experience. At least the new divers indicate their limited number of dives in their profile so that you can consider the source and make up your own mind.

 

[Lord Melch]

Well, firstly let me say welcome to the diving community. I'll let others point out where the search button is oh and good call on the Apek.

The Mares Dragon is a great BCD in my opinion. I personally have the Mares Pegasus which isn't fancy but it does the job beautifully.

+2 on that Apeks awesome Regs.

Mares Dragon a great BCD and Mares customer service (in the UK anyway) are very very good.

My advise would be - re the BCD is to pop down to your local dive shop if you have one and try a whole bunch on.

Welcome to Diving.. Good move.

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

I've read all the posts. I have a ScubaPro Classic Stab Jacket with an AIR2 from the 90's, and a new ScubaPro Nighthawk with an AIR2. I always use a 30 Sling bottle pony along with the AIR2 set up. I find these two jackets fit my needs, and I would recommend them, but their are many others that are just as good (personal prefence), or better. It just depends on what kind of diving I'm doing. I mount my doubles on the vest's plastic backpack, with a home made S/S allthread hookup, that ties into contour cut Delrin blocks that mount directly into the intergral plastic pack. This is what I was taught many years ago. I have never had trouble with this set up, and I will continue to dive this as my personal preference. My stab jacket sees more use with my drysuit, and the Nighthawk is more for my wetsuit. Zeagle, Halcyon, and others are high quality BCD's, as you choose your gear.

The nighthawk has the bungee cords, and I can really see and feel how it expands and dumps quick. The stab jacket is a little slower, but after many dives with it, I can control it with ease. Try as many as you can before you buy your gear. Good luck on your choice.

BTW - Buy and mount (sling or hardmount a pony), with whatever BCD you use. I like the sling, since I can hand it off to my buddy, as I grab him by the vest, and we do a controlled ascent. You may want to hardmount the pony, with an extended LP hose. Your choice...........just get a pony bottle.

 

[Stu S.]

That Scubapro is a spearfisherman favorite. It has no extras, and when empty isn't much to wear at all.

Anyhow, observe divers using all types of BC's and you will see they all work the same. At depth, early in the dive, there well be a little wad of air in the bladder, probably around the diver's shoulders. It will appear about the size of a (American) junior football. As the diver consumes air, the tank becomes more buoyant, and the BC air is gradually released.

My profile picture shows that little ball of air in the BC. (That's at 110 feet on the Rodeo 25). My regular dive group uses all types of BC's and that air is still in the same place. Although it is easy to imagine a diver below with a fully inflated BC, "it don't work that way".

Correctly used, they all work about the same.

 

[ozziworld]

I started diving twenty two years ago and my first bcd was a sherwood front-adjust vest. It was okay and felt quite "luxurious" with all the padding, linings and buckles etc.

I later realized that I never really used the adjustments and the padding just added bulk. In fact, when properly weighted, I don't have any air in the bc at all for most of my dive.

I later got a good deal on a scubapro stab jacket. I removed the only padding it came with (cummerbund and back plate padding) to lessen bulk and for quicker drying. it fits me perfectly so I never needed to adjust anything from day one. It is so low profile with no air (which is the right way to dive when properly weighted) and I find it has a lot of lift if I will ever need it. I have dived this bc for the last twenty years. Yes, I take good care of it and make sure I keep a wet towel over it to keep it from the sun which does the most damage to scuba gear.

I have never gotten around to trying a bp wings which look interesting enough. I was actually contemplating going to just the bp (plastic or stainless) without the wing. but that may be too much of a step back into history.

I suggest you get your buoyancy down to the point you "know" you hardly have any air in your bc which means you are also not swimming around with more weight than necessary. Then basically any bc will give you decent 'trim'. Remove the padding since it just adds bulk and drag.

Exceptions of course would be the type of diving you will be doing. For recreational diving. you should be trying to dive with the least amount of weight possible. But that would be another topic.

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

That Scubapro is a spearfisherman favorite. It has no extras, and when empty isn't much to wear at all.

Anyhow, observe divers using all types of BC's and you will see they all work the same. At depth, early in the dive, there well be a little wad of air in the bladder, probably around the diver's shoulders. It will appear about the size of a (American) junior football. As the diver consumes air, the tank becomes more buoyant, and the BC air is gradually released.

My profile picture shows that little ball of air in the BC. (That's at 110 feet on the Rodeo 25). My regular dive group uses all types of BC's and that air is still in the same place. Although it is easy to imagine a diver below with a fully inflated BC, "it don't work that way".

Correctly used, they all work about the same.

That's why I use the Nighthawk when I Spearfish in NC.

 

[Ghanguss]

I have the Mares Dragon without air trim. AT seemed a bit fiddley for me with extra things that can go wrong.

Pros
Really comfortable
Integrated weights are awsome
Top Quality
Pockets /D rings ect suit my dive rig (pretty standard rig BTW)

Cons
Seems bulky compared to my previous BCD. I notice a bit of extra drag. Maybe thats just my expanding waistline

Inflator mechanism is enclosed and not fully servicable to my knowledge. Probably have to replace the the entire mechanism if it starts leaking

 

[TSandM]

I had a BC with integrated weights when I started diving. I learned a few things about weight integration: 1. When you have the dual goals of holding something securely AND making it easy to remove, it's like that one or the other or both aren't going to be done very well. 2. Putting your weights in your BC makes your BC much harder to handle above ground, and hangs all the weight off your shoulders. It made mine hurt. 3. Integrated weights may or may not end up being where you need the weight to be, in order to balance properly underwater. 4. Integrated weight pockets can carry a limited amount of weight, and it's often simply not enough for cold water diving (this may not be relevant to you).

I ended up using a plain old weight belt, which works fine for me, and my husband uses a weight harness (which has many of the same drawbacks as weight integration, except that it isn't part of the rig so it solves the weight on land issue).

I would recommend getting the least bulky, most streamlined and simplest BC that fits you well. I've seen a number of divers go for the big BCs with the up and down levers and the like, and within a year, almost all of them are back here telling us about the new BC they bought (and, I can't resist saying it, it's usually a backplate and wing system )

 

[Lord Melch]

TSandM, some good points, but IMHO down to the design of the BC.
For example the Mares Dragon let's one put trim weights in the back (as well as front/sides), which helps nicely.
To remove the weights - click and they are out.

I would say if you use a BC with integrated weights, try taking it off and putting on again underwater.

A good skill to be practised/learned, as many divers possibly did this last time along time ago when they were learning and had a weight belt on..
Make sure your buddy is close by to grab you / the BC