Hiya all.
Many moons ago I learned using a jacket style BCD, and found this purfect in basic diving, especially in the position it puts me at the surface. Now, as my rig evolves I need some more lift from my jacket (twin steel 300Bar (4500PSI) 10L tanks are HEAVY, and very negative).
Fundamentally I LIKE my old Scubapro Master jacket. It is comfortable, takes a twinset or single tank, and puts me in the correct position. Whilst I do a lot of DM ing I want to keep this jacket as my main jacket, and do the minimum extra changes for when I go diving for pleasure. Important for me with open water students is the position I am in at the surface.
The Solution?
A UK company (AP Valves) in their Buddy line of BCD's do what is called the 'Redwing' - Redundant Wing - most BC's have the inflator over the left shoulder, this has two identical mountings on the case, one above each shoulder - one for the inflator, and the other for the overpressure valve - just put them on the side you want!
This fits between the back of the jacket fabric, and the front of the plastic tank rest. 15 minutes with a spanner, and the new bladder was fitted. Now I have over my right shoulder the wing inflator, and the left shoulder the jacket inflator.
For a lot of people a jacket style is all you need, the vast majority have adequate lift, and they put you in a good position on the surface, and a position that is not too bad under water. Also, thay are generally quite a bit cheeper than the tech style wings setups.
Wings (imo) are a more advanced setup. once you start doing more advanced divin, perhaps using twin tanks, you start to want the air in different places. A lot of wing systems come in a modular system, so that you can choose the bits you want for what you are doing - this needs quite a bit of experience before you know exactly what diving you are doing,a and have built up the majority of your other kit.
My redundant wing set me back about £140 ($220), and my BCD about £350 ($560), but I didn't buy them at the same time - it was probably 4 years after I got the jacket that I then added the wings.
Your kit evolves as your diving habits evolve post qualification. My setup works for me, but my better half, having used my combined setup, now has a wing style BCD, but has less lift than me, and also ends up face down in the water at the surface, something that I don't like about wings only.
Try both systems, and see what you like. Remember, out in the sea you will get more water on your face at the surface than in the pool, so if you find it 'just acceptable' on the surface of the pool, unless the sea is mirror flat, it will be noticibly worce out in the waves.
Remember, for much less than the cost of a new jacket, you can get wings added to your jacket (provided you initially buy a jacket on which you can unbolt the backplate - jacket - tank rest sandwitch). Provided all the holes are in roughly the right place, you can mix and match brands as well.
.02 as always
Jon T
Edit 14/2 3:35 PM CET
Looked at the AP valves web page, the new version of the redwing has one, central hose now, rather than the two interchangeable positions. A backward step IMO