Info Beginners Guide To BP/W

[purbeast]

I think what dmaziuk means is there is no time saving at all. STA isn't about time saving. It does makes the tank feel a little more secure. It also does make tank sit a little further from your back. Both in practice don't make a difference in term of overall stability. It is more of a personal preference. It is however another piece of metal and 2 set of screws you need to bring, usually about 1-1.5lb. It may matter to you if you travel.

I am going to be just a vacation diver for the most part, but I plan on getting everything but my fins into a carry on so the actual weight won't matter. Bulkiness would though. From the looks of them they don't seem very bulky.

 

[dmaziuk]

What I meant was, as I understand it (ICBW and all that): if you buy an STA and a pair of cambands for each of your tanks, and those STAs come with carriage bolts pressed-in, then you can swap the backplate over by unscrewing and re-screwing two nuts. Which may be faster than un-doing and re-doing two cambands.

Or there is some other way to swap the tanks with STA that I am not thinking of.

 

[saxman242]

I am going to be just a vacation diver for the most part, but I plan on getting everything but my fins into a carry on so the actual weight won't matter. Bulkiness would though. From the looks of them they don't seem very bulky.

As someone who carry ons all my dive gear (but fins) and has to play the tetris game that is making it all fit, I always leave my STA at home on trips. When I dive locally, I use my STA, as I cast a big weight that bolts to my plate that can only be used with the STA in place. If I wasn't using that weight, I wouldn't use the STA at all.

 

[saxman242]

What I meant was, as I understand it (ICBW and all that): if you buy an STA and a pair of cambands for each of your tanks, and those STAs come with carriage bolts pressed-in, then you can swap the backplate over by unscrewing and re-screwing two nuts. Which may be faster than un-doing and re-doing two cambands.

Or there is some other way to swap the tanks with STA that I am not thinking of.

One could possibly make the argument that some of the non-STA options do a poor job of aligning the bp/w to the tank and that swapping a tank takes longer as you futz with getting alignment right. I haven't personally found this to be the case, however.

 

[dmaziuk]

One could possibly make the argument that some of the non-STA options do a poor job of aligning the bp/w to the tank and that swapping a tank takes longer as you futz with getting alignment right. I haven't personally found this to be the case, however.

Well, the built-in thingy in my hollis 25 does not do a very good job, particularly in places that set your kit up for you: it's too short and too narrow. DGX "soft stabilizer" works much better, but the bracket on Eric's plate works best.

I get it how swapping the tank on a cramped boat can be faster, but you have to bring multiple STAs with cambands and all: for a vacation diver I don't see how that's feasible. With a decent stabilizer and third hand to hold the tank away from the gunwale, swapping is just as fast.

For OPs' reference: OMS Soft Stabilizing Adapter

 

[saxman242]

Well, the built-in thingy in my hollis 25 does not do a very good job, particularly in places that set your kit up for you: it's too short and too narrow. DGX "soft stabilizer" works much better, but the bracket on Eric's plate works best.

I get it how swapping the tank on a cramped boat can be faster, but you have to bring multiple STAs with cambands and all: for a vacation diver I don't see how that's feasible. With a decent stabilizer and third hand to hold the tank away from the gunwale, swapping is just as fast.

For OPs' reference: OMS Soft Stabilizing Adapter

Does the hollis 25 stabilizer velcro in? I use a Hollis S38 wing with their velcro in stabilizer and have never had an issue. Just came back from two weeks in the Cayman where they set up my stuff too. Maybe I've been lucky.

 

[purbeast]

One could possibly make the argument that some of the non-STA options do a poor job of aligning the bp/w to the tank and that swapping a tank takes longer as you futz with getting alignment right. I haven't personally found this to be the case, however.

Could you elaborate on that a little bit? This is where I have some confusion, as to how the STA can make swapping tanks easier.

Like when I have done dives thus far I've swapped my jacket BCD between dives (opted to so I could learn and get a feel for it) and it was really simple.

If I'm reading right, with a BP/W this can be trickier? It's more than just sliding cambands off one and on another tank?

 

[swimlikethefish]

Please create another thread if the topic of conversation does not pertain to the original thread. I attempt to keep this clean so that others do not have to filter through 40 pages of info to find what they are looking for.

Cheers

 

[MichaelMc]

Please create another thread if the topic of conversation does not pertain to the original thread. I attempt to keep this clean so that others do not have to filter through 40 pages of info to find what they are looking for.

Cheers

You might ask the mods to split of posts x, y, z to a separate thread. Being the OP of a FAQ type thread, that seems like a reasonable sort of maintenance action. (and nix this post in the process.)

Maybe after this dies down, and you summarize any lessons learned from it into the FAQ.,,

Maybe named BP/W discussion, as something where future questions might get routed as well.

 

[saxman242]

Could you elaborate on that a little bit? This is where I have some confusion, as to how the STA can make swapping tanks easier.

Like when I have done dives thus far I've swapped my jacket BCD between dives (opted to so I could learn and get a feel for it) and it was really simple.

If I'm reading right, with a BP/W this can be trickier? It's more than just sliding cambands off one and on another tank?

Be warned, we're getting into semantics here. "Easier" is a difficult thing to really quantify, so don't take when I say something is "easier" to mean that the alternative is difficult.


With an STA, you have a rigid metal channel, bolted to the backplate. When the tank is strapped to the STA, you have rigid contact between the tank and the STA. The tank will self center on the STA, ensuring basically perfect alignment.

Wings that have stabilizers built into them try to do the exact same thing, but it's a slightly compliant system. When you strap the tank down, there is some give, and it's possible to get a little bit of misalignment. Wings without a stabilizer are even more compliant, and when things get strapped in, it can be done in such a way that the tank is at a slight angle. If you want to be really OCD, it'll take more effort (and time) to ensure perfect alignment without an STA than it would with, due to the rigid interfaces.

A normal BC will generally have some structure under the fabric, but with some compliant material in between. The degree to how much will depend on the specific model.

In practice, the difference between these configurations is negligible. If an STA is a 1 out of 10 on the difficulty scale of swapping tanks, a non-STA solution is a 1.01 out of 10. It's not worth giving a second thought over, at least in my experience.

Personally, the only time I'd recommend an STA is when you're either using a wing that requires one or the use of one facilitates some other gear configuration benefit (a weighted STA allowing less weight elsewhere, an STA enabling the use of weights mounted to the plate, etc).