BP/W: I officially don't get it

[redacted]

No, a lot of people are buying them. Does that prove their worth?

So what do you think is causing the increase? Do you think it is this board? Maybe an increase in LDSs that are pushing BP/W?

I think it is clear that they are becoming more popular. True, popularity may not prove worth. But something is going on that is instigating the change. And you just don't seem to hear about many folks switching from a BP/W to a conventional BCD. Again, no smoking gun - just another bit of evidence that something is going on.

 

[djanni]

10 years ago, you rarely ever saw a BP/W on a recreational dive boat, even the larger boats. And an ebay search would turn up a handful of wings if you were lucky. I just went through 121 wings currently offered on ebay. And a trip to the FGB last week had over 1/3 of the divers in BP/W. Either there is something there or somebody is running a big scam.

For sale on Ebay... just stepping over to the other side of the coin for a minute; it's possible to construe that data differently. There's lots of ways to search on ebay so I just searched "BCD" under "water sports." Got 331 hits. Bp/w's as well as wings were intermixed with traditional BC's. So if you got 121 wings (I'll assume that includes complete bp/w's) then the ratio of wings/bp/w's for sale on ebay is significantly higher than the ratio of traditional BC's to bp/w's in the real world. Why would that be?

Increased popularity of the bp/w or increase in dumping bp/w/wing gear?

I actually agree with you that more are being seen. In the areas we dive we're seeing a few more bp/w's than say 5 years ago but not by much. I'd venture a guess at maybe 2%. Our last liveaboard trip had 20 guests and 3 crew divers. Not a single bp/w to be seen. That was in the Caribbean.

 

[OceansBlue]

And once again, their is no such thing as "a BP/W". To have a backplate you're probably going to have a wing, but there are LOTS of divers out there using wings but not backplates.

...and what about using just a backplate (no wing)?


Tropical Minimalist Diving

 

[halocline]

For sale on Ebay... just stepping over to the other side of the coin for a minute; it's possible to construe that data differently. There's lots of ways to search on ebay so I just searched "BCD" under "water sports." Got 331 hits. Bp/w's as well as wings were intermixed with traditional BC's. So if you got 121 wings (I'll assume that includes complete bp/w's) then the ratio of wings/bp/w's for sale on ebay is significantly higher than the ratio of traditional BC's to bp/w's in the real world. Why would that be?

Increased popularity of the bp/w or increase in dumping bp/w/wing gear?

The problem with your argument is that 90% of the BP/W sales on ebay are for new gear, not people who are "dumping" them. Those would be the hundreds and hundreds of used jacket BCs you see for sale.

A lot of dealers sell BP/Ws on ebay at least in part because few LDSs carry them, as they are not nearly as integrated into the retail distribution network as are BCs from the big consumer dive gear companies like scubapro and aqualung.

 

[peterbj7]

In very warm water where you didn't need any sort of suit you could get away with that. I was amazed a few years ago when I had a group of French divers who just had backpacks - the water around France isn't that warm and they would have had to wear some insulation. They wanted to rent suits here (even though the water here is about as warm as it gets) and go diving but I didn't let them. But even they had resin backpacks shaped to fit both tank and back - metal backplates wouldn't have worked without some mods.

As to why they've become more popular. Well, they're good pieces of kit for certain applications, and it's natural that some people would want to use them once they became available. There's also what I call the "racing bike" syndrome, in that if people are accustomed to an "ordinary" version of something like a motorbike, then the presumption is that one made for racing is necessarily better. Of course that's often not the case, but the idea that a more specialist version is better than a generalist version is very pervasive.

Lastly, many people are influenced to some extent or other by what people will think of them. They look better if what they own is more expensive or clearly better in some way than another. Very common in many fields. You also get the "inverse snobs", for whom the older and tattier the better. It takes all sorts.

 

[TSandM]

I just got back from a three day trip on a Southern California liveaboard -- all three crew members were in BP/W setups. They were well used, too!

Today, I got in the pool to help my husband with an OW student, and I had to wear a standard BC for the first time in literally years. My first reaction, as the tank wobbled around above me, was, "How does anybody dive this stuff?" (I'd had the same reaction watching students on two different days, trying to cope with the instability of the tank.) Of course, today, I know enough to shrug the tank back into the middle of my back and carry on, but as a new diver, I didn't, and that tank floppiness really bothered me.

I really love the stability of a backplate. The weight distribution thing is just the cherry on top.

 

[StreetDoctor]

My point was proven I guess

 

[Bob]

Today, I got in the pool to help my husband with an OW student, and I had to wear a standard BC for the first time in literally years. My first reaction, as the tank wobbled around above me, was, "How does anybody dive this stuff?" (I'd had the same reaction watching students on two different days, trying to cope with the instability of the tank.) Of course, today, I know enough to shrug the tank back into the middle of my back and carry on, but as a new diver, I didn't, and that tank floppiness really bothered me.

I really love the stability of a backplate. The weight distribution thing is just the cherry on top.

Exactly. I put all of my OW student's in an Eclipse. No more wobbly tanks or loose BC's. My students can concentrate on learning to dive rather than struggling with ill fitting gear. Makes teaching them to dive much easier I think. almtree: Bob

 

[Brewski]

For me it was part of the evolution. Went to a drysuit, now I need more weight. The extra weight got to be cumbersome, so big steel tank. Now the tank is flopping around on my back. So Bp/W, now I can remove another 6 PBS from the belt and the tank is stable! The bonus was I found it easier to trim out with it too. Sure when I travel to the tropics I dive my knighthawk, but Miss my Bp when I do.

 

[gcbryan]

I have a BP/W. I like it and wouldn't go back to a jacket style BC unless I wanted to dive and that's all that was available. If that was the case that would be no major problem either.

I had good trim and buoyancy before the BP/W and I still have it. It is a BCD. It's not something different.

The main reason that many recreational divers (me included) go to the BP/W is simply because most other BC's aren't designed well. The BP/W is a stripped down BC with no extra junk. No padding to require more weight to offset, no pockets that you can't get into if your BC is inflated (jacket style), and no adjustment straps dangling around.

The BP/W seems like a BC I would design. I always hated my jacketstyle BC and always told people that they never seemed like they were actually designed by a diver.

You don't need to get into the DIR/anti DIR arguments for a BP/W. I'm not in the DIR camp. I think some people get turned off when they hear others (usually only on the internet) overselling something. I know I get turned off when a good concept is oversold to the point I don't want to even hear about it anymore.

You don't need to claim that a BP/W will do something miraculous for you. It's advantages will stand on their own merits. If you don't like them no problem. Most people who don't like their current BC and try them do like them. If you have already told yourself that you won't like them then you won't like them.

To me the argument is really just about a well fitting stripped down but fully functional BC vs ones that in many cases don't fit well and have too many "features" and other junk associated with them.