Thanks for all of the replies. I finally got to dive the rig last night. One of my biggest fears of going with a bp was that I have read a number of times that it is not as comfortable on land or easy to deal with for rough beach entries. I pretty much new before I got in the water that this was deffinately not the case because I had never felt my bcd more secure than this. In the water it was also extremely cofortable. I do need to go back and tighten the webbing because there was some slack in the shoulders after decending. I also tried using a solid weight belt instead of pouches and the weights got in the way of the webbing on the harness. Deffinately need more practice with it but I am extremely pleased with it so far.
As a side note, I strapped the tank on without the STA (36#pioneer with the built in sta) and can not see how this would be a problem. The tank did not move whatsoever and may have even felt better (being closer to my back). I dove with the STA this time, and in the future will try both methods to see which I prefer. One drawback of not using the STA is that I will have to put that weight back on my belt. The weight thing is one of the things I liked best about this system. My last BC (mares synchro sold on ebay) weighed the same amount on land and was slightly positively boyant. This system allowed me to take 8lbs off the first attempt maybe more in the future.
Sorry for the long post but thanks for all the background info which pointed me in this direction.
Thanks Scubaboard!
Doug
As a side note, I strapped the tank on without the STA (36#pioneer with the built in sta) and can not see how this would be a problem. The tank did not move whatsoever and may have even felt better (being closer to my back). I dove with the STA this time, and in the future will try both methods to see which I prefer. One drawback of not using the STA is that I will have to put that weight back on my belt. The weight thing is one of the things I liked best about this system. My last BC (mares synchro sold on ebay) weighed the same amount on land and was slightly positively boyant. This system allowed me to take 8lbs off the first attempt maybe more in the future.
Sorry for the long post but thanks for all the background info which pointed me in this direction.
Thanks Scubaboard!
Doug
