Good women's BC?

[shoturtle]

PS

The mares Kaila uses the dragon bag design, it is design for better buoyancy form a jacket. It is weight integrated, and has trim pockets. All ss d-rings. Hope you find a bcd you like.

 

[Turtlefish]

Bit of a noob here. I might finally be able to afford some gear and I'm looking into BCs and not sure where to start.

I have a somewhat bizarre dive history; I'm halfway through my divemaster classes but I've still only had about 50 dives; yeah, pretty much as many as you need for the classes themselves Sadly my diving has been hindered by my severe lack of funds (grad student turned teacher = broke).

So all my diving thus far has been in crappy rental gear, which makes it hard to get comfortable with gear... try perfecting buoyancy when you're in a different drysuit and BC every week!

As is the case with rentals, I've only dove in men's stuff. And I'm wondering, does it make that much difference to have a women's BC? Sorry, but I hate back inflates...at my rate of diving I don't think I'll be diving doubles or tech diving anytime soon, although I do dive a drysuit. So I'm pretty much looking at jackets.

So just looking for any advice on women's gear (if it matters), or general advice for getting my first BC.

I have a Mares Kaila, it is a jacket bc and I love it. It is contour for a womens figure, it does not pinch on the waste or hip areas. The Kaila offers plenty of adjustment to give the bc a more precises fitting. It has trim weight pockets in the back. The inside of the bc has a plush liner that makes diving with only a swim suit or Lycra skin very comfortable. The air bladder that Mares uses makes it easy to keep horizontal in the water easy. When I inflate it, the bc really does not hug to much, just enough to feel comfortable. Hope this helps a little.

 

[deborahdelamar]

The primary considerations are best fit and what your budget will allow.

The best way to make the decision is to first list the available features and categorize them by (a) the ones you need, (b) the ones you'd like to have, and (c) the ones that are optional.

These include lift capacity for the type of diving you plan to do, adjustability (and ease of) for exposure suit thicknesses, the number of attachment points, number of pockets as well as capacity and ease of use, weight-integrated or no, one-handed or two-handed weight release, size folded if you plan to travel with it, is the inflator instinctive for you to use? (fumble-proof), do you want the octo on your inflator hose?, tank mounting ease & size of tank pad, etc.

This should really help you winnow down the candidates from all of the models that are out there. Then you have to get out and see as many of the BC's that are left on your list as possible, try them on, see if they're comfortable and how they work.

As you're doing this, the decision should almost make itself -- you may find 2 or 3 that you like and at different price points. That's the time to go with your gut feeling about the manufacturer and the BC!

Good luck!

 

[lmorin]

My wife started with a Seaquest Diva LX. She liked it but did not like the squeeze feeling ......

My wife started with a Seaquest Diva also. It is cut for women, it fits well and she likes it especially because of the squeeze feeling. To each her own, obviously. That said, most if not all the BCD manufacturers make versions cut for women. Seek them out and try them on.

 

[GrlEEEgrl]

As a very small women, I tried quite a few in the water and found that so many rode up on me at the surface. the only one that didn't was the Tusa Selene jacket BC, and I love it.

 

[scubagal28]

I have the Scubapro Ladyhawk and love it. I tried several different ones before I settled on this one. I like the freedom of movement in the Ladyhawk over the full jacket styles. Try some different ones and find out which works best for you.

 

[Briny Liney]

I second the Tusa Selene. It's a great bc with pockets, lots of space for integrated weights, great padding, and it fits really well.