I live in Jacksonville Beach and getting certified on the 13th of July. After certification i want to get my own bc and regulator. I will be diving in salt water 99% of the time. Any info you can offer would help because there will be two people buying one.
I would advise the bp/wing as the best way tp proceed....however, your instructor may not like it if he/she has no experience with bp/wings--this usually because they have never used one, or know little about them. I would say this is not up to them, you will do what is best for you, and should not be forced to buy a bogus BC , only to have to buy a BP/wing 6 months later....And you should be getting your Open Water I training on the BP/wing, because that is the gear you would be diving with--and their are some notable differences....such as the long hose primary regulator you use for donating to an out of air diver, and the necklace reg back up you where on a bungie on your neck....with the standard vest bc, you have a short primary reg you breathe off of, and have a long, often dangling octopus reg which you would use for other divers if one went OOA. In fairness, the dangling octopus reg could be clipped, or stuffed, and oftewn is, but then if a diver near you has an emergency, you will not have 5 seconds to un-clip or unstuff..you will have a fraction of a second, which is why BP/Wing divers like the long hose primary--you see the problem of OOA happening, and you take the reg out of your mouth and thrust the reg to the out of air diver--instantly...the necklace reg is right under your chin, so you know where it is, and you have instant access to it as well.
The BP/Wing use is different as well. It is very easy to glide in perfect trim with a bp/wing. the custom fit will help with this, but this is also a pitfall of a bp/wing....You can't just grab a bp/wing and set it up yourself, without most likely doing it very wrong. It is not at all intuitive, on how you set up a bp/wing for yourself. The adjustments are very important, and in a perfect world, a long time bp/wing diver with a good mechanical awareness of how they got their perfect custom fit would help you...or you would have a GUE instructor do the custom fit for you...and that would be unlikely
You could get a couple of the DIR videos, and watch how the customization is done.... But a local shop, may very well have no one working there with the skills to set you up for a demo. If they do, then at minimum, the person saying they do dives a bp/wing themself, all or most of the time.
If you cant find someone that knows how to fit you, I think you are out of luck in trying to get a BP/wing at this time.