Uncle Pug once bubbled...
Has someone been whispering in your ear via PMs? You didn't get the "transpac" advice from this thread.
Except of course after the fact from Herb...
I wonder who it could be? Geee, let me think....
Who's not here?
Nikyyo, I'm not sure where the "good middle ground for a beginner diver" suggestion came from, but I think it would be a mistake -- whatever you buy -- to assume that you need a "starter" BC. I'm biased. My last dive in anything other than a BP/W was my final OW certification dive. At the time, there was not a shop in town where you could see such a rig and consider it. I got lucky and was shown the rig by someone who had one. He had a Transpac 2, also, and he offered me a good deal on it, but he was too honest and nice a guy. He may still have the Transpac 2. If you're interested, I can check for you. The price will be right. If you look at the BP/W as something for "in your future," consider that maybe the future is now. It's not something you have to work up to. It's fine for brand new divers. Like you. FWIW, my diving has been in a Polartec or a 3 mil -- warm water stuff.
Like everything else in this world, it's not everybody's answer. There's a regular poster here, an extremely experienced diver apparently -- way more experienced than me -- whose experience was that he had one of these BP/Wing things on a week trip and never could get it adjusted right. I don't doubt him, but it's one of those things that's just about unfathomable to me, based on my own experience with it from brand new diver forward. Frankly, if it took a week, I'd have liked to have watched. Musta been a little like watching a monkey trying to fornicate with a football.
The BP/W is a pain to adjust initially, but for most, not that much of a pain.
Please don't misunderstand. I've got nothing against the Transpac 2. If I was going to get something other than a BP/W, that, and a SeaQuest Balance, would be the top things on my list. But I wouldn't choose either based on some idea that it was a "starter" BC for a beginner diver, and I would work up to something else. I'd choose them because I'd decided that's what I preferred and wanted to stick with for a looong time. I'm long winded tonight.