Equipment Trends: The BCD

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Dive Right In Scuba 2

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It seems like I've had quite a few random thoughts lately...who knows, it may be the cold weather getting into my brain. So here we go!

I know that there are quite a few divers in our fun little community here on SB with many being advocated of the BP/W. Of course we represent a small cross section of divers as a whole. To that end, in my last couple of dive trips I have noticed a slight uptick in the use of the BP/W by divers.

So, I'm wondering...is the BP/W gaining popularity among recreational divers? Will it ever give the Jacket BCD a run for its money?

I'm interested in what the grand court of SB has to say about this.

And....go.
 
Unless you sell one or the other, who cares? Dive whatever you like, no skin off my :censored:

I'm still trying to decide if the W part of my already-stripped-down BP/W is even worth the drag for most single tank dives.
 
Well, having just recently switched from a jacket BCD to a BP/W, I have to say that I love it and won't go back. The reasons for this are many, but pretty much the usual benefits that get described apply to me. Better buoyancy control, less extra weight needed, more versatile, etc, etc.
 
A 100% "uptick" would still probably not be detectable from the 50,000ft view in terms of recreational scuba. Go to Bonaire next week and you might see TWO visitors diving a BP/W. 100% increase would be 4 people.
 
I switched and its WAY better, especially for travel. I say the difference is the same as driving an automatic car vs a manual one. feel more in control and less squeezed. can't recommend the switch enough. And cheaper! got a Zeagle express tech and then just added what I wanted.
 
I think there is a confirmation bias on Scubaboard or any online scuba community or any near-tech diving community. The people who are very into diving (scubaboard), participate in the dive community (scubaboard) or start getting into advanced/tech diving will hear about BP/W from the dozens of other people and threads that have covered this topic. And once a new BP/W convert, they will preach about their new gear because that's what divers do. And the cycle repeats.

This however is likely not the majority of divers worldwide. The majority of divers worldwide are not on scubaboard and the majority of divers are not tech divers. The ones who are left, people who know about BP/W and don't have ones yet, are a small number of total divers and are the only segment of the market for expansion.



It seems that as a dive shop you'd know more than we do. What kind of BC are you guys selling more of, jackets or BP/W?

---------- Post added February 19th, 2015 at 05:36 PM ----------

On a related note, it would be great to know what percent of total certified divers:
-have one or more dive trips per decade
-have one or more dive trips per year (active divers)
-dive locally or only on vacation
-rent vs own gear
-jacket vs backplate
-yoke vs DIN (will match vacation vs local/regions differences)
-etc...
 
Some good points already. If the BP/W is to increase notably there must be some slight design changes to appeal to the majority of bcd buyers. I get a lot of feed back from my students/customers that can be interpreted as this;
The BP/W must be made to look more appealing.
It looks uncomfortable and rigid.
Aesthetically boring and unpleasing to the eye.
Too technical.
Why aren't there more?

Some progress has been made in this regard however, the essential positives of the unit must remain while appealing to a larger market. Some of these steps have been taken but for there to be a "movement" it must be very significant.

So, let's see the softer backpads, shoulder harness, pink trim, the absence of shiny steel fittings and a truly integrated, multi-use line of bp/w's brought forth by the big manufactures. Do not lose the elements that make the BP/W an excellent bcd but diversify keeping in mind economy and instead of a try it dive to prove how good they are, maybe more people will see them as simply bcd's and buy them off the shelf.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Some good points already. If the BP/W is to increase notably there must be some slight design changes to appeal to the majority of bcd buyers. I get a lot of feed back from my students/customers that can be interpreted as this;
The BP/W must be made to look more appealing.
It looks uncomfortable and rigid.
Aesthetically boring and unpleasing to the eye.
Too technical.
Why aren't there more?

Some progress has been made in this regard however, the essential positives of the unit must remain while appealing to a larger market. Some of these steps have been taken but for there to be a "movement" it must be very significant.

So, let's see the softer backpads, shoulder harness, pink trim, the absence of shiny steel fittings and a truly integrated, multi-use line of bp/w's brought forth by the big manufactures. Do not lose the elements that make the BP/W an excellent bcd but diversify keeping in mind economy and instead of a try it dive to prove how good they are, maybe more people will see them as simply bcd's and buy them off the shelf.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, I can't disagree with you there. I think the big turn off for new divers when seeing the BP/W is its spartan appearance!!
 
I saw two non-professional divers on my Hawaii trip using BP/W, it was a father and son diving Hog. This was out of over 100 divers. About 1/2 of the pros were diving BP/W (halcyon, oxycheq multiple Hollis - which they sold) and half using some sort of jacket or back inflate rec type BC.
 

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