BP/wing: How much lift needed.

Ok so I've been convinced to upgrade to a BackPlate and wing. I've nearly decided on what Brand but now I'm looking for advice on what size wing to get.

The wing I wish to buy is going to be exclusively for single tank diving, when I get into tec I will buy a wing for doubles.

I will be using either a 10 or 12litre steel and possibly a 15l on the odd occasion although at this point I have used a 15litre on only 2 dives. I will also use a steel backplate.

I weigh about 100kg and I am 6foot4. I dive in cold water; about 8 - 14 degrees and therefore dive dry or with a 2 peice 7mm. I dive with between 8 & 14kg's of weight.

I dive a lot of wrecks at the 30 - 40meter depth range. For this reason I would prefer to keep the wing as compact/small as possible. I also dive a lot of shallow open water dives.

How much lift do I need?

Thanks

Andrew

I would estimate that you would need about 30 pounds of lift... since you are in South Africa (really since the USA is not metric) I convert that to about 13 to 14 Kilograms of lift. If you can not find wings exactly in that range round up a little, but not much above 15 Kilograms. I would guess that you will actually use no more than 10 Kilograms of lift at any point in a typical dive, probably even less, but that is just a guess on my part.

Mark Vlahos

Sinlge tank -use 32 lbs of lift
Doubles- 55-60 will do for most doubles (i dive e8-130's with a 59lbs)

Sinlge tank 30 to 36lbs of lift
Doubles 55-60lbs will do for steel doubles, 40lbs for AL80 doubles (which is what I dive)

Nice thing about BP/Ws is you can change wings as your dive profile changes

Rap

I dive a very similar setup to you and use a wing quoted at 22kg lift. This is more than adequate for a 15l + pony and i know of many people using it with twin-12s and 2 x 7l stages.

Hi drew52,

I don't really have much experience compared to the rest of the guys here but I would recommend 30 lbs too and if possible get a wing with an inner bladder like the Oxycheq signature series as it has a fairly long but lean profile and the inner bladder is completely made of urethane. This is because of you doing wreck diving where the wing has to be real tuff.

Try looking through ebay for samish divers or just search for oxycheq on ebay.

Alternatively, Halcyon or (warning... bad 3 letter word... OMS!)

SangP

I have both the Halcyon eclipse and the Oxycheq and I love oxycheq.