Questions re: Mares Icon vs. Sherwood Avid

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

sytech

Contributor
Messages
565
Reaction score
2
Location
Florida Keys
# of dives
200 - 499
I just received Mares Icon BCD.

Was rated as favorite "travel BCD" by Scuba Diving Magazine in the May 2008 issue.

Folds up nice and convenient. Very sharp looking and robust in appearance.

Has no cumberbund but what seems to be a very secure waist closure. It has only 1 tank band. I don't like that.

Also, I found only one "roll down" pocket for carrying things. Has some other unusual features I haven't figured out yet.

I have eliminated the Zeagle Escape because it has tiny pockets and few D rings and thought it was overpriced anyway.

I am now choosing between the Mares Icon and the Sherwood Avid. Both have same type of weight system and trim bags in back. Sherwood has double tank bands. Both have 3 dump valves in the same locations.

The latter has large pockets and lots of other features. The Mares is a "demo" model ($350) and the Sherwood is on sale for $265.

Which to choose?


Thanks,

Sy
 
I haven't dive in them personally but have saw both at the recent dive show here locally. The difficult thing being you are comparing 2 very different BCDs. Mares Icon is a back inflation one (which probably explains why they have small pockets) while Sherwood AVID is a jacket-style BCD.

In that case, may be you could spend some time to do some research on this board about how diving could be different among these two different types of BCDs. It will probably help you choose better.

If you end up with Sherwood AVID, might want to get the pro package (accessories and stuffs for the BCDs). Sweet..................
 

Back
Top Bottom