Halcyon users, please tell me why

jar546 · Sep 5, 2011

Someone I dive with frequently, recently moved from OMS to a Halcyon wing Infinity with 40# lift. He absolutely loves it and recommends that I get one too.

Every time I dive somewhere and find people with Halcyon wings, I ask them about them and they are all thrilled with them and would not dive any other way.

I always see good reviews for the Halcyon wings.

So what I want to know is are these just the brand fanatic people or are all Halcyon wing divers happy with their product vs any other that they have used?

Has anyone gone from a Halcyon wing to another brand?

It actually seems to be easier to travel with than my current Black Diamond or Pro-QD. I have no intentions of doing doubles ever so a single tank setup that is lightweight would be appropriate. Please talk and share.

danvolker · Sep 5, 2011

I still have my halcyon 18n pound lift wing from 1997 ( or whatever the first year they came out was

It is just as good today, as then....And I also have the 30 pound wing for when I use heavier tanks without a drysuit on...and the 40 lb for doubles....

Build quality is fantastic
Drag is as low as it can get, the Halcyon system could not be more streamlined.
dumping when flat horizontal is so easy it is amazing---in other words, getting dead neutral is easy.
Halcyon WAS the ONLY BP/Wing system to be developed purely for function, back in the late 90's, when ALL of the other manufacturers could care less about optimal functions for tech diving or advanced diving...dive rite would not do it, scubapro was not interested, forget Mares, or anyone else..Each was asked for the WKPP spec of what an optimal rig would be, none would have any part of it...Just Brownies, who made Halcyon as the response to the request.
Cool innovative features in Halcyon....when I do a 90 foot drift dive in North palm Beach, we are out about 3 miles from shore...Between your back and the steel plate, is the MC storage pouch, that is like a comfortable pad, except it has room for me to stuff a Halcyon surf mat in it ( like an inflatable belly board, with an opv on it so it can be sent up--also has a wet notes sleeve for messages to boat)....this is much better than a sausage, and if I was to be going really far from shore, like Stuart where I might be out 25 miles from shore, Halcyon has a one man life raft I can stuff into this pocket....it can be just a signalling object like sausage and surf mat, or, if no boat is in sight, you can lie down it it and chill till you are located!!! These are ZERO DRAG solutions, as they are completely removed from hydrodynamic surfaces.
Great Waranty service! Way back in 1998, when Jimmy abernethy first got into playing with sharks, I had talked him into a halcyon bp/wing, with the 30 pound wing....he was trying to feed a big reef shark with a fish on the end of a pole ( this was before he figgured out feeding sharks was stupid , and while he was playing with the reef shark, a BIG hammerhead came in from behind him, and bit down on his side and butt....fortunately for Jim, half the teeth hit the steel plate, the other half hit the wing, making a half circle outline of the bite radius....the Halcyon wing was so tough, it did not tear at all, but did get tiny punctures in it that prevented it from holding air well.....Jimmy ended up with little more than some skin punctures harldly worth putting neosporin on....He was very happy that the Wing and plate protected him so well ( after the 50 foot ride the hammer gave him and also happy that halcyon decided to Warranty the 30 pound wing, because they are not supposed to punture during dives

a22shady · Sep 5, 2011

My G/F and I both dive the Eclipse 40 single tank wings and love them. I dont have anything to compare it to since this was my 1st BC so little biased opinon. But i did use a differnt BC in the pool work before I switched and I did notice a difference between the traditional jacket to the BP/W

jar546 · Sep 5, 2011

Great responses, thank you.

Problems with my back inflate right now are drag and uneven distribution of air. I am always listing from one side to the other in order to equal out the air. This is a pain in the a$% and I don't know why it is happening.

What is the difference between the Eclipse and Infinity?

jar546 · Sep 5, 2011

Found this right from the mfg on another thread if anyone else is interested:

The primary difference between these two BC systems is the adjustability of the secure harness.

The Infinity features our Cinch Quick-adjust harness which is quickly adjusted with a push or pull of the webbing.

The Eclipse BC features our Standard secure harness which is adjusted manually in small increments by moving the harness through the triglide points.

You cannot adjust the Eclipse standard harness size "on the fly" so to speak, so the Infinity is, by far, easier to adjust than the Eclipse. This is true for sizing the harness the first time, or while getting in and out of it when diving, and further down the road you can enjoy an ease of adjustment for different sized suits if need be... it's simply easier to use. This is a huge bonus over the Standard harness on the Eclipse BC.

Bottom line: the Infinity's Cinch quick-adjust harness requires far less time and effort to size/adjust and use, than our standard harness system and the deluxe padding components on the Infinity BC are wonderful for tropical diving comfort.

You'll also need to look at wing size on either system you choose. Typically the Infinity 30 would be the lift capacity of choice for warm water diving, unless your diving needs require more lift support. The 30-lb. wing is ideally sized/shaped to support Al 80 cylinders the best, although our 40-lb. wing works just fine as well.

You will also have the choice of a SS or Aluminum backplate. If you don't need to really minimize luggage weight while traveling, I would suggest the SS plate, it dives very well with Aluminum cylinders and offers a very balanced system.

Both the Eclipse and the Infinity BC's come with ACB10 integrated weight pockets as well.

Silent Planet is our UK distributor and has excellent information. Also, please keep an eye out for the Cinch Quick-adjust video manual showing how easily the Infinity BC can be adjusted. You can also visit Halcyon's main website for the manual or other product details.

Thank you for considering our BC for your diving! If you have any further questions I'll be happy to assist.

Sonya

danvolker · Sep 5, 2011

jar546:
Great responses, thank you.

Problems with my back inflate right now are drag and uneven distribution of air. I am always listing from one side to the other in order to equal out the air. This is a pain in the a$% and I don't know why it is happening.

What is the difference between the Eclipse and Infinity?

A lot of poorly thought out wings ( or back inflates) that were created/thought up by poor divers or non-divers working for the mfg, have the dump valves in places that allow air to be trapped above them on the side of the wings...Dive rite is infamous for this, as are many others....If the wing is too wide, and ends up wrapping around the single tank, with the air collecting top edges well above the tank, and the opv dump valves well below them, you can find it impossible to fix bouyancy unless you go vertical and use your shoulder dump...a pathetic design flaw you would never see in a halcyon....and then the donut wing will be easier to maintain even trim with, than the horseshoe, as the bubble is easier to maintain in the right place...this was one reason many people don't go with the 18 pound lift wings, most being horseshoe designs, and thus harder to trim out easily if much air is used in them...
The 30 pound lift wings are about perfect for single tank divers....the halcyon ones

.... more lift and they will have more drag, and too much lift if you ever had a inflator failure and the wing fully inflates accidentally....some of the mfg's will make 60 pound and greater lift wings, which if inflated 100% at 90 feet, become catastrophically dangerous with the ascent speeds they will pull a diver up at.
If you are dealing with so much wet suit compression at depth, and such a thick wet suit, that you feel you need more than 30 pounds of lift, what you have really discovered is that you have moved on from the range of wetsuits, and now are in conditions demanding the use of a dry suit.

jar546 · Sep 5, 2011

Great information Dan. I mostly dive dry in cold water so it sounds like the 40# Infinity is the way to go. My problem with my wing is only in the summer months and when I travel to warm climates. That is the only time I use my BC for buoyancy. When I dive dry, I use my drysuit for buoyancy so my BC is only inflated at the surface. My buoyancy is better in a drysuit than with the current BC that I use although it is still good for both.

The Black Diamond that I have has 4 dump valves, 2 at the top and 2 at the bottom. This BC works best when I dive dry and don't inflate it.

a22shady · Sep 5, 2011

When I got mine my LDS just suggested to go with the 40lb for singles and 60 for doubles. We got the deal where you got the doubles wing for 200.00. Not really knowing the differnce and the why for which wings I went with what was recomended. We dive Drysuits with steel tanks and never had any issues with either.

Blue Sparkle · Sep 5, 2011

jar546:
Has anyone gone from a Halcyon wing to another brand?

I kind of did.

My first exposure to a bp/w was when I rented a Halcyon Eclipse for a refresher OW class which was part of a two-week dive trip in the Keys. I used the Eclipse for that whole trip.

I loved the bp/w, and knew that I wanted to buy one. And I did like the quality of the Halcyon rig. The one thing that niggled at me was that the wing seemed a bit overly large/wide for my projected usage (warm-water diving). After doing the calculations I could see that a 17# or 18# wing would be ample for my projected use. I thought that perhaps a narrower wing would feel tidier when (as usual) I only had a small amount of air in it.

Now, that said, I probably would have bought a Halcyon rig from the dive shop I was working with on that trip, but they did not have (and were not able to get during that time frame) a small-sized Halcyon steel backplate. I was renting the "regular" size and it was clearly a bit too tall for me. I did have some reservations about the wing size, but I probably would have just gone with it because it would have been great to start using my own BC.

However, since they were not able to get me a small plate then, I found myself back at home researching and shopping (via web). I still really liked the Halcyon in general, and since I had already tried one in the flesh I would have bought one if they had a smaller than 30#/wider wing available.

I ended up getting a DSS rig with a narrow, 17# wing and I really, really like that wing. Since I'm a normal diver

, I now also have an 18# Oxycheq wing (which is also narrow). I like that one too. Now, I have not gone back and dived a rig with the wider, 30# wing again, so I don't KNOW that it would be any less wonderful (I did struggle with buoyancy when I wore it on that trip, but I think I might have struggled in ANY rig, as I was so green). I do know that I love the small/narrow wings for warm-water diving.

Blue Sparkle

jar546 · Sep 5, 2011

My concern would be weighting. Right now I put 10 lbs in my BC on the shoulders (5+5) and no ditchable weight in the pockets when I am in a 7mil with hood (fresh water). When I am in tropical with 3mil shorty I can do the same for salt. it is what I need for trim. I would like to go with the aluminum for ease of travel but the ss plate may be easier when it is time to go back to drysuit and thick thermals. I may have to use my friends setup to see where I am with weighting. He is adamant about the 6# ss backplate. When we dive dry and he uses a steel 120 with the 6# backplate, he requires no additional weight.

Halcyon users, please tell me why

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