buying a bc

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Too$hortbaby

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Ontario,Canada
hi all.

As a newbie i'm having trouble trying to decide what to buy.

A bc with weight intergrated,rear inflate,bc designed for singles,doubles,IQ pack,what is this?

Just besides the obvious of fit and comfort,i just don't know what to get.

This was my first summer of diving,and it was a great one.
Seen some very intersting thing/creatures...very,very cool

We (divebuddy and myself) did 23 dives this summer,and i'm hooked

thanxs in advanced for your response
 
Depending on the type (deep, cave, etc.) of diving you will be doing the dive shop can steer you in the right direction for the type of BC you will need. Personally I prefer a weight integrated BC. I enjoy not fighting with a weight belt. No slipping, grinding into my hips, and so on. On my BC I don't feel concerned that the weights will dump accidentally on their own. I know some people have been concerned about this and have actually had it happen. Checking out the design of the weight integration system will be important.

Good Luck,
Jennifer
http://www.MichiganShipwrecks.com
 
thanxs jenmichgan

i was looking @ oms bc 100pound lift,iq pac....? what ever that is intergrated weights good for singles and doubles
not quite sure what type of diving i will do just having a blast diving-so kool

 
A hundred pounds of lift?? Great day! As a general rule, you want to buy the BC that has enough lift to handle your kind of diving, plus maybe 10%. As an example, with double steel 95's and a couple of stage bottles, and allowing for a flooded dry suit, I use wings with 55 pounds of lift. When diving in warm open water, I use a little tropical BC that has maybe 20 pounds lift maximum.
It depends on what kind of diving you're doing, but for general recreational diving, a jacket style BC with roomy pockets and 30-50 pounds lift is more than adequate, and provides the best trade-off of features, ease of use, buoyancy and buoyancy characteristics. Unless you're diving steel, and wearing 'em high, I do not recommend a back inflated BC for novice divers because it will tend to put you face down on the surface - a characteristic generally uncomfortable..
I highly recommend you go to your local dive store (the one with the pool) and try several BC's in the pool. The most important characteristics, in my opinion, are fit and comfort, and easy floating with your face out of the water. If you get into tech diving, that's the time to look at that magnificent beast from OMS.
Rick
 
2$hort, The IQ Pack is certainly a beautiful BC, but have you tried one yet? From my experience with new divers, I've learned that it's not the most comfortable/user friendly of BC's to start with. The main problems they seem to run into is balance difficulties on the surface, and dumping issues during the dive. For some reason, the bungie system wasn't sqeazing all the air out of the bladder causing more positive bouyancy than wanted. This could be a very big hazard. So, if at all possible try one out before you go buying one, and if it doesn't hurt your pride too much, go for a bladder with less lift. The smaller bladder will be more controlable, cause less drag, snag in tight areas less, and it'll be cheaper too!

It's not the size of the bladder,
It's the motion in the Ocean...
Mario
 

PRIDE.....hehe it takes a little more than that.your just giving me advice,and your opinion.which i'm greatful for.


others i've been talking are saying the same thing.it just what is in stock at the dive shop.he will order me in anthing i want.

theres not much a choice of diveshops in the area,but he been great to us[buddy and me]

what excatly is an iq pack?
i've tried seaquest rear inflate,had a little trouble with trim weight[to much] orther than that no experenice.
he said i can try i pool first,before i buy.

deflate problems...is this because you have to be vertical,and you can't just pull on power inflator hose?

welcome all advice


thanxs mario
 
2$hort, welcome to our realm. If it's advice you like, then advice is what you're going to get.

An IQ system is OMS's Harness System. It looks pretty darn manly with 17 D-rings, 5 pouches and a weight integration system. You then choose a backplate: Steel, Aluminum or ABS. The steel can even be stacked to aid in fine tuning your balance requirements depending on your gear configuration. Bladders I beleive start at 45lbs of lift and go up to 100lbs, and can be doubled up as well with two completely seperate inflators. The OMS BC is an extremely easily adjustable, modular system which is ideal for many different types of technical diving. But it's not very easy to adjust and fine tune properly. It takes some practice and a whole lot of patience to get it nailed down.

When you first start out, you want to minimize distractions, and especially gear related stress as much as possible. In my opinion, you'd be much better off with a BC like the SeaQuest Black Diamond. It too looks manly, has plenty od D-ring and accessory spots, accomodates dual cylinders etc. I have both it and a Balance (amongst others) and find it to be a very comfortable, easy to use BC.

Hope this helps out, and please don't hesitate to ask more questions should you come up with any :wink:

Sea you in the Deep Blue,
Mario
 
2$hort,
But first a message from our sponsor:
Mario S(eaQuest) Caner, you still pushing that rag you wear all the time. Just Kidding.

rainreg, our resident equipment tech, & US Navy diver, recently posted another forum:

Sea Quest-Black Diamond
Zeagle-Ranger
Scuba Pro-Hawk
IDI-Advantage
US Divers-Sea Master

These BCs were all accepted by the US Navy as acceptable for Navy Divers, if it's good enough for them then it's gotta be good enough for me.
 
Don,
Classic. The S(eaQuest) bit nearly gave me a hernia. I wonder if insurance would cover that...:wink:

Anyway, looks like I own or have owned all but one of the B.C.'s on 'the list'. Can you guess which? Let's vote on it. Who knows by the time we count, miscount, recount, and count again it'll be Christmas... sorry didn't mean to stray off like that. By the way do you think we could at least agree that the election was a big joke? (Probably not):wink:

Mario
 
Hi all,

Just to throw in my 2 cents, I have a Zeagle Scout and absolutely love it. I am a relatively new diver and I think it is a great beginning BC. It is back inflated, but very well balanced. I have absolutely no trouble on the surface (I just lay back like I'm in a big recliner chair). I personaly prefer the back inflated style because it does not squeeze me like the jacket BC's do. From the first day in class, I did not like the way the BC would squeeze when inflated.

I would recommend the Scout (or any of Zeagle's products for that matter) to anyone and if mine was lost or damaged, I would probably buy the same thing.

I forgot to mention, it comes with a 38lb. bladder and they are interchangeable.It is weight integrated and there is no trouble whatsoever with weights dumping them selves.

Any of the BC's mentioned above are excellent and I'm sure you will find what is best for you. You are already on the right track by doing some research here.

Frank
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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