mares pegasus or seaquest pro qd

[oleras]

howdy folks, new to diving and was wondering if anybody had any feedback about these bcd's ? good or bad, or which would they recomend.....all cold water dives

[Charlie99]

I have a Pro QD and am very happy with it. It fits great, with no movement of the tank at all while diving.

There are lots of really good BCs on the market. My suggestion is to find a shop that will let you take your top choices out for a test dive. See how they feel when inflated on the surface. Do they hold the tank stable while diving? Can you easily access the pockets?

It's your BC. You have to decide.

Charlie

[LUBOLD8431]

Quite a few of my customers have had some bad experiences with Mares BC's. Specifically weight pockets falling out, stitching coming undone, BC leaking air through bladder.

The quality of Mares BC's is very poor... They make good regulators and fins, but they should stop making BC's.

Seaquest does make very good quality bc's and you will be happy with the Pro QD. We have been using them in rental for the last two seasons, and they have been great. Very comfortable, and alot of people like them. Its our most popular BC.

[oleras]

Thanks for the fast reply...keep them coming, am going to use this forum a lot more...one more thing.....i will be buying online, too damn expensive here in Ireland...could someone recomend an online dive equip shop they have had good experiences with ? thanks

[hydroslyder]

Hey

I love my pro qd, the bent up shoulder drings help alot, ive never done any real cold water diving, but i am sure those help alot. My instructor has the same bc, and has over 230 dives on it and it still looks like my brand new one. I dont have much experience with mares, but my dive shop sells both brands, but they recomend the sea quest over the mares.

Thats my thoughts hope they help.

[yak]

I love my pro qd. Especially the ability to purge air on ascents by pulling down on the inflator with my left hand , while also holding my console computer to monitor ascent rate. It frees up my right hand for holding sausage, etc.

[DIR Tec Diver]

Neither are any good.

Get a DUI Delta if you are only interested in Rec diving if there is any chance or interest in going into the tech realm get a Halcyon Pioneer wing to start on then look at the Explorer for twin tank diving

Jacket BCDs are a total waste of time and unsafe

[Charlie99]

DIR Tec Diver once bubbled...
Jacket BCDs are a total waste of time and unsafe

Please explain the safety problems of jacket BCDs. Since the vast majority of divers use jacket BCDs I find your statement alarming.

Charlie

[DIR Tec Diver]

It's an excellent question. I was even one of the proud owners of a jacket BCD once upon a time too. As a matter of fact most all divers were unless they were fortunate enough to have a real professional helping them.

Jacket BCDs have a primary failure in that they inflate around the body and press on the torso causing a restriction in movement and breathing. This leads to increased shallow breathing and carbon dioxide build up which has been shown to lead to blackouts. this in the water is fatal.

Also the buoyancy characteristics are not good either. The wings superiority is that it holds and supports around the tank and the center of gravity. The jacket BCD does not and can not do this. Also with the jacket BCDs air cells wrapping around the diver, it causes uneven buoyancy characteristics that lead to inefficiency in the water, as seen when you roll from side to side or attempt to turn.

Honestly, don't just take it from me, you can even look at other posts on this site to look at the opinions and comments which all lead to wing bcds. You can also look at the worlds top divers, record holders and the like, and you will not see 1 single of those divers using a jacket bcd. It is not because they are tech or they want to look cool it is because it workd far better, safer and with less stress on the diver.

[Charlie99]

DIR Tec Diver once bubbled... Jacket BCDs have a primary failure in that they inflate around the body and press on the torso causing a restriction in movement and breathing. This leads to increased shallow breathing and carbon dioxide build up which has been shown to lead to blackouts. this in the water is fatal.

Hmmmm. Interesting theory, where are all the bodies? 1) Obviously you have not tried the SeaQuest ProQD that the original poster is looking at. No squeeze even at full inflation. 2) Even on jackets where there is a bit of squeeze at full inflation, that is on the surface.

DIR Tec Diver further bubbled...
The wings superiority is that it holds and supports around the tank and the center of gravity. The jacket BCD does not and can not do this. Also with the jacket BCDs air cells wrapping around the diver, it causes uneven buoyancy characteristics that lead to inefficiency in the water, as seen when you roll from side to side or attempt to turn.

Your center of gravity is centered on the tank? Hmmmm. An AL80 weighs about 35 pounds, and on much of the dive is positive bouyant. Yep, sounds like wrapped around the tank is where you might want it, but not me.

Putting the buoyant wings up around the tank, well ABOVE the center of gravity looks to me more like suspending a gondola from a blimp --- good for keeping a horizontal position, not so good for agility. Moving weight upwards by putting it into a backplate helps, but that's just trying to correct the problem introduced by putting the wings up high.

Even if your statements about center of gravity were true, does this really make jackets UNSAFE???

DIR Tec Diver further bubbled...
You can also look at the worlds top divers, record holders and the like, and you will not see 1 single of those divers using a jacket bcd. It is not because they are tech or they want to look cool it is because it workd far better, safer and with less stress on the diver.

Perhaps it is because they primarily use doubles, for which the backplate makes a good mounting surface. Yep. So and so uses them, so I should too. I have seen this logic quite often in discussions of DIR.


Living dangerously in a jacket BC,
Charlie

p.s. As with most DIR debate, this was started by a DIR diver making a blanket statement like "jacket BCDs are unsafe".