Hollis Ride Travel Wing/BCD

[Kevster]

Hi,
Thinking about getting the Hollis Ride BCD.Have a couple of questions.
Most of my diving is vacation diving in the tropics, so a simple low profile BCD would be ideal.I have never dived with a wing system. I have two Mares vest type BCDs but looking for a low profile wing system.

Regarding the Hollis Ride:
1. Can you still use a normal weight belt. How ditch able is a weight belt under a harness,crotch strap system.(i usually have 2-3 KGs max but would like to still use a weight belt). I assume you put on the weight belt then the BCD.

2. How easy is it to remove a BCD while in the water(i.e after a dive , on the surface , take off BCD and hand to tender/boat). There appears to be no quick release buckles on the Ride BCD. Is this normal for a wing system. If so how difficult is it to remove the BCD in water. how do you adjust shoulder straps.

3. There is no chest strap between the 2 shoulder straps (like a vest BCD) . Is this a problem with the shoulder straps moving??

Thanks in advance .

 

[pickens_46929]

1. Yes you can still use a normal weight belt. Correct, weight belt first. I have something similar that came with weight pouches. I only use them in cold water when I am wearing a heavy semi-dry.

2. It's definitely more difficult as there are no quick releases but it can be done. Just like it took time to get used to any other new gear - it will take some practice to ditch and don this new Hollis as well. Not having a quick release is fairly common in these types of wings. Some manufacturers offer two versions of the harness, one with quick releases and one without. It is a personal preference mostly.

3. I don't have any issues with just the two shoulder straps personally. It can feel weird sometimes but once you get used to it, it's fine.

 

[victorzamora]

1. You can still use a normal weight belt. To ditch, some people actually put the weight belt above the BCD but I dislike that. I use the crotch strap as safety. I have never needed to ditch weights, but HAVE had weights fall out when I least wanted them to that almost got me injured. Now, to ditch weights, I flip one buckle for my waist strap and one more for my weight belt and off it goes.

2. To remove the Ride underwater is really easy if set up properly. The Ride is cool because where the shoulder straps become your waist strap is loose, so to doff it all you do is flip your waist strap buckle, push your shoulder straps away from you and that pulls slack from your waist strap (that is no longer attached). To don, you put your arms through your now VERY wide shoulder strap regions, grab your waist strap and pull taught. Pull it through your crotch strap, and latch like you would a weight belt. The lack of quick release doesn't really slow you at all. I think quick releases actually slow you as far as re-donning. I dove a similar setup to the Ride and changed my setup from BM single to SM single while underwater. Just donning/doffing took maybe 2 minutes total. To adjust the shoulder straps, you pull the waist strap...as they're the same webbing.

​

3. The shoulder straps fit you very differently than in a jacket style BCD. The shoulder straps aren't supposed to be parallel to each other and then meet stuff in front of you. They're supposed to go around your shoulders and then off of you around your ribs and tuck in around a loop to become your waist strap right at your hips. I know that's a weird way of describing it...but if you see a Ride (or any Hogarthian harness) in person you'll understand.

 

[swordfish66]

Sorry for picking up this old thread.

From the official picks it's hard to say how the tank is stabilized on the back. Are there any stabilizing items worked into the backplate? Or is it just the two tankstraps and nothing else?

 

[victorzamora]

There's a soft backplate. It feels pretty stable....but no, there are no other stabilizers there. You could add an STA if you are really worried about it.

 

[Agility]

no need to add a STA. I dive my Ride with a 15l steel tank or a long 12l steel tank without any problems regarding tank movement.

 

[Subacat]

Just purchased the Hollis ride a few weeks ago. The supplied cam bands do not accommodate for a 15l steel tank. Will look to replace them.

apart from that issue (Buying metal clipped replacements cams anyway) it's a great BCD.

 

[Agility]

I removed the padding and was able to reduce my lead requirements by 1 kg and it makes mounting my doubles much easier

 

[kebosatu]

Feel bad to re-activating old post again. But anyone has picture of hollis wing 23lbs?

 

[Agility]

The only difference seem to be 5 cm in length Backplate, Harness and Wing Systems (BPW) by Hollis - Dive Gear Express
the width seems to be the same for both wings.