Plates designed for Single Tanks ?

[ronscuba]

Dive Rite discontinued their aluminum backplate. They are supposed to announce a new light weight stainless steel plate soon. I don't think it is dedicated to single tank, but never the less I am interested to see it.

I think the single tank teardop plate pre-dates the doubles tank rectangular plate. Maybe we will see a revival.

 

[halocline]

There was the old Jet Harness plate, I still have one of those. It's an excellent plate for single tank only diving. Basically full size and flat as a pancake. I don't use it too much because it only fits the dive rite travel wing.

That company went out of business despite making a high quality product at a very reasonable price. At the time I don't think there was much of a single tank BP/W market, and I suspect many people thought that a flat plate would be uncomfortable. It wasn't.

 

[ronscuba]

I'm only a recreational diver but love the simplicity and flexibility of a BP/W. I think more and more recreational divers are discovering the advantages of BP/W. I can see a market for single tank plates if they offer benefit over the standard shape plates we have now. At a minimum something that looks more comfortable will be more marketable to recreational divers.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Well, I can tell you I've been doing this for almost 10 years and it's not been what I originally thought it would be when I decided to market them. It has been a struggle.
I've virtually hit a wall trying to market the plate to LDS's, which as far as I'm concerned is still the best avenue to sell dive gear.
The internet is great, but way more people including those that have never dove are apt to walk in to an actual dive shop and look around.
The LDS is where it starts for most people.
The internet is used more by people who already have some experience and know what they want.
As long as the majority of dive shops don't carry BP/W systems of any kind the more they will not become mainstream.
Even if BP/W becomes mainstream on the internet, the internet diving comunity is only a small fraction of the overall diving population.
As far as somebody else making a single tank only plate for mass market, I doubt it. Most BP/W users make due with what they have and are happy.
The conventional plates work good enough that most users don't see a point in trying to fix something that's not broken.
I am borderline OCD though and was never happy with a regular plate for single tank diving so I made my own based on what I thought a single tank plate should be.
I just made one originally for myself then all my friends saw it and wanted one so that's why I started making them.

 

[halocline]

Well, I'm glad you started making them, I use mine all the time and everywhere I go with it I gets lots of comments, especially with the quasi-vintage webbing and the tiny oxycheq wing. It's a very nice compact warm water rig.

But I do fear that you'll have a tough time expanding your market, with the 2 or 3 giants that dominate the LDS distribution chain. The issue is that instruction and gear sales are combined under one roof, so you basically have instructors peddling gear, or more accurately, dive shops peddling instruction in order to sell the gear they have. If that link were broken and most divers started learning from someone that was NOT trying to sell them gear obtained through agreements with a few large companies, the market would open up (I guess) to smaller independent manufacturers.

 

[Rich Keller]

Rich, nice looking minimalist setup. What wing did you go with?

I used a Dive Rite Travel EXP that has 25lb lift. I was going to use the Oxycheq 18lb but it is more ridged so it would not pack as flat as I wanted and had a built in STA that I thought might be felt through my back plate as it is only 1/4" thick and relatively soft. I also liked that the Dive Rite had a larger opening inside the wing so I could position the cam bands further apart as there was no preset position on my back plate for the cam bands either.

 

[Akimbo]

…There isn't a big enough market for somebody to have expensive dies made to slam out that type of shape in a giant machine (like how auto fenders are made out of flat steel)...

Sportsways made a stamped (Aluminum I think) backplate back in the 60s that was fairly decent. Unfortunately, the 1" harness was about the same as used on the original no-back-plate harnesses attached directly to the cylinder bands. The single 2" webbing with top-center-back attachment like the Freedom Plate or old Voit Snug Pack is the best solution I have used.

Stamping allowed much thinner than 10 gauge material to be used without loss of strength. It allowed tight rolls on all the edges and dimples for strengthening.

 

[ronscuba]

Eric, it's too bad things have not gone as you thought. I've read nothing but glowing reviews about your plate. Nothing else like it on the market right now. A Freedom plate may be in my future.

Rich, you're right, the Oxycheq wing does not pack small because the outer shell is so stiff. I have the Oxycheq 30. I dove a Transpac with travel wing for 10 years before going BP/W with an aluminum plate and Oxy wing. I liked my Transpac, although the travel wing does not vent as easily as the Oxycheq 30. Maybe Dive Rite made some changes. My DR travel wing is old.

I wanted a setup as small and light as possible for travel. I ended up with a DeepSeaSupply TTW17 with the Oxycheq Ultra plate. The DSS wing is totally flat when deflated which is one of the reasons I chose it over the Oxycheq 18.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Eric, it's too bad things have not gone as you thought. I've read nothing but glowing reviews about your plate. Nothing else like it on the market right now. A Freedom plate may be in my future.

Rich, you're right, the Oxycheq wing does not pack small because the outer shell is so stiff. I have the Oxycheq 30. I dove a Transpac with travel wing for 10 years before going BP/W with an aluminum plate and Oxy wing. I liked my Transpac, although the travel wing does not vent as easily as the Oxycheq 30. Maybe Dive Rite made some changes. My DR travel wing is old.

I wanted a setup as small and light as possible for travel. I ended up with a DeepSeaSupply TTW17 with the Oxycheq Ultra plate. The DSS wing is totally flat when deflated which is one of the reasons I chose it over the Oxycheq 18.

The part about things not going as I thought was aimed at all the dive shops that slammed the door in my face. That one took me by surprise. Even if they would have been open to the idea but didn't take it in because of commitments with other manufacturers and systems I would have understood. But to be as rude as they were telling me it was "Stainless plate DIR tech crap" and "Nobody's going to want that and I certainly won't polute my store with that crap" sort of attitude blew me away. It's anything but that. Their contempt and hatred towards anything plate related with a wing and simple webbing is almost psychotic.

But the general public has been great! I thank each and every one of my customers who dive and love my product.
In fact, there is even a small cult following of collectors I have. One guy has bought every single model I have ever produced just because he want's one and he collects.
Others have bought several models for both local diving and travel and bought ones for relatives as gifts.

So as far as I'm concerned it's going good.

 

[Couv]

Hi Eric,

I'm a proud owner of a Freedom Plate, but like most folks who are using a metal plate it was not part of my first kit. Quite frankly they weren't around in the stone ages. If one looks at it in today's sales environment, not many newbies are going to consider putting a plate, wing, and harness together. IMHO as a former tank monkey, if you want to sell to the new diver market, you should investigate putting a package together that a beginner can readily compare to a poodle jacket setup. Otherwise, you'll be stuck with folks who discover your product after they have already invested in an inferior and more expensive setup.

Question. Do you currently have plates for sale?

Couv