Sorry to hear that! I will say that the infrastructure on dive boats going to cool places in Lake Erie was poor [ terrible] back in the 70's and 80's when I knew and dove with those guys....
If I lived there now, I'd be using a map of cool shipwrecks, and trying to find boats that could be relied on to drop me on these...
But at the time I was there, you'd learn how to dive, and then be on your own to find a place to dive.....But...they really put out a hard core training program, which I did appreciate.
If you had a population...a group of Wreck divers in the Buffalo area, that had great access to cool wrecks....you would think that you'd get the same desire for "better toys" for your favorite sport...as in cycling, skiing, kayaking, etc....My Halcyon gear would show off nicely in wreck penetrations with my DIR buddies, in the Great Lakes wrecks.
I don't remember any real currents ever in Lake dives...only in dives on the Niagara River ( which would benefit greatly from our Palm Beach drift techniques and bp/wing / DIR gear
---------- Post added March 20th, 2015 at 05:04 PM ----------
Not sure how this could be.....The Halcyon or Dive Rite style of BP/wing, has a very comfortable steel or aluminum back plate, that is far more effective in the even distribution of weights and forces than will be possible for a "fabric" backed jacket BC....Even with the plastic insert some have, this is narrow, and not well suited to weight distribution...I know a lot of cave divers that hike MILES with a bp/wing and doubles on their backs...I don't think they would like this in a jacket..
And the Harness on the Halcyon or Dive Rite styles, should be perfectly customized to the diver--you sell one to a customer, you fit them as if someone spent $100,000 making them their own perfectly fitting harness, and this will allow them to be dead flat horizontal in the water, perfectly trimmed, with no effort on their part. There should be no constant kicking to get flat--you should be able to almost take a nap, with no fin movement, and still be resting flat.
Now in fairness, I think the real "fit", is the fit and comfort "Under the Water"....the fit and comfort in the showroom, has gravity acting in the wrong directions, and critically important things like Buoyancy effects on the diver, and Inertia of the Tank underwater, are lost.
When you have a properly fitted bp/wing....while you are swimming underwater, every time you make a sudden movement, the tank has to move with you like it is actually a part of your back....and it can, because of the style of harness and backplate....This is very different than most Jacket BC's--where the diver moves forward, or turns, and the tank on their back wants to continue in the direction it had been heading before--and it DOES for a moment...so the diver feels the tank moving around on their back....It is not noticed so much by a new diver that has only has Jacket BC's to wear--but once they dive a bp/wing properly set up, the difference SCREAMS to them....And, then there is the "Kick and Glide" you get with the bp/wing, versus the "Kick and air brakes" of the Jacket BC
I think some shops may like their divers in Jackets that are like "air brakes", as they keep the diver swimming harder, blowing through way more air than they should, and all of a sudden the shop owner has an "opportunity" to solve the problem with a 120 cu foot tank or larger, at 4 times the cost of the Al 80.
And, if you sell the diver a jacket first, you may get a second sale of a bp/wing in a year or two ( if the diver does not drop out of diving).
Sell them the bp/wing for their first OW class, you know this will be their bc for life....No 2nd BC sale....But, the thinking ought to be that the student diver can spend the money on the huge number of real things they will actually need. The Toy store effect never ends, if you keep the diver competent and excited.