back plate and wing for a 10 year old?

[gbray]

This weekend I am taking my 10 year old grand son to a LDS for a discovery dive. He loves the water and is very excited. If he does well He will want to get certified so he can dive with me.I am very excited about this myself. my question is:I have nearly always had a backplate and wing and wouldn't use anything else. should i start him off in ow class with a BPW or let him use a traditional poodle jacket? Is there one small enough for a 10 year old?would this cause more difficulties for him in class because I am sure no one else will be using one. The LDS does offer tech training but doesnt have any tech gear in their rental or training stock. Maybe some instructors can give me their opinion.

 

[tbone1004]

I'd start him off in a bpw. @cool_hardware52 makes short length plates that should be short enough for him

 

[cool_hardware52]

gbray,

How tall is your grandson? I've fit divers from ~4'7" and up. Feel free to give me a call at 626-799-5078 (most days)

I can walk you through the options we can offer in about 15 minutes.

Great to see you furthering your grandson's interests in the natural world.

Tobin

 

[MikkelBC]

Maybe it would be a good idea to check with the instructor that is going to teach your son what his attitude would be towards teaching him with a backplate and wing. Personally I would be happy to do so, and I don't see why any instructor shouldn't, but if that particular instructor for some reason is prejudiced against BP/W, then it could lead to a less enjoyable course. IMHO it might also be a hint to maybe investigate the options for choosing another instructor.
The only OW skills where a BP/W setup really makes any difference would be remove/replace BC and weight belt. BC because of fewer buckles and weight belt because of the crotch strap that may be outside the weight belt, depending on how you choose to configure it.
If he were also to use a long hose setup it would add more differences to skills training.

 

[rhwestfall]

In my case, the shop provided all the gear for the class (except fins, mask, snorkel & weight belt). It was easier at that time to just go with the flow, and get my daughter through the class in their standard kit. I even used this configuration through her open water dives . Once certified, I set her up in a configuration similar to mine.

FWIW - it is also better to abuse the shop's gear up with chlorine.....

 

[Charred]

My 13 year old daughter just trained in a DSS rig with a steel back plate. She is tiny and probably the size of a 10 year old boy.

I put weight pockets on the waist strap to give the instructors options. One drill instead of removing a belt he had her remove the weights from the pockets and swap them. For the open water skill to remove and replace the belt, she put a belt on with a 2 lb weight over everything else, jumped off the boat, took it off, put it back on and then handed it back to the boat.

FWIW, in the end she was diving a AL63 with no extra weight but the backplate.

 

[tattooedjeeper]

My daughter was certified last year at 12 yrs old in a bp/w. She uses a short plate from oxychec and has weight pockets on the waist band. She loves the set up.

 

[maj2]

We have several Jr divers locally (and have for some time), so there has been a pretty good market for used BCDs small enough for Jr divers. Most of it is only lightly used because the kids grew out of it.

My daughter is now 13 and is on her second BCD. Both cost me well under $100CDN-- the first was about $45, and the second not much more. I am hesitant to sink much money into any gear that she will outgrow (especially the drysuit she keeps asking for!). And with so much used stuff around here in that size range, the used pricing that I can get out of anything in a year or two will not be a lot.

Until she stops growing, we will continue this approach. By then, she will have seen enough setups that I am hoping she can take a more active role in deciding what setup is right for her.

 

[James R]

I am happy to teach people in a BP/W with a long hose/bungee for open water. In fact, I would love to see it more often. Age and diver height/size doesn't matter as long as it is set up correctly.

I think some instructors and shops refuse some of the above because they don't have any first-hand experience with BP/W, and certainly don't know how to set them up properly.

 

[2airishuman]

I would echo the advice to check with the instructor. Even some tech oriented shops don't like to teach beginning students in BP&Ws. The usual reason given is the difficulty some students have removing and replacing the BP&W while in the water.