basic backplate question

[Northeastwrecks]

lal7176 once bubbled...


Tropics? You mean there is actually water above 50degrees and with more than 10-20 ft of vis. I have never used my BP outside of coldwater diving Who knows......someday i'll get to try out some of that tropical stuff

I'd love to see 50 deg. water. Last weekend, it was 36 deg. F. That was COLD.

 

[leadweight]

lal7176 once bubbled...


Tropics? You mean there is actually water above 50degrees and with more than 10-20 ft of vis. I have never used my BP outside of coldwater diving Who knows......someday i'll get to try out some of that tropical stuff

I will try to say this without turning this into a to BP or not to BP debate. It seems to me from reading thousands of posts on this board that the divers who like BP's the most tend to dive mostly cold water. The divers that dive mostly by traveling to warm water are the ones that after inquiring about BP's tend to find a different solution like the TPII, Balance or Escape. That does not mean that a cold water diver can't take his BP on vacation and have a week or two of really great diving. It's just how things tend to shake out and reflects the preferences of the various groups. Don't forget that apart from the dedicated sort of divers that hang out around here most divers are wearing jackets and they are not complaining. In fact, outside of North America and the Caribbean, back inflate BC's of all kinds are downright scarce.

 

[Northeastwrecks]

Leadweight:

You raise an interesting point, although it is only fair to except cavers in the South from your mix.

Like you, without turning this into a BP/BC debate, what do the tech divers are not cavers and who live in warm areas use? Are they in TP's with plates, so-called extended range BC's, BP's or some type of mix.

 

[leadweight]

I only know a few tech divers and two of them are Cave divers. So far as I know they all use BP for technical diving but, I don't know what they all use on warm water trips. However, in my last post I really had active divers in mind that are not tech divers in the true sense. Needless to say there are divers who go outside the industry accepted definition of recreational diving more than occasionally who are not tech divers. There are quite a few divers who like to cruise walls at 150 feet for no better reason than to be able to say they did it.

One of my friends is an avid caver. He used a Classic for several years outside of the caves until he decided to use a BP for warm water as well. On one trip to the Cayman Islands with him and another caver both used BP's. Another guy that I met dives trimix in a single 120 on a BP with something or other in a deco pony. He does this solo on his own boat and goes spearfishing at 200+ fsw. Perhaps the hot weather down here has caused him to go mad. Someone else I met wants to build his own rebreather. After hearing this I went into a state of shock and did not bother to ask what he used to hold a tank on his back. You can see that I am having fun down here. 36 degrees, not me.