BP/W: I officially don't get it

[MSilvia]

The bp/w will tend to put them in more of a face down position.

Please search for contrary arguments before accepting that assertion as fact. It seems most widely believed by those with little first hand experience. I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I do feel some obligation to cast doubt on what I believe to be incorrect information, especially when it is matter-of-factly repeated by an instructor.

Personally, when I use my BP/W at the surface, I recline comfortably in a decidedly face-up posture... unless I don't want to.

 

[*dave*]

Everyone knows you can't trim out in a poodle jacket.

 

[MSilvia]

Everyone knows you can't trim out in a poodle jacket.

Even though you're being sarcastic, the claim is ridiculous. Anyone with a good grasp of basic orientation skills should be able to trim out a jacket, or any other BC. It may be a bit more involved than trimming a backplate rig, but it shouldn't be difficult.

That said, what's that big dangly thing hanging from the diver in the photo?

 

[captron]

I love my BP, I've got three different sizes of air bladders to go with my steel & aluminum back plates. I dive with alm. 80 & bubbles they trim out great So I feel great and vary conferable. If you do not like it get red of it. Diving is about having fun.Dive with what you are conferable with.

 

[*dave*]

Even though you're being sarcastic, the claim is ridiculous. Anyone with a good grasp of basic orientation skills should be able to trim out a jacket, or any other BC.

Absolutely.... The rig in the vid is stock rental gear, AL80 and no trim weighting. A bit fin heavy, but that would be easily remedied by shifting some ballast around.

That said, what's that big dangly thing hanging from the diver in the photo?

It's called a console and is commonly found on rental rigs like the one in the video.

 

[Gombessa]

That said, what's that big dangly thing hanging from the diver in the photo?

It's actually a video (click it) and not a bad one at that (good lead-by-example for the student). That's a huge console hanging off the rig.

But yeah, of course you can trim out a BC, it's all about weight distribution. The design of the bp/w just happens to work in your favor in that regard.

 

[captron]

I love my BP, I've got three different sizes of air bladders to go with my steel & aluminum back plates. I dive with alm. 80 & bubbles they trim out great So I feel great and vary conferable. If you do not like it get red of it. Diving is about having fun.Dive with what you are conferable with.

 

[redacted]

Please search for contrary arguments before accepting that assertion as fact. It seems most widely believed by those with little first hand experience. I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I do feel some obligation to cast doubt on what I believe to be incorrect information, especially when it is matter-of-factly repeated by an instructor.

Personally, when I use my BP/W at the surface, I recline comfortably in a decidedly face-up posture... unless I don't want to.

Yes, but it does require a little practice & technique with a back inflate BCD or BP/W. Should not be a problem for any diver with a bit of experience managing buoyancy and trim to float comfortably with one. But for the new diver or one who is not inclined to practice good technique, they can just inflate the typical PJ with excess buoyancy until it burps and they will be floating about as high as they can get.

If surface floating performance the major consideration in selecting a BCD, then the PJ is probably the best choice.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Everyone knows you can't trim out in a poodle jacket.

I know that I previoulsy said that I seem to prefer a modified BC over a BP/W for certain diving applications, but that video does demonstrate one of the things I DISLIKE about a typical BC Jacket...

Look at how the tank is pulled upward and away from the lower back of the horizontal diver from the bouyancy of the air in the BC..... If he swam hard, or shook his ass, the entire rig would probably be flopping back and forth (side to side and up and down a little too). For me, that kind of rig would not make me happy.

I know he is doing fine in the pool and it is comfortable and he is horizontal and blah blah, but that video provides more ammunition for what is wrong with jackets, rather than what makes them desirable.

As I said in a post, far earlier in this thread, if a BC Jacket were modified to include a crotch strap and a simple waist belt and elimination of a cummerbund etc. the rig will be much more less sloppy and provide a level of (single) tank stability similar to a BP/W.

 

[elan]

Today, in the light if this thread I tried to just relax on the surface to see how my BP/W will behave. It was about 50% inflated and once I relaxed I tend to fall on my back as the tanks were pulling me backwards once I passed past the vertical line. No problem with face down at all.