I think it is the same thing now that it was in 1978 when I began using "wing" type BCs on the then plastic plates called backpacks then. They (mostly PadI trained dive boats, shops and instructors) claimed that the wing is unsafe because it will not float you head up and back for a clear airway as many BCs are designed to do primary and the BC function is secondary. Most BC jackets and even the semi back inflate are really lifejackets FIRST. I was told wings (called back BCs then) were unsafe and that I could not use them on their trip-boat-whatever. They also did not allow any fixed weights such as what we call trim weights now. During that time all weight must be ditchable. Things have changed more to my way of thinking. Trim weights are common even in jacket BCs. The modern wing/BP is designed first and formost to perform as a bouyancy compensator and has no lifejacket function at all. I think this is the hang up especially with instructors who got their fins during the 80s and early 90s before the current "tech" and tech wannabee boom. There may be some rational for new divers who are poor swimmers to use the life jacket type BC just in case they have a problem. No wing I have ever had will reliably float me head up and back. The old horsecollar type would and the "Stabilizing Jacket" type will as will most of the current jacket types.
Wings go back into the 70s but did not go mainstream (if in fact they have now--outside of scubaboard you rarely see a wing/BP) because they were not good lifejackets for the non swimmers that PadI was trying to recruit:
The horsecollar ruled the roost because it was a "safety" design and the wing you see here is from the late 70s and early 80s:
Early 80s SeaTec wing, I bought it in about 84 after the SeaPro wing I bought in 78 punctured:
My wife in about 1984 in her then new life jacket BC and her in my Dacor in about 79:
The old SeaTec still works, two years ago, works with small twins as well:
Me in a modern wing/BP last spring:
Me sometime around 80 in my then well worn Dacor SeaChute horsecollar--then:
Now being restored to full fucntion, I am making a new bladder set myself:
Brand new horsecolar, the first wings actually evolved from people back mounting these, especially the type with zipper fronts:
Early weighted plate:
Some of my first gear circa late 60s:
My first "BC" circa 1965, imagine this back mounted and cut the oral tube off and put a larger hose--yep:
So, wings are not new, they are still not fully accepted because they are fairly poor lifejackets. This is compounded due to the FACT that most divers today and most instructors today cannot swim and thus subconciously desire a lifejacket--not a wing.
The wing is the thing--lol--the wing makes you horizontal, the jacket makes you vertical, good underwater, not so good on the surface for nonswimming students and instructors.
Of course, you don't need a BC if you are a water person:
Last summer, me in OxyMach V and Freedom Plate, her in old reliable--yes--she has a new BC but likes the old one better--what can I say. Yep, me, 42 years as an active diver, her, 28 years:
The wing is the thing.
N
