I'm going to bring this whole thing back around to the original post and try and put some perspective on how this thread developed, and where it ended up so far.
It seems like I've had quite a few random thoughts lately...who knows, it may be the cold weather getting into my brain. So here we go!
I know that there are quite a few divers in our fun little community here on SB with many being advocated of the BP/W. Of course we represent a small cross section of divers as a whole. To that end, in my last couple of dive trips I have noticed a slight uptick in the use of the BP/W by divers.
So, I'm wondering...is the BP/W gaining popularity among recreational divers? Will it ever give the Jacket BCD a run for its money?
I'm interested in what the grand court of SB has to say about this.
And....go.
Yes, I have seen an uptick in BP/W use in the last 15 years for sure.
GUE/DIR are the ones that essentially brought the modern BP/W back into fashion for recreational use, although a different version of the backpack designs prior to the jacket, but same concept. DIR: Love them or hate them, embrace them or reject them, one thing you have to give them and thank them for is the popularization and the bringing back of the plate/wing concept for everybody to use, not just tech divers.
All of the following is opinion, (everything on the internet is opinion, so I am told).
Here is how I see it. Modern day scuba diving stemmed originally from breathhold freediving AKA skindiving. Many skin divers saw this new scuba as a way for people who were no good at freediving to be able to cheat and use a tank to go underwater and spear fish. BTW spearfishing was what everybody did in those days, that was the reason why people skin dove. As the scuba's gained popularity enough people were using them that they weren't as contemptible as they once were except by a few die hard freedivers who measured their skill by how successful they were completely under their own power with no aids of any kind.
These people who adopted scuba used all the same methods as they did freediving including all the techniques one uses to glide and swim around underwater. The only thing added was the S.C.U.B.A unit which amounted to nothing more than a tank with two bands around it that secured a very simple harness of shoulder straps, a waist strap, and a crotch strap. The material was either 1" cotton webbing or they also had 1" nylon. There was no plate of any kind, the tank just rode directly on your back. Attached to that tank was an extremely simple double hose regulator that just had a breathing loop with a mouthpiece up front. There was no SPG, no alternate air, no other hoses, nothing. It was as simple as it could possibly be and it was also very safe with no reported failings in the ten years it had been on the market.
As this new scuba continues to gain popularity so does training to teach people how to use this new equipment safely.
Skills such as underwater doff and dons to build comfort, harassment to build confidence and reinforce the stop/think/act training in real time, buddy breathing air shares, calculating ones SAC rate to know how long air supply would last, learning the tables, lots and lots of swimming to get prospective students in shape since the ocean on the west coast is nothing to play with.
These were some really good divers being turned out, both men and women.
Then in the 60's plates came in as a convenience to change out tanks and provide a more comfortable fit.
This basic scene went on all the way up into the 70's. By the late 70's early 80's is when things really changed.
The first comprehensive bc systems were in use. SP was making a stab jacket, and others were making similar stuff, but they essentially took a plastic pack and sewed in into a bunch of nylon material that integrated shoulder straps, air cell, waist strap.
Some people looked at them and thought WTF!?!?
They were designed and marketed in an effort to make diving more attractive to people who never would take up diving otherwise. Regardless of how they worked, that wasn't the point, the point was to just get people signed up. There were new resorts and boats to fill. Cert agencies, manufacturers, and operators all worked together at the first DEMA shows (that's why and how DEMA came about) to figure out how to market scuba to the masses and make some money. They saw potential to make some huge profits and get in on the recreation sports movement of the times.
This is where the jacket BCD was born. It was not born to actually improve diving in the sense of ease of travelling underwater, it was invented to get more people into diving on dry land first, in the store, in the magazines in adds, with colors, with styles, none of this matters underwater. Also it was easier to fit more people quickly with less hassle for training. They had a lot of people they needed to move through the "new improved" classes which took way less time and eliminated much of the stuff they figured was uneccessary.
This to me was where the downslide began and continued to build speed. Just look at the two vids I attached several posts ago and you can see for yourself who they are putting in the ocean these days. They shouldn't have ever made it out of the pool!
The Modern BCD jacket concept peaked IMO with the Mares "Hub" which was the pinnacle of overloaded crap on a unit.
With inventions such as the modern jackets also come other inventions that are designed to overcome or compensate for the disadvatages of design. For instance, since jackets are harder to move through the water, divers began to get leg cramps and have ankle problems using conventional fins, so they invented split fins to make kicking easier when divers were trying to push all that awkward mass forward. so, now we have another compromised piece of equipment to cover for the first compromised piece of equipment. And with training, they eliminate buddy breathing, so divers need a safe second...fine, but that's another hose, another second stage, and another gimmick to try and secure it. And since the BCD became "standard mandatory equipment" you need another hose and another thing to play with and fiddle with. Incrementally all the prior knowledge of true pure diving gets lost as time goes on and new gear gimmickery is brought to market.
Tables are gone, only computers now...fine, it's the digital age, I have a computer too, I've had several but I also know the tables. People are getting more and more removed from what the computer is based on, and for a lot of shallow short recreational beach dives a computer isn't needed. Knowledge is needed, not a toy to tell you what to do.
The last trend was that mostly gear and some training got so bad at one point that I just didn't see how it could get any worse.
The jacket really hasn't changed much, it's pretty much stagnated design wise. They may change a few colors or try and redesign something that fails to fail less like inegrated weight pockets. But don't think that the new modern BCD has anything to do with trying to help you be better in the water, if it does that's a by product, the main objective is for it to look and feel good in the store and fit you out of the box. Don't get the two confused.
I'm seeing a new new trend in a lot of divers that have stuck with it and are serious about their sport and their passion moving to a more basic minimal approach.
I could have just as easily just accepted the modern gear and whatever the store sold to me as the way it is, but I decided to do my homework and study the past as deeply as I could. The past will reveal the present and the future.
When I started designing and making plates some 12 years ago it was because of a complete disatisfaction in anything that I could buy. I had no intentions of making it a business, it was just for me so I could explore the minimal side of diving and trend forward on my own out of the clutter era.
I see minimalism as breaking out of a world of convoluted clutter that the world of scuba gear has become. The best way I can descibe it is how back when there were knights in armour. Armour had become so heavy and complex to "one up" the enemy that finally the horses and riders began to buckle under the weight and were no longer able to even move much less fight. The trend after that era was to begin to shed all that heavy gear and become more free and agile. They found out that a swordsman was much more effective by being completely minimalist and light and could fight circles around a heavily armoured knight. Those knights were so heavy that they couldn't even get up if they fell! All they had to do was knock them off their horse, find a gap in the armour, and pierce them.
I think this is a perfect parallel with what todays "normal" gear has become and were minimalism can liberate people. Not that were fighting like knights, but you get the idea.
I would love to see a brand new school of minimalistm sprout out of what we have now. I think they had it right in the beginning before it became warped and bastardized. They say what's old is new, but not really, what new is new, but keeps history in the rear view mirror. I could see a whole new movement taking off and adopted by the young new adventurers I see that are freedivers now.
I'm not going to look too hard at todays typical recreational diver to embrace minimalism. I think the new generation will own it.
Regular scuba is dying, gee I wonder why?