Freedom Plate Divers Roll Call: show us your rig!

Ah ok, sounds good. I’m going to pull the trigger and order one.

 

@azstinger11 What was the verdict?

 

Yup something happened during manufacturing, Bryan coordinated being sent directly back to them (as they are here in CA) avoiding having it FedEx’d coast to coast to coast needlessly. So right now just waiting for the repair to happen.

 

I think at the end it’ll be worth the wait!

that set up looks sick! VDH wings + FP... makes me miss the us even more!

 

;-) Had mine u/w today in a local scuba park. Even had a good old 72 under the cam bands. No wet suit, no weight belt. Bliss (except no visibility either.)

 

Thanks to @Soloist I have a aluminum FP on the way. Last I heard it was in Miami, but in USPS we trust. I'm currently staring at the VDH web store try to decide between the 18# wing and the 23# wing. This is mainly for warm water diving (optimistic). I usually wear 10-12 lbs of lead with a 3mm full suit. I'm (fairly) sure that 18# wing is plenty for that, but thought extra capacity might be nice to have the wing less inflated on the surface. The other possibility (although not very probable at this point) is that I might get back in a trilam drysuit; I used to need 24# for that, so the 23# wing might be borderline usable for that. Anyway, I guess everybody who has an 18# wing loves it, but I thought I would throw the question out for comment / hazing.

 

I created a convert yesterday.

I have a friend with about 25 dives. I am doing her AOW training. We went to the lake last weekend and did 3 dives. She doesn't have any gear, so I loaned her regs, a computer, and my ScubaPro Hydros Pro BCD. She's a bigger girl and my Hydros fits her just fine. She had a great time and really liked the Hydros. We came back and all last week she was indundating me with questions about BCDs because she is ready to buy gear. The Hydros price tag pretty much took it out of the running, so she was looking at every other BCD you can think of.

Eventually, she started narrowing things down and the ones she was looking at are ones that she said she liked better because they seemed more "minimal". I told her, "well, if you like minimal, you should try my back plate and wing."

We went back to the lake yesterday and she tried my Freedom Plate with VDH 35 wing. I was super lucky and the way it was setup for me fit her with no adjustments. One dive and she was hooked. She came out of the water going on about how it made her feel so much more agile in the water. So much easier to turn around or roll or whatever. And her biggest thing: She is leg heavy and with the weighting on the Hydros, she had to work at it to keep her legs up in good horizontal trim. After 1 dive with the FP, she was going on about how she now had the right trim without any effort.

I was so proud of her!

It is really too bad there is such a long wait for a FP. But, I'm pretty sure she's going to take my shopping list and get a regular BP, a VDH wing, and the other assorted parts and we're going to put her together a BP/W as her very first BCD of her own.

 

If you only need 24# of lead for diving in a trilam drysuit, I don't see how you could possibly need 10 in a 3mm wetsuit. My student from yesterday was diving in 3mm with the FP rig and an AL80 with no weight (beyond the back plate itself). In the Hydros, she took 6#.

I could be wrong. I'm just shooting from the hip here. Maybe you really do need 10-12.

If you really do need 10 - 12 #, an 18# wing is going to be pushing the limits. But, if you find that you really do not need that much, then an 18 should be okay for warm water.

If you are going to dive in a drysuit, you're going to want the 35 (if you stick to VDH). If you're going to want that anyway, you might try it first. It really is amazingly compact and streamlined. You might decide you really don't care about spending the additional money to also have an 18.

 

My SS plate finally arrived, and it’s gorgeous. Pics to follow once the order for webbing and bits and bobs arrives, but I’m also looking to buy an additional smaller wing - I currently have a 15L (~30lb) Tecline wing, which I do really like, but it is a good bit more lift than I need - usually adding about 6-8 lbs of weight is enough with an Aluminum backplate and the 3.5mm full suit. I looked at the Apeks WTX-D18, but the slots and holes don’t seem to line up optimally. Tecline has a 10L (~22lb) wing that has roll stabilizers and longer slots, which I think should work pretty well, but can’t find reviews or a local dealer with one actually in stock. Looks like this:

Tecline Donut 10 Navy Blue (10kg/22lbs) for mono tank, built in mono adaptor bij sublub

There is the more pricey option of getting one of the VDH wings, either the 18lb or the 23lb - with shipping and taxes it will cost about 60 euros more than the above option. I’m edging towards the 18lb since I have the 30lb anyway if I go dry or thicker wet for the very occasional dive here in NL waters.

I know the Tecline stuff will be good quality, though the shape and retaining cord on the VDH seem a little bit more streamlined. Plus a 13” inflator instead of a 15”. Big upside to Tecline (other than price and choices of color) for me in Europe is easy access to parts. And two wings with the same parts. There’s always the option to order and return the Tecline should it not appeal, although that feels a bit ‘wrong’ for something none of the dealers seem to be holding stock of. Any thoughts?

 

I might be deluding myself. It's been at least a decade since I was in the water in a dry suit.