Golem Gear is at it again!

[Crawl79]

Torontonian, Im not sure if this is correct but every professional UWphotographer I know of says that backplates are not good for photography. I don't personally care for jacket so I use a backinflate but I have been told that jackets are the preferred for taking photos. As the air in your jacket won't roll from one side to the other as easily.

 

[*Floater*]

By the way, here's how I check if I'm overweighted: At the end of a rec dive during my last safety stop at about 10' I lean slightly head down so all the gas (if any) goes to the back of my wing. I then reach back and squeeze the lower arc of the wing (for donuts) to see if there's any gas there. If there is then I'm overweighted and will leave some lead on the boat for the next dive. Of course, my tank probably has about 500 psi still in it, but that's about 1 lbs of negative buoyancy which I can easily effect with my lungs one way or the other, so basically there should be no gas in the wing at the end of the dive with tank almost empty at 10'. Sometimes I also run gas out of the tank at the end just to get it almost empty for the check.

 

[cool_hardware52]

Torontonian, Im not sure if this is correct but every professional UWphotographer I know of says that backplates are not good for photography. I don't personally care for jacket so I use a backinflate but I have been told that jackets are the preferred for taking photos. As the air in your jacket won't roll from one side to the other as easily.

I'd venture they have the wrong wing. If your wing is narrow, and matched to the task, rolling is a non issue. If your wing is wide, and too large, there's lots of "extra" volume for the air to move around in.


Tobin

 

[pakman]

As the air in your jacket won't roll from one side to the other as easily.

quite the opposite... I find there is less tendency to roll with a bpw since the wing (buoyancy) is on TOP vs a regular BCD where the air is on the sides. But it is also probably true that most pro photographers don't have problems with their stab jackets and probably would care less about ever switching over to the dark side...

 

[Torontonian]

Torontonian, Im not sure if this is correct but every professional UWphotographer I know of says that backplates are not good for photography. I don't personally care for jacket so I use a backinflate but I have been told that jackets are the preferred for taking photos. As the air in your jacket won't roll from one side to the other as easily.

This is the first time I've heard of this (but I'm still learning). Would the people experienced with BP/W be able to comment on this, or the photography people? Or maybe I should start a different thread on this.

 

[lof]

Does anyone know if the Oxycheq package comes with SS cam bands? I can't find it in the description.

The Golem packages have SS cam bands included, the Oxycheq packages do not.

 

[divnamite]

Thanks, Jakub. So the oxycheq combo comes with the normal plastic cam bands?

 

[lof]

No cam bands are included with Oxycheq combos.

 

[Torontonian]

Is the Golem wing combo a complete package that you can dive with? And is the Oxycheq wing combo only missing the cam bands (compared to the Golem combo) to dive?

Looking at pictures, both wings have two sets of cam band slots. It looks like the Oxycheq wing have those two sets of band slots further apart. The Oxycheq wing should hold the tank quite stable. Would the Golem wing hold the tank just as stable as with the Oxycheq wing?

 

[ShoalDiverSA]

I can only answer for the Golem Gear combo. It is ready to dive, as is. I bought the exact same combo for Christmas last year. The wing has built-in STA rods, which prevent tank wobble and align the tank. The SS cam bands are very high quality and have a very positive action. As mentioned previously, the wing is a horseshoe type.

I bought the backplate bolts with the combo, so that the wing would not flop around when not attached to a tank. It is a cheap add-on and I was happy that I bought it.

I don't believe that the Oxycheq Sig Series wing has a built-in STA, but according to a lot of responses I have read here, this should not be a problem. Personally, I would prefer some sort of STA (be it a hunk of SS, some plastic or rubber rods or elastomeric wobble-stoppers).

The Golem Gear combo was as keenly priced last year and this was one of the main reasons that I went that route (the other factor was the durability of the materials used). I am still very pleased with my purchase.

Cheers,

Andrew