Help me spend my X-mas bonus - BP/W

[scubafanatic]

I'd hold off on the ballast system until you actually need it. The SS plate and weighted STA will probably be enough for a light wetsuit on Curacao. The XS Scuba weight pouches are cheap and compact if you need a couple of pounds more. As for the storage pack, it's nice, but again, wait until you need the storage before you buy it. A small SMB and spool will ride easily on your hip D-ring.

...now don't go helping him save $....he wants help spending ALL his bonus !

 

[M_Bipartitus]

I recently got my second BP/W. It was from

TECHNICAL SCUBA BCD PACKAGE

I was pleasantly surprised by build quality of the 32lb wing, considering the price. The wing has a pair of reinforced rolls of fabric to improve single tank stability without an STA. I don't know yet how well it works.

 

[scubafanatic]

Hi all,

I'm a newly certified diver at the end of this season and am sick of rental gear already. I have booked a Curacao trip for February and would like to purchase my own gear by then. I'm from Ontario so the majority of diving will be in the great lakes with the intent of diving tropical water twice a year.

I've only dove jacket style BCD's so far but am very interested in the BP/W setups. I've got an X-mas bonus from work coming an am seriously looking at this package:

- Atomic M1 reg with Z2 octo
- Halcyon Stainless Steel or Aluminum MC System, with harness
- MC Storage Pak
- Weighted or non-weighted Single Tank adapter
- Halcyon Active Control Ballast Integrated weight system
- Eclipse Single Tank Wing in 30 or 40lb lift capacity

I have Atomic zoom split fins, will this be a problem with this setup?

What do you guys think?

...I've got (2) Apekx XTX 200's and (2) Atomics (M1 and T2)....all are great regs. I won't go into all the details, but it has been said the Atomic enviro-sealing system is a little old-fashioned compared to the Apeks dry-sealed version...it's a long story so I'll let you do a search on SB if you want all the details. I've never had a problem with either reg...but I'm a warmer water diver. I think Oxycheq wings (especially the Extreme series) are better than the Halcyon wings...but Halcyon wings will work fine. Probably a 30 lbs wing will be fine.....my smallest wing is a 40 lbs Ozycheq Extreme one, but for my own highly-opinionated reasons I like to have a little bit of overkill on my lift capacity in case of emergency...and the Oxycheq wings are very streamlined even @ 40 lbs, so no dreaded 'taco-'o-death' to worry about ! I'm also a fan of the Halcyon mask pockets/SMBs/SPGs/10 lbs vertical release weight systems. Finally, I've got 3 sets of Apollo Bio Fins (splits) which I really like...although, as TS&M says, I make sure to store the Halcyon stuff and the split fins in separate sealed boxes to avoid witnessing a ugly gear catfight!

 

[M_Bipartitus]

..-- I don't think the Halcyon backplate will attack at the approach of split fins, but it's always possible
...

In case clipperTT is not aware, the guy who runs Halcyon has a strong opposition to split fins. There are some reasons not to use split fins, but if you already have them don't worry about it.

It also might not hurt to save some of your money for tanks. Many Great Lakes charters do not supply weights or tanks, so many Great Lakes divers buy their own steel tanks. At least this is the case on the US side. I wouldn't go out and buy them yet however. You may find you don't do many cold water dives until getting a drysuit, so it could be easier to rent tanks from your LDS.

 

[drbill]

Christmas bonus? What are you, some sort of bank executive. Oh, wait... that's in the States, not Canada.

If you are firmly decided on a BP/W, I won't offer any advice because my experience with them is limited... but have you considered a soft harness and wing like the old Transpacs? I use one and greatly prefer it to BP/W (unless I'm diving doubles of course).

 

[clipperTT]

Sorry for the delay - all great feed back from you guys!

I ended up going with the Halcyon BP/W in the 40lb variety. It came packaged with a weighted tank adapter (extra bolts to remove the weight for down south), stainless steel plate, and integrated weight pockets (pleasantly surprised how good/simple these were) . I'm thinking down south I can get away with the SS plate and very minimal extra weights in the pockets if I'm using a 3mm wet suit and aluminum tanks. For diving up here I also plan on using aluminum tanks so my weight will hopefully be fine there too. I went with Atomic M1 regs for both 2nd stage and octo with a long hose DIR and bungee configuration - dove this set up once and enjoyed it and just made sense to me. I've been frustrated with my splits for a while now so I also picked up a set of OMS Slipstream fins with spring straps. I'll dive the new set up tomorrow and let you know my feelings on all this stuff afterwards.

Bonus = SPENT!!

Me -> HAPPY!!