How do you choose a wing?

[happy-diver]

Yes the only way to do different diving is with different gear

Or bust!

 

[Gone for diving]

157.51€ 32% OFF|25lbs Heavy Duty Tauchen Donut Flügel Einzigen Tank für Professionelle Scuba Taucher Freediving Speerfischen| | - AliExpress

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Noice!

Simply put despite three I have being of better than or equal in quality to some name brands
you may find an unscrupulous seller of questionable character, who uses a water soluble glue
like Gilligan magically concocted for the S. S. Minnow not that Gilligan was at all unscupulous
just simple

I have been looking at that wing...
Does it have roll control rods in it?
Hard to tell by the picture...

Love your different rigs

 

[lowwall]

I have been looking at that wing...
Does it have roll control rods in it?
Hard to tell by the picture...

Love your different rigs

It's hard to tell, but these pads look like they are there for roll control. It doesn't take much.

 

[ZzzKing]

I'm considering splurging and getting the Apeks now that I see the OMS is not available in black. Only concern is weight, I couldn't find any website (including their official website) that shows how much heavier the PSD version is vs the normal version. I want something travel friendly.

I have wings ranging from an 11# singles wing all the way up to a 55# doubles wing of various brands. None of them weight more than about 2 1/2#. If you remove them from the plate for travel, they all fold up to smaller size than the plate. I can fit my plate, wing and fins in a roll-on size bag; reg, mask and computer in a small dry bag size backpack that doubles as my boat bag; stuff 3-4 days of rash guard, trunks and miscellaneous crap around the edges and travel without checking any bags. This setup allows for indefinite length of trip to warm weather destinations. Plate and wing setups are perfect for travel. You can’t carry a dive knife on board a plane though so you’ll have to fight off those bull sharks with your bare hands.

 

[MidOH]

I always get a plate matching STA. And run them about half the time.

Minor weighting tool. Easier, more consistent wing height. Easier builds for vacation. Easier rinsing.

Haven't really noticed any stability difference.

 

[BlueTrin]

I used to har the halcyon STA, and never had any issue with it.

I don’t like to have too much weight on the belt so it’s good for me to have the option to shift some weight.

 

[Bloody Marvelous]

I think the XDeep ZEN is probably one of the nicest BP&W setups out there, but it's set up differently than most other brands do it, so if you're mixing it with a different brand backplate or wing you might run into issues.

I personally went with the Apeks WTX-D40 PSD, but that's due to the weird way the Apeks wings were priced at my LDS. There was a huge price gap between the WTX-D30 and the WTX-D40, but the WTX-D40, WTX-D30 PSD, and WTX-D40 PSD were all priced similarly, with maybe €20 difference between them. The WTX-D18 is very expensive as well for some reason.

WTX-D30: €240
WTX-D18 €380
WTX-D40 €420
WTX-D30 PSD €430
WTX-D40 PSD €450

I wanted a wing with the PSD coating, and for the extra €20 I figured I'd just go with the D40.

At the moment I only have two set ups, and that's a sidemount harness and a stainless steel BP&W with a WTX-D40 PSD wing and an STA.
It's not ideal for travel. It's heavy and it's big. In the future I might add a travel setup, but for now I'll just deal with it.

 

[jellycatsdad]

I have a 27lb wing on my BPW - the backplate is a dog bone aluminum one I can’t imagine it weighing more than 2lbs. I’m probably overthinking this - I currently dive cold NorCal waters with a 7mm full wetsuit and a 7/5mm hooded vest. I’m renting out Al80s or HP80s. I need 15lbs of lead to sink with HP80s, 24 with Al80s. 5’8”, 180lbs. Do I have enough lift if I decide to have ditchable weight pockets just so I’m not wearing a weight belt?

 

[MidOH]

Just slap your weight belt on your rig, and see if it'll float it, without you.

If no, you're stuck with the weight belt.

 

[ZzzKing]

A wing needs to do 2 things. It needs to float your rig at the surface without you in it and it needs to be able to hold you and the rig off the bottom at the first of the dive when your tank is full.
E7-80 - Full -9.3 lbs
AL Backplate - -2 lbs

Surface
E7-80’s w/ AL backplate = about -12 lbs plus regulators and miscellaneous crap so you are good to go. Aluminum tanks are going not be as negative but you will need more lead to sink you. If that lead is attached to your rig and isn’t ditchable, then you need to verify that your rig will float at the surface, so much more than about 12-13 lbs is probably too much.

Start of Dive
Start of dive w/ 7mm neoprene, assume about 15lbs of buoyancy lost at the bottom due to suit compression and full single E7-80 w/ AL backplate = about -27 lbs plus regulators and miscellaneous crap. Some of this weight is offset by the water it displaces so this is may be a borderline setup. I would verify how much weight it takes to sink the neoprene suit so you can verify the amount of buoyancy lost due to compression at the bottom. You also need to include any hoods, vests, full suit v. Farmer John in your buoyancy lost calculation. Depth also matters.

I haven’t gone through the math in a number of years because I have transitioned to a warm water wimp with minimal to no neoprene so some of you brave and hearty cold water divers please correct me on the heavy neoprene buoyancy as necessary.