Marking a BPW Harness for different setups?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Personally, I do not recommend the adjustable harnesses. I bought my OMS plate with the Smart Stream harness linked above. It worked OK, but I ended up throwing it away and switching to a single-piece harness. I found that the adjustability was not very helpful, and in order to get the waistband tight enough, I had to also over-tighten the shoulder straps a lot. Not ideal.

The thing is, as shown in the video from @happy-diver a few posts back, shoulder straps simply don't need to be tight. There should be an extra four inches of slack in there, so a little +/- from different exposure gear doesn't mean much to me. So, you do not need to adjust the shoulder straps for warm water and cold water diving, just leave them loose. And the waistbelt, of course, is already adjustable.

The only thing you need to adjust is the crotch strap length. I have shown up a few times at a warm water dive site and realized that my crotch strap is still adjusted long for cold water. I just twisted it once or twice to take up some length, and splashed that way. Then, adjusted it an inch or so during the surface interval. If I ever show up at a cold water dive site and it's too short, I would take the time to loosen it -- time spent faffing around in the local parking lot isn't very expensive, so my buddies wouldn't mind waiting a couple minutes.
Thanks for the reply.

I probably should have clarified in my original post. Im not having to re adjust my shoulder straps as I have these set correctly already. Im just having to re adjust the crotch strap but to get it right between dry suit and wet suit I find im having to when im back at home put my wetsuit on to get the length right for my 5mm wetsuit vs where I had to lengthen it for my drysuit.

To save having to do that I was trying to come up with a way to mark the webbing so I could put it back to the exact spot it was before without having to don my wetsuit and wing again just to get it back in the right spot.

I think ill probably go with my original idea which other have also suggested and just use a white fabric marker in the spot where it needs to be. I think that will be the easiest and most cost affective way rather than spending a further £200+ on another zen backplate and harness for the few cold water dives I do per year.
 
Since this is the advanced forum I’ll add my 2 cents worth. At this stage of your diving game you’ll need more gear. I dive with 3 mission specific setups.
1 Twinset backplate wing and harness
2 Nomad XT sidemount with twin 120’s for cave diving
3 ScubaPro Hydros Pro for open water recreational diving

Also have 28 cylinders ranging from steel 120s to aluminum 30s all mission specific for the planned dive.
I know lots of $$$$$ and 58 years of diving and gear accumulating. 😂
 
I set my BPW's up correctly so that with a basic harness the only adjustment needed is to the crotch strap. And the hundred or so others I sold and set up over 10 years for other people were done the same way. A deluxe harness usually is not. It's convenient and offers as many ways to be out of adjustment as in.
Are the d rings SLIGHTLY out of place when I move from a drysuit to a 3 mil? Yes. But not enough to cause a safety, entanglement, or use issue.
If the harness straps are set to the correct length, the crotch strap snugs everything up.
I had plates set up for doubles and singles. Harnesses adjusted the same and only change was wing size to suit the cylinders I was using.
And if you go with a basic hogarthian harness, it's the cost of a USED plate, $15 worth of webbing, and $30 of hardware.
Plates may look different, but once you are used to diving a BPW they are all the same on your back and looks don't mean squat. Unless it's a freedom plate. That is a different feel and harness routing.
There is nothing special about the Zen plate in terms of function. It looks different and may save a few ounces because of all the material that has been removed, but it's a plate. Granted the webbing routing is complicated and just flies in the face of simple is better. The time it takes to adjust it is a waste. A standard plate can be adjusted in under 5 minutes.
 
you’ll need more gear
Hear hear! This is what I keep telling myself. Sometimes not everyone in the family agrees with me. :(
 
These are the kind of posts that tick me off....the ones where the OP asks a question and folks respond with genuine interest with good guidance and experience only for the OP to add another post that details the info they are looking for is scantly or not related to what they included in their original post at all.

-Z
 
Thanks for the reply.

I probably should have clarified in my original post. Im not having to re adjust my shoulder straps as I have these set correctly already. Im just having to re adjust the crotch strap but to get it right between dry suit and wet suit I find im having to when im back at home put my wetsuit on to get the length right for my 5mm wetsuit vs where I had to lengthen it for my drysuit.

To save having to do that I was trying to come up with a way to mark the webbing so I could put it back to the exact spot it was before without having to don my wetsuit and wing again just to get it back in the right spot.

I think ill probably go with my original idea which other have also suggested and just use a white fabric marker in the spot where it needs to be. I think that will be the easiest and most cost affective way rather than spending a further £200+ on another zen backplate and harness for the few cold water dives I do per year.

The halcyon quick adjust crotch strap makes that much easier, and I’ve got a piece of cave line cut and marked to length for the different exposure suits.
 
The halcyon quick adjust crotch strap makes that much easier, and I’ve got a piece of cave line cut and marked to length for the different exposure suits.

My last post where I aire my frustration with this thread was originally going to include:

"OP, get an adjustable crotch strap...how freakin hard is that to figure out?!!!"

But I deleted it because I am sure it would open up a discussion about how the Xdeep Zen crotstrap is a "Y" type, and would bet the OP will chime in that they don't want to replace it due "comfort"and they most likely would not want to cut it to add quick detach buckles either in the front or the back.

-Z
 
My last post where I aire my frustration with this thread was originally going to include:

"OP, get an adjustable crotch strap...how freakin hard is that to figure out?!!!"

But I deleted it because I am sure it would open up a discussion about how the Xdeep Zen crotstrap is a "Y" type, and would bet the OP will chime in that they don't want to replace it due "comfort"and they most likely would not want to cut it to add quick detach buckles either in the front or the back.

-Z
Can you put a normal crotch strap on this backplate?
 

Back
Top Bottom