Overthinking BP/W Choice - Are tapered wings better?

[jcraffi]

Hi all, I recently had my dive gear stolen out of my home, so I'm in the market for a new kit. Fwiw, both thieves are now in jail on felony counts of grand theft and home invasion; PSA: don’t steal dive gear!

My old travel gear was a DIR harness with OMS AL & Hollis S25 LX wing. Have a good discount on the following warm water wings through LDS (will probably get BP to match):

• Apeks WTX-D18
• Hollis ST22
• Dive Rite Aircell Voyager XT
• OMS Mono Wing 27
• Hog 23lb 360 Wing

Questions:

1. Taper: Are Apeks, Hollis, and Dive Rite’s tapered design better? Claims are that the tapered design improves trim, but if that's true why wouldn't so few wings have moved to it?
2. ST22: Apeks has a stellar reputation, but it seems the new Hollis is slightly less expensive for the same tapered design, is the ST22 the new travel leader?
3. Lift: Thoughts on just getting a ~30 lb wing with retraction bands, not worried about catching it, just would love to cut down on the bulk. (e.g. Dive Rite Aircell Voyager Exp Wing)
4. SS Lite: Any experience with the Dive Rite Stainless Steel XT Lite backplate. Seems like kind of an interesting concept.

Again, way overthinking this, but kept my last wings for 12 years and had no intention of replacing them, so hoping to have the next set for at least that long. Surprisingly, couldn’t find much on the four topics above.

Many thanks!

 

[tbone1004]

1. Taper helps with trim if you are wearing a weight belt as it pushes some of the lift to your hips. In general you shouldn't have 30lbs of gas in your wing during most of the dive anyway or you are overweight so this is largely a nonissue
2. I wouldn't put any money into any Huish products right now, and even less into anything under the Aqualung brand right now
3. You're looking at some wide differences in lift and I think you need to commit to a lift requirement before you go anywhere. Personally I think 30lbs is the goldilocks
4. I prefer them to aluminum backplates, but I'm not convinced that shaving 2lbs off of a carryon is super critical unless you're flying into the middle of nowhere

Also while I applaud trying to support a LDS, don't discount this which is really hard to beat for $374 with the SS plate

DGX Custom - DGX Gears Singles Harness / Backplate / Wing Package

A basic DGX backplate/wing/harness package for single tank diving at a value price.

www.divegearexpress.com

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Wow! Sorry to hear about the home invasion and your gear getting stolen. I’m surprised they targeted dive gear actually, tough to resell.

With wings.
I just prefer the straight sided ones.
My current favorite is the DGX Gears 30 lb. Donut wing from Dive Gear Express. It’s made in California!
I can kind of understand tapered wings, although I think the ones are wider on the bottom are misguided. That might have been to compensate for a big weightbelt. It actually makes more sense to make the top bigger to make up for the weight of the reg 1st stage plus most tanks get butt light when empty so it would help to balance things out. But I must admit, bigger tops on wings looks funny.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Wow T-bone beat me to it.

 

[rx7diver]

Warm water diving? I'm assuming you're using a 2-to-3 mm single-piece wetsuit (jumpsuit) at most and an Al 80. If so, then even at depth with a full cylinder, you'll have so little gas in your BC, probably, I don't think it much matters whether you're wearing a tapered wing or a straight-sided wing (or a horseshoe wing)--if you're weighted "correctly."

rx7diver

 

[jcraffi]

@Eric Sedletzky, thanks. Yeah, think they were targeting the Pelican case and the dive gear was collateral. Was mid move out of the bay area to DC. Sad way to leave an amazing area. Will miss the bay. Super interesting. Hadn't thought about the weight belt. Makes sense as it came out of tech. Assumed it was to balance out the lungs, but that's a great call.

@rx7diver, Yup, when I'm diving warm water I seldomly add air to the BC at all. Hence the Apex 18 being in the consideration set. Often negative entry and swim straight to the dive ladder on exit so even inflating on the surface is a rare occurrence. If i did the 30/35 with retraction bands it would be to have one wing for most single tank conditions.

@tbone1004 what has you concerned about Huish and AquaLung?

Interesting two votes for DGX Gears 30. Without discount that's about the same price as everything above. Pretty impressive. 1000 outer and 200 inner Denier leaves a little to be desired, but also haven't ever punctured a wing, so wonder if higher numbers are overkill. Any unique charateristics that stand out or more just value.

 

[rx7diver]

... @rx7diver, Yup, when I'm diving warm water I seldomly add air to the BC at all. Hence the Apex 18 being in the consideration set. Often negative entry and swim straight to the dive ladder on exit so even inflating on the surface is a rare occurrence. If i did the 30/35 with retraction bands it would be to have one wing for most single tank conditions. ...

Up until this past summer I used my old Halcyon 27# Pioneer Wing for single-cylinder rec diving in temperate water. This summer I purchased new a Vintage Double Hose 23# Wing for this. The Halcyon is still functioning perfectly (despite its age), but the (no longer available) VDH Wing, being smaller, seems even more perfect with my old-school PST 72 or my OMS/Faber 66 and my SS freedom Plate. (Both cylinders are a little bit more negative than a Luxfer Al 80.) I don't think I would go any smaller than a ~23# wing, though, for my configurations, in temperate fresh water.

FWIW,

rx7diver

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Info - Aqualung Financial Troubles, my guess is that this is what @tbone1004 is referring to.
As for the DGX, I’m DEFINITELY no expert on BP/W, but I like this setup. I’ve used it, with the steel plate, in Bonaire with no issues. That said, I dive 5 mm, even down there. I know the parts for it are pretty much universal, and easily obtained on DGX If I ever need to replace anything.
One caveat, you may want to put a couple of extra drain holes in the bottom of the wing cover. The ones that are there drain slowly and make it quite heavy, especially coming out of the soak.

Erik

 

[Zef]

Been diving a Dive Rite Voger XT on a Dive Rite stainless steel plate since I made the switch to BP/W a bunch of years ago, I even purchased it from DGX....the pair has served me well and currently shows no signs of any issues. I consider the setup one of the best dive related investments that I have made.

There are other good/great wings out there....any one of them in the 30 to 35lb range will make a great all around setup.

Dive Rite has had an SS lite plate for quite a while...the XT version of their plates are just cut to different shapes than their previous version. The bottom line is that it is a metal plate strapped to your back, what it looks like with groovy cut outs and fancy shapes doesn't really matter except to possibly attract folks to comment and ask about your rig....if you crave that kind of attention then go for it, but with regard to performance, they all kind of work the same. If you don't need/want the heavier standard plate then get the lighter version, the Dive Rite lite ss plate is a few bucks cheaper.

The reason folks are not more enthusiastic about Aqualung and related brands like Apeks is because some financial issues that Aqualung is having that seems to be affecting support for their dealer network with product, parts, and customer service. Basically some of us consider the brand(s) to currently be in limbo, and with solid alternatives for less money there is no reason to gamble our hard earned paychecks, and even less reason to recommend them until there is a clear sign they will pull through or we notice a solid turnaround.

If you are leaning towards Dive Rite, and are a warm water diver, there is always their travel wing...it is very minamilistic in a donut shape wing.

HOG wings are a good product too. My daughters each dive with HOG wings.

-Z

 

[NitroxSam]

I use a Dive Rite AL with the Travel Wing. The plate weighs 2# and the wing has 25# of lift. This is the "warm water" rig used with a 3/2 full wetsuit, and usually an AL80, but sometimes with a steel HP 100. Works great with both. Has plenty of lift and is streamlined.