Scubapro Master jacket experience?

[frarie]

Hi,

Does anyone have experience with Scubapro's Master Jacket? I'm pondering on buying one.

Safety seems to be top-of-the-line, but I wonder about the actual diving experience.

Thanks!

 

[Diversauras]

I would like to add in my 2 cents worth. I have been diving Scubapro jackets for the past 20+ years and I love them, and in all that time have not had any type of failure or malfunction in the BC.

 

[frarie]

Thanks for your reply, yea, I hear alot of good stories about Scubapro.

But I really wonder about the diving experience of the Master jacket particularly since it's such a new design (it's a certified rescue jacket... 'face up' at the surface).
I wonder if this feature does any good or bad to the actual underwater experience.

(see http://www.scubapro.co.uk/products.asp#product2)

Scubapro itself and local scuba shops, of course, say it's excellent under water, but's that not really an unbiased opinion

 

[Diversauras]

doesn't seem much different that their traditional jacket but the bladder is definately counter to their old way of marketing. I have only ever had one BC with a bladder, but I didn't have it long enough to have any problems with it. Bladders, in some shapes and designs, can cause air to get trapped as the diver changes positions. This is especially noticable or exagerated when you are improperly (over) weighted. I thnk all the Sp jackets will float you face up on the surface. I can tell you for a fact that you can get trimmed out horizontally in one of their jackets.

Do you have the opportunity to dive it in a pool? Maybe someone from the shop or some customer will let you take a test spin so to speak.

 

[frarie]

Testing it would be great indeed, unfortunately the local shops do not give me this chance. It's against their policy.

 

[Diversauras]

Have they sold one to some other customer that might let you try it? Usually new equipment owners are proud enough of their gear to let someone else try it out, maybe you could buy the beer after the pool test...

 

[Walter]

Having never dived one, it doesn't look like a good design to me. It is double bladder with a cummerbund and padding. All of that adds to drag. I prefer the Classic Sport which is single bladder with no cummerbund or padding - very streamlined. I don't see it on the website, they may have discontinued it.

 

[frarie]

Diversauras once bubbled...
Have they sold one to some other customer that might let you try it? Usually new equipment owners are proud enough of their gear to let someone else try it out, maybe you could buy the beer after the pool test...

I might actually ask them that, although I'm afraight they won't give me any tel. number of their customers, but maybe they know someone with the BCD.

Walter once bubbled...
All of that adds to drag.

I'm not an experienced diver, just starting to buy my personal gear (enjoyed the dives I made alot, gonna be diving alot more in the future). So I've never really experienced a true sense of extra drag with one BCD over another.

But considering the comments from you two, I might better select a more conventional BCD for now. Diving a new designed jacket does not seem to be the best choice for a beginning enthousiast when no-one can provide me any information on personal experience with the BCD.
I might end up diving with a BCD giving me some bad properties in some area's of diving experience while I don't even know it

 

[ZoCrowes255]

Walter once bubbled...
Having never dived one, it doesn't look like a good design to me. It is double bladder with a cummerbund and padding. All of that adds to drag. I prefer the Classic Sport which is single bladder with no cummerbund or padding - very streamlined. I don't see it on the website, they may have discontinued it.

No it's still available(thank god it's one of our best sellers.) BCs sold in the UK and US are quite different. The Master Jacket is not even available over here on our side of the pond (as well as many other models) while the Classic series is not available over there.

 

[frarie]

In case anyone is interested in the Master Jacket, I found some reviews:

http://www.scubadiving.com/gear/23bcs/review.shtml#vest_8

The rest is in German, I can't find any more reviews in English, I guess it's mostly used by the Germans.
You can use Altavista's bablefish to translate it (kind of readable ;-)):

http://www.taucher.net/index.html?co=%2Fedb%2Faus_show.html%3Fkategorie%3DJackets
http://www.tauchsportservice.de/testcenter_eqpmlist_jac.php
http://www.taucher.net/index.html?co=%2Fredaktion%2F1%2F
http://www.ciao.com/Scubapro_Master_Jacket_Pro_Condura_1000__Test_1972224
http://www.byteshark.de/tauchen/ausruestung.php3#jackets

Most of em seem very positive about the jacket.
So if no-one can talk me out of it in the next couple of hours, I'll go and buy one tomorrow. The most important reason: safety.