In terms of "over-the-counter" buoyancy compensators, it was definitely a favorite of mine.
What I liked about the SeaQuest Black Diamond:
This BC was interesting and pretty different from most BC's in that it has a sort of internal hard structure throughout the entire BC. It's little more than stiff material backed with a sort of thin ABS plastic, but it really did a nice job of keeping the rig situated properly, even without a crotch strap (which, by the way, is an available, if not unnecessary, accessory for this BC). This is because of the fact that the stiff material of the Black Diamond has the tendency to brace itself against your lats and stay in place better than most BC's. Putting the thing on, with it's wide harness (both over the shoulder and the waist strap) was exceedingly comfortable and it stayed put very nicely... I found much more stability out of this BC than any other "regular" BC on the market. Fit was completely customizable in many directions, and I found the unit to be terrific at creating a very high quality, flak-jacket type of feel to it.
I also liked the fact that this is one of only a few "regular" BC's which allows a diver to dive with double tanks. Most "regular" BC's don't allow for this, although many higher-end BC's, like the Black Diamond, do allow for it.
Scuba Diving magazine says that the number one thing that a BC needs to do is fit properly. I found that this BC did a fine job of fitting, due to it's ability to change in several ways.
I also liked it's sheer ruggedness... It seems to be made of very high quality materials.
Lastly, I liked the uncluttered shape and positioning of the bladder... I found it to be placed in such a way that it never was able to create any sort of squeeze on me, even fully inflated; and at the same time it managed to be in a shape that never trapped air.
Okay... What I didn't like about it:
This is not a good BC for travel... The same stiff plastic that makes for so much stability under water makes it very difficult to pack it small enough to take it anywhere easily. It is a very large BC in general... And this has it's drawbacks.
For all of the space this thing took up, I was surprised to find it's pockets of meager size. For the size of this thing, I should be able to put the kitchen sink in it! For example, I had nowhere to put a lift bag, and a good catch bag would have to be carried seperately, or clipped off and dangling.
The wing on this thing has a HUGE capacity... This may be terrific for those looking for a lot of lift, but for diving singles (because wouldn't you really want a bp/wing for doubles?) I personally felt there was waaaay too much lift in the thing. What that really translated to was a situation where, at the surface, you could not inflate the wing fully without a significant "face-forward" tendency. To counteract this tendency, I simply kept the wing minimally inflated at the surface. This technique worked well, but of course, it meant that I was diving with a lot more material (and therefore drag) than I needed... I also had to be attentive when inflating for a surface interval. I could not simply inflate it all the way and let it go from there... I had to be careful in order to avoid negative trim characteristics.
There was no place to put a canister light or pocket on the BC either, and there was no place to hook or tuck a long primary hose. This meant that I'd have to limit myself to diving a "standard" short hose on my primary, which wasn't an ideal situation for diving overhead environments... A real concern, since my main focus is on diving wrecks. The canister light would have to be mounted on the tank, behind me, where I could not reach the can... Not to mention the additional entanglement hazard. Can you imagine trying to free yourself from a line or net hung up on a rear-mounted canister light?
The BC, like all "over the counter" BC's on the market, had lots of adjustment buckles and straps... All of which I found mildly irritating, once I'd gotten the correct adjustments nailed. I think that if I owned one of these BC's, I'd get my adjustments right and then sew things in place, trimming off all of the excess straps, and perhaps even removing some of the excessive quick release buckles and adjustment devices.
The cummerbund, which helped make things so comfortable on the surface, seemed completely pointless to me underwater. To me, it's just a big slab of Velcro that doesn't need to be there. To me, the extra drag and tendency to pick up lint and dirt and junk simply wasn't worth it.
The bungees that connect the wing to the "harness" of the BC did a fine job of making the huge wing act like a smaller wing... And basically kept the whole thing under control. Without them, the wing would be all over the place, especially when diving a single tank. With them, the wing is kept tight and close-in to the diver, helping to add stability under water. Unfortunately, wide elastic straps like these have been known to wear out prematurely. I don't really know how long they'd last... Probably a couple of years. However, in the photos I've seen around, it's not uncommon for people's Black Diamond "elastic control" straps to lose their elasticity.
SeaQuest knows that divers are looking for simplicity, and in order to cater to this mindset, they've ditched one of the tank cam bands. Like many BC's, the Black Diamond only comes with one tank cam band. There is an additional "hang strap" on the Black Diamond. This does not seem to be the best system available, as it's not unheard of to have a cam band occassionally come undone or "loosen" as it gets wet. If there's two there, one can be thought of as a "backup." With only one cam band, this means that your rig is going to come apart underwater, and in a place where you are dependent on your buddy to fix it for you. In fact, there's a thread going on right now where this exact thing happened, and it caused some problems. What's worse is that the SeaQuest cam bands are made of plastic, and the manufacturer says that they should be wet before connecting the tank to the BC, because of the way that the bands tend to stretch when wet. They also aren't very sturdy, and they're known to break and snap after a few seasons of use. Comparatively, a good, solid stainless steel buckle and a pair of cam bands rather than a single do not require pre-wetting, since they can be cinched so tight to begin with... Then they're redundant to each other. They also tend to oulast plastic ones. Scubapro and Halcyon both make excellent stainless steel cam bands. The hang strap, while seeming to be an article of conveinence, has often gotten in the way of a diver being able to manipulate their own tank valve, and so I would recommend steering clear of hang straps if possible, even if it means having to take the extra five seconds to assemble your rig.
The Black Diamond has a bottom dump on each "side" of the wing... Not a problem, really, except that they're addressing a problem that shouldn't be there in the first place. The "real" problem is that the wing is "U" shaped instead of being "O" shaped. My experience is that I tend to dive with my body horizontal rather than vertical... And thus, I use my "bottom dump" almost exclusively. I rarely use any other dump on my rig. Thus, I find great value in an "O" shaped wing, where I can simply reach back and vent one single bottom dump for the whole wing. With the Black Diamond's "U" shaped wing, I'd have to dump from both dumps to achieve the same effect, or turn my body vertical to dump from the top of the wing. Of course, that said, I can tell you that most wings of the same size also are "U" shaped... So the real issue, I think, really stems from the gigantic size of that wing. However, the Scubapro Knighthawk, for example, is of similar design and lift, yet has an "O" shaped wing. I believe that SeaQuest could do better.
The Black Diamond is full of padding... Everywhere! Of course, like I said before, this makes for an amazingly comfortable rig - topside. Put it on, and you might feel like you're putting on a big, padded piece of armor. It's a secure feeling, for sure, but one that doesn't translate well under water. In the water, all of that padding, which compresses at depth and expands toward the surface tends to create a BC that doesn't fit as well as it promised on the surface. It also holds a lot of water when you get out of the drink... Making for a heavy rig that takes forever to dry out. Forget about putting this one in the trunk of your car after a dive, unless you've got something to contain all of that water.
Lastly, SeaQuest used a tremendous amount of plastic in creating the Black Diamond. All of the clips and quick releases are made of plastic, and almost all of the buckles are also made of plastic. Even the built-in backplate is made of plastic. While this isn't really a problem for me, people diving in colder climates have noticed that plastic tends to get very brittle in chilly water. Again, this is really a "wearability" issue than anything else.
In all, despite the list of shortcomings that I just posted, I found the Black Diamond to be a very nice BC, at least as far as the "over the counter" BC's go. I found it stable and without squeeze, even though it's padding did allow for the rig to move around my body a bit at depth. I also found that with it's trim pockets in the back and large weight pockets in front, I was able to trim the BC out quite well... Much better than I had expected. Of course, that huge wing still tended to push me face down at the surface if I fully inflated, and trimming this tendency out at the surface with weight placement made me too vertical in trim at depth. But I was able to find a decent middle ground with trim by using the weight pockets and keeping my inflation to a minimum at the surface.
Would I recommend the BC? Yes, I would... As well as it's more compact brother, the SeaQuest Balance.
Of course, I found better characteristics - and a lower price - in a backplate and wings, and so that is what I purchased. However, the Black Diamond does seem to be a fairly descent alternative.
I'm surprised nobody's yelled at me yet for writing too much...
