starter looking for some advice on BCs

[matrium]

While i haven't tried them until now, i really cant see myself wearing a drysuits ever (i WANT to get wet damn it ). The instructor in Vienna showed us pictures and videos of their ice dives from the last winter. People were wearing thick wetsuits and some extra neoprene vests + gloves and hoods. Also they were heating water directly on the ice and filling their suits with hot water which i found really funny. The instructor said with a good isulated wetsuit this will keep you warm for the entire dive. I think the dives are a bit shorter though, because they keep more reserve.

Ok below 1kg is really not that much, so i will definitely go for a backplate/wing solution! So what would be an adequate lbs-wing for single-tank diving with a 5mm suit? It would be nice to have SOME reserve if i wear a thicker suit + extra vest, but that would really be it.

 

[tbone1004]

that's just the plate, the total rig weight is about 2-3kg or so which isn't that bad. A 30lb wing should be fine for you, but again don't really know because it depends on the tanks and your body composition etc.

 

[Centrals]

Beside that the countries i plan to visit in the next years are Croatia, Egypt and Thailand.

Philippines or Indonesia is far better than Thailand except the topside attraction.

I have one wing(30lb) and two plates Al(warm water) and SS(cold water).

BP/W is more versatile and easier to fine tune to adapt to various demand.

 

[rivers]

If you want to dive Green Lake, a drysuit is the way to go. Anyone who puts a diver in a wetsuit for an ice dive, or even a dive under 10*, is irresponsible.

 

[matrium]

that's just the plate, the total rig weight is about 2-3kg or so which isn't that bad. A 30lb wing should be fine for you, but again don't really know because it depends on the tanks and your body composition etc.

Don't know how to describe my body composition. I am 31 years old and working out, so i would say i have a well-trained athletic body. During the Open Water Dives in the sea i was using 7kg of lead, which seemed to be too much for me, since i sunk like a stone after deflating and had to put a lot of air into the vest to float at ~18meters depth.

 

[Centrals]

Don't know how to describe my body composition. I am 31 years old and working out, so i would say i have a well-trained athletic body. During the Open Water Dives in the sea i was using 7kg of lead, which seemed to be too much for me, since i sunk like a stone after deflating and had to put a lot of air into the vest to float at ~18meters depth.

Your instructor did not give you a proper weight test.

 

[matrium]

As far as cost, you can get one of the best plates and wings made for just under $500 us, and you can get the Trianta set from Dive Right in Scuba for $380.

Which plate/wing do you mean? Can you maybe link me to it? 100€ more or less really doesn't make a difference for me.

I have been to 2 local shops in Vienna and the guys were super nice and fun. Still it seemed like the assortments were quite limited. That's why i am considering to order stuff somewhere else, even though things could get more complicated if something doesn't fit right or breaks soon.

*EDIT*
Nevermind, i just found deepseasupply and read some reviews about their equipment. Seems to be really good stuff, but i guess shipping could be expensive + i am in trouble if anything breaks, since they are like 10000km away..

 

[tbone1004]

https://www.deepseasupply.com/
those are my personal favorites, there is a dealer in the UK, but if anything goes wrong with the wings from any mfg, you pretty much have to send it back to them for repair. Luckily you can repair most things quite easily on your own and on a BP/W there isn't much to go wrong that you can't fix with universal parts. Only thing you can't really do is nasty wing repair, but if you can't fix it with a bike innertube patch kit, it has to be replaced.

 

[matrium]

What about Tecline stuff? I read a review in this forum that seems promising http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bu...ing-type-donut-17-17kg.html?highlight=tecline

Do some of you guys have experience with their gear?

So far i at least found a shop in germany that sells that stuff. Thats close enough so i can retourn stuff to them if necessary without a mayor headache

 

[dmaziuk]

Don't know how to describe my body composition. I am 31 years old and working out, so i would say i have a well-trained athletic body. During the Open Water Dives in the sea i was using 7kg of lead, which seemed to be too much for me, since i sunk like a stone after deflating and had to put a lot of air into the vest to float at ~18meters depth.

I'm not sure what tbone actually meant there: you'd have to be morbidly obese to be very floaty or have all steel joints and a few metal pins and plates inside to be noticeably heavy. There is certain amount of variance, but I would say it depends mostly on your trim and breathing.

17kg is almost 40 pounds -- that might be too big for warm water. For comparison, the smallest wings are 17-18 pounds, that's basically half as much, and they're big enough for most tropical diving. Main problem with a wing that's too large is when it's empty it's flopping around and is being a drag. You could probably live with it...