GrumpyOldGuy
Contributor
O rly??? I've been diving that wing since I got my prototype Express Tech. It works just fine and the bungees keep it tamed just fine! Although it started life as a lowly backmounted BCD, I have used it mostly for side mounting now and found that you can tighten up those bungees a LOT without reducing the effectiveness of the bladder. It's my current plan to revert it back to backmount since I have recently adopted the Hollis SMS100 as my standard side mount BC rig.
But then, what do I know?
"Any tool can be the right tool" (Red Green, Comedian, usually referring to fixing something with duct tape)
I also think driving a 1 ton pickup with dual rear wheels into the city to pick up a couple of bag of groceries is silly too. Sure you can do it, it will get the job done, but its a paint in the butt. Some people to it out of necessity because its the only vehicle they have access to (including many of the cowboys around here). Some because they believe bigger is safer, or they thing it reflects their manhood or other silly reasons.
Back you your bungees. They are a nice features that does reduce the taco effect. They are not without some drawbacks though. It makes it more difficult to manually inflate you BCD should the auto inflate mechanism fail. They also increase the internal working pressure of the BCD so a small hole which would normally hardly effect your dive could in theory become a more serious threat due to the higher internal pressure, especially after you cinch down the bungees extra tight. I am not saying the bungees are going to kill you, just is not optimal.
I respect your experience, but I think we need to keep clear what is the optimal solution vs what is an acceptable solution.