The ultimate BCD choice: Jacket or Backplate and Wing?
Many of my students ask me why I have a ‘different’ BCD. To clarify: I dive with an Aquamundo aluminium backplate and wing. They ask me what the benefits are and if those steel bolts don’t hurt my back. My answer is always the same: I like the minimalistic design and the elimination of the need for extra led weights and the type of design makes sure that those bolts don’t touch my back.
Like most divers I also started my PADI Open Water Course with a jacket style BCD. When you are a novice diver it is mostly the only type that you are exposed to. Still only a few dive instructors teach their courses in a backplate and wing BCD, but it is on its way back.
Originally introduced in the world of technical diving, the backplate and wing has been making its way into the recreational diving market in the past few years. For novice divers the backplate and wing seems like a difficult operating system, so for all my Open Water Courses I still have my students wear a jacket style BCD. For Advanced Open Water I like to give my students the choice. Most still opt for the familiar jacket style, but there are definitely a few that are intrigued by the backplate and wing and take it out for a Peak Performance Buoyancy dive. It is a whole new thing to get used to, because the bladder is located on your back instead of around you. This has massively improved my trim after a bit of practice. I’ve got to admit that the first five dives were a bit uncomfortable. The transition isn’t the easiest, so I’ll say to all of you out there that have tried it only once and didn’t enjoy it: try it for at least 5-10 dives and I’m sure you’ll be joining us backplate and wing lovers.
One of the things that the naysayers are bringing up is the lack of pockets. Luckily Apeks, Scubapro, Aquamundo, Waterproof, Halcyon to name a few have invented some nice shorts and wetsuits with pockets attached to them. Also you can purchase pockets to attach to your harness, so problem solved.
Another problem for some seems to be the weight. Many divers tend to travel around with their gear. Now depending on what kind of material you choose for your backplate (aluminium versus steel), it’s not that big of a difference with the jacket style BCD especially looking at the massive shapes the jackets are being made in now. My backplate and wing can be taken apart completely, roll up the straps of the harness, fold the bladder into a small package and stick the backplate somewhere in between my clothes. So it might be a little heavier but is nowhere near as bulky… There are less colossal BCDs around, but many travel light jackets are not as durable.
Quite curious: still leaning towards the jacket BCD or did I persuade you?
Always wanted to try a backplate and wing but didn’t dare to purchase one yet? Come on down to Liquid and get out diving with one of our PADI Instructors or Divemasters, we’ll convince you that this is the best way to go!
Wow!! What a feeling, you see the sunlight above streaming through the water, the abyss below you getting darker and darker calling you to dive deeper and deeper. Strange jelly fish like creatures dancing and sparkling as they float past; schools of fish darting below and above you and then there is that sense of being totally lost, adrift at sea with nothing around you but bubbles and blue – amazing!
As a female diver, I have the luxury of slipping my wetsuit over either my skin tight swim suit or barely there (back in the day) bikini. It is comfy, easy and I feel like I am only wearing my suit. After the dive I then get to peel off my wetsuit and am ready to strut (again back in the day) around the dive boat/shop/beach in my teeny tiny bikini without a care in the world. So why is it so different for men!
Solution = speedos!! Yup I said it; men should invest in either a pair of speedos or those tight little shorts that mainly European men tend to go for (?) The speedo is essentially the male bikini. It is tight and easy to slip a wetsuit over. No fussing, no pulling, no time involved and you are ready to jump in and start your dive along with your female buddy.
There is an accepted time frame of around 2-4 minutes (I have done the research) where a male diver has the time to rip off his wetsuit and quickly (normally self-consciously) head straight towards their dry gear and don their nice baggy board shorts. At this point they can now relax and strut their stuff knowing they are fully covered and not offending anyone in the vicinity!
Do you go diving with a stick? Personally I don’t as I really do not see the point unless I have a camera and intend to use the stick as a measuring device. This is originally what ‘dive sticks’ were designed for, a tool for underwater photographers to gauge the distance of their topic. But then this was back in the old days of film, not digital cameras; when maybe 1 out of every 20 divers had a camera; instead of now a days when 1 out of every 20 divers does not have a digital camera; that let’s face it they really do not know how to use. In fact they should probably leave it at home and practice on their buoyancy skills instead.
What first started off as a probe for experienced divers with cameras has now become a crutch for less experienced divers with and without cameras! We see it all the time when diving; the dangling stick that as soon as a diver wishes to stop and look at something is taken in hand and unceremoniously jammed into the nearest object whether it be sand, rock, hard coral or soft coral, all so the diver can stop for a few seconds and look at the pretty nemo fish!!
Now let’s talk a little about the other stick wielding atrocity we witness underwater- moving marine life! Just because it is a metal stick does not mean it will not hurt the teeny tiny pygmy sea horse you are now essentially ramming with a giant metal probe so he looks at you while you blind him with your camera flashes!! There is a reason seahorses and other critters tend turn their backs on divers – they do not like us!! We are big noisy, cumbersome, hurtful and usually blind everything we see. If I were a sea horse I would also turn my back and I would be rather annoyed if someone then started ramming with a giant metal probe!
It may sound great to live on the beach, but have you ever tried to sleep on the beach? It’s terrible. Sand gets everywhere. I sometimes feel like I’m living a modern day version of the princess and the pea. No matter how hard you try to clean your feet, there is invariably some stowaway grains of sand that make it between your bedsheets. Even the act of stripping the bed and shaking out the sheets doesn’t seem to be able to dispel the annoying bits of beach. It’s like they materialize out of thin air to disrupt your night-time routine.
It is easy to take for granted the act of flicking a light switch and the light actually coming on. When I lived in Canada the power going out was a major event. It came around less than your birthday. But living in the tropics it is a constant event. Walk into a room and hit the light switch and there is sometimes a 50% chance it’s going to do anything.
There are countless things about living in paradise that can set a person over the edge. But at the end of the day, those are also the things that make it special and unique. If you embrace those differences and learn to live with them, make the most out of them, it can be a fantastic experience.
Many divers laugh when I say this is my favorite type of dive, some shrug their shoulders and say ‘well it’s a little boring, but I guess coral is pretty’. For me, coral is not just stunning to look at with a vast array of colors, shapes and sizes, but it is an amazing animal to watch. Yes, that’s right I said animal. Not many people or divers for that matter know this little interesting fact – coral is not a plant it is, in fact a living breathing animal, a marine invertebrate to be exact.
As with most beautiful things underwater, coral is a carnivorous and a potentially rather deadly animal. Just ask any diver who has had an unfortunate encounter with a fire coral! During night time is when corals come alive and begin to hunt. Now I understand that watching corals hunt is not as interesting as watching a shark or large fish, however imagine if you were a plankton or small shrimp happily swimming by and then bam! An alien-like tentacle hits out at you from the lovely coral colony below. This innocent looking tentacle not only packs a whopping punch but also has a nasty little sting in it that temporarily stuns you allowing the coral to open its mouth and devour you alive! Bet that gives you a different perspective of coral.
why do so many divers and snorkelers think it is acceptable to step, lie, touch, stand and generally beat up coral!
Usually there was only one in the whole place and you had to line up to get to it. Secondly depending on how big of a book you were trying to squeeze into the machine it had an effect on how well you could get a half decent copy. As most of the time it was an encyclopedia of sorts it was usually a sizable tome. Trying to flatten out the book and mash it down into the copier was a feat and a half. If done incorrectly you were left with half a page that was a perfect reproduction and the other half looked like a scrambled television channel.
At least at the library there was usually only one or two books about whatever subject you were researching. And it was selected by someone for presumably being accurate and worthy of claiming it’s rightful place in the Dewey Decimal System card catalog.
Think of Agatha Christie and “Murder on the Orient Express”, that would lose some of its mystique if it was “Murder on the Asian Express”. That sounds more like a Fox News Special Report.