Some quick advice on a couple of bcds im looking at please....

[croppermj]

Hi, I looking at buying a first second hand bcd - just to put me on until I can afford a new one.

The first is a Tusa Liberator 2 bcd

The second is a Buddy slimline

both in very good condition. The Tusa I can get cheaper than the Buddy. The Tusa looks newer.

Also, the tusa is being sold because the owner is buying one with intergrated weight system - what is this and should be looking for a bcd with this?

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks
Matt

[Maria CM]

http://www.saintbrendan.com/cdnoct99/gearb10.html
http://www.divernetxtra.com/gear/bctst996.htm
a bit about them generally
http://www.divernetxtra.com/gear/bcs996.htm

Have alook at the above. Which BC you choose really depends on where you are diving. Cold water means more buoyant coverage to keep you warm, and therefore more weight to get you down. Warm water requires less neoprene (or whatever) so you don't need as much buoyancy on your jacket.

Check the lift on both against what weight you are carrying. Ask if you can have a go with them in the pool if possible to see which feels most comfortable on you and how easy you find it to work the controls and reach the dump valves etc.

Integrated weights mean you can carry lead in your BC. Useful for cutting down the amount of weight you are carrying on your weight belt which can get uncomfortable, but using the integrated weight facility means you are probably impacting on how much buoyancy you have in your BC as the air bladders won't inflate as much with the weights in the way.

I have an integrated BC and I use it to carry weights when diving abroad so I can avoid wearing an uncomfortable weight belt for days on end, but in the UK I don't carry any weight in it at all but use a weight harness instead of a weight belt so all the weight isn't on my hips. (Harness is a bit of a pain for taking on and off regularly for jumping in and out of ribs if you have the re-thread type like I do so I don't use it abroad)

HTH

best wishes,

Maria

[ChristianG]

Hi, I looking at buying a first second hand bcd - just to put me on until I can afford a new one.

The first is a Tusa Liberator 2 bcd

The second is a Buddy slimline
Matt,

From memory you now have a wetsuit, mask, fins and maybe a few bits and bobs such as a s-s-s-norkel - there, I made it. :D

Do yourself a favour, don't buy something (I don't really care what it is) just because it's there. You want to dive in the UK, fine, a dry suit should therefore be a priority, not a second hand BC when you still don't know that much about BCs and there are a bewildering array of them - even before you get to wings, another type of BC entirely!

By my standards at least, your first priority ATM should be comfort in the water. If you keep on diving the UK and continuously freeze, why, like so many others your brain is going to ask that "why" question and then, like so many others, you're going to get that headache that particular dive morning until you eventually realise that you're a has-been diver.

So get your priorities right, make a list of things you'd like to have as against things you need to have. In my book a BC falls into the first category.

Save your money - go diving and hire it all if you're not in a BSAC club (you certainly should be) when the club can probably help, as can and will some of the members with loan kit. Remember to take notes of what you use and what you think of it, it will otherwise all become scrambled in your brain. That knowledge will give you a much better idea of what you will eventually buy, which will then last you more than five minutes.

What you might buy at your present stage of development is unlikely to be what you will want when you have a better idea and whilst we can advise on particular bits of kit we, too, have our own prejudices (everyone does, everyone thinks their own kit the ants pants for example) so ultimately it is your decision anyway. It always is.

[Richard Whitcombe]

Have alook at the above. Which BC you choose really depends on where you are diving. Cold water means more buoyant coverage to keep you warm, and therefore more weight to get you down. Warm water requires less neoprene (or whatever) so you don't need as much buoyancy on your jacket.

Not sure i agree with the reasoning here. You are/should be wearing lead to neutralise the exposure protection. The only lift required assuming you are properly weighted is what is required to cater for the weight of gas in the tanks lost at the end of the dive so in a 12l tank that is about 3.5kg regardless of where in the world you are.

A buoyancy device shouldnt have to lift the total mass of lead you require on a dive but merely the total mass of gas lost during a dive (and maybe double it for surface support).

I'd also agree with the advice above - if diving in the UK the first big spend should be a drysuit. You can get a battered old BC off ebay for £60 or so that'll do the job just fine but a drysuit HAS to fit you properly.

[Maria CM]

I bow to your greater knowledge :) . I have always been advised that at depth your neoprene, undersuit etc was compressed and therefore much less buoyant than at the surface?

Is Matt planning on diving in the UK enough to invest in a drysuit? A nice one is expensive after all....

I bought my BC before I got a drysuit because I found I was getting confused as to where things were and where I was attaching stuff when I was hiring/borrowing different ones. Also I found lots of them really uncomfortable on me as my nape to waist measurement is small by comparison to most so they were hurting my lower back.

best wishes,

Maria

[Richard Whitcombe]

I have always been advised that at depth your neoprene, undersuit etc was compressed and therefore much less buoyant than at the surface?

This maybe true with thick wetsuits (even then its no more than 2kg or so at worst) but with drysuits the whole point is adding air to reduce the squeeze which keeps its overall buoyancy much the same throughout. Very few people use very thick non-compressed neoprene drysuits these days.


Is Matt planning on diving in the UK enough to invest in a drysuit? A nice one is expensive after all....

They're expensive but in my view the only way to dive safely in the UK at any time of year.