Custom Backplate - False Economy?

[DiveMonster]

Hi Everyone,

I have recently moved to the UK from Latin America and am looking to continue with my diving here in the UK.

I have been diving for 10 years and have used a Scubapro X-tek Harness with Scubapro Rec-Tek wing (50lb lift) for all of them.

All of my diving has been with single tanks (12L Steel or 15L Aluminium). I realise that this is way too much lift for single tank usage but at the time of buying it I did not know what I know now. However, that being said I have never had any issues with it once I got used to wriggling all the air out.

Now I am here in the UK I have read that most people dive twin cylinders and I would like to get involved in this myself. This leads me to ask a few questions:

1. Is my soft X-Tek harness suitable for twins? Or would it be uncomfortable?

2. My kit is pretty old and shows all signs of heavy use so I have been contemplating replacing the harness with a hard backplate and simple harness system. I am considering Aluminium as I travel a lot and was wondering what thickness is the accepted standard for Aluminium backplates?

3. Also, I see some people have custom backplates made by Combro but they are no longer being manufactured. Is there any other custom backplates out there? If so, are they cheaper than the mass produced alternatives? Or do they simply offer tailor made designs, etc.

4. If custom made backplates are not economically easier on the wallet than mass produced ones, could anyone recommend a particular manufacturer I should look at (bearing in mind I will mount my scubapro Rec-Tek wing to it)? I was thinking maybe of DiveRite Aluminium as it is cheaper than Halcyon, Agir, etc... But is it just crap design and build?

Experts your help is much appreciated.

Many thanks,

NC

PS - Sorry for long post. Must be newbies enthusiasm!

[Woz]

Most people in the UK dive singles. Alot of people who post about diving on the internet dive twinsets.

Combro packed in cos it wasn't economic to make them. I took over for a while but now everyone's at it from Beaver to Kent Tooling.

I'd stick with your current kit and take yout time to see how it fits in with the diving you want to do.

[Nigel Hewitt]

Combro packed in cos it wasn't economic to make them. I took over for a while but now everyone's at it from Beaver to Kent Tooling.
:rolleyes: Combro packed in because everybody else's price had come right down and we weren't really tooled up for that sort of thing. It all started because somebody tried to charge me £200 for a plate at a dive show and I'd signed off a cutting job bill the day before for £200 that took a pallet truck to move. We made over 300 of the things and I still have one on my twin 10s.

That said my brother has just added another industrial unit to the rent bill to put an in house plasma cutter in. <sigh>

Woz is right about singles. Normal people dive singles. If you just read us internet geeks you'd think the country was a split between the twinsets and the rebreathers but you'd be wrong. My club has about 40 active divers with about 5 twinset and 5 rebreather users. There's a lot of good diving in easy reach of a diver on a single so I wouldn't make plans until you find that you need to change.

[DiveMonster]

Thank you for setting me straight guys.

From all the posts I had read I was convinced everyone in the UK was either on CCRs or Twins w/ Side Slungs and a Hog rig, and I was beginning to feel like a total newbie again. Glad to hear most normal people dive singles.

That being said, I am not really that normal as my better half is always telling me and find the prospect of expanding my diving repertoire very interesting (especially if it translates to longer bottom times and/or deeper deco dives).

Though PADI would shun me for it, back home I often did 60 – 65m dives with durations of 70 – 75 mins (bottom time circa. 4 mins) with a clean profile and managed this OK with a 12L 232b steel tank.

I have a very low rate of breath, though when cold it does pick up so probably not wise to do in UK, as the depleted air would kill me if not the narcosis which kicks in on me at around 35m in cold water (coldest I have been is 9C), and yes I am aware of the pp0 issue.

But because I am keen to further my capacity for underwater adventure, I am very much interested in learning to use doubles as I would like to fully get to grips with decompression diving and I would like extra room to manoeuvre if anything were to go wrong with my dive plan as well as enjoy some extra bottom time. All of which a single prohibits me from doing.

This brings me back to the following question:

1. Is a club environment best place to get into diving with doubles?

2. I don’t see much gain in double 7s which seems a lot of people use so would be looking at double 10s or more likely 12s. If I were to go for double 10/12s, is my soft harness adequate or do I need a backplate?

3. If I need a backplate, from your posts I take it is probably easier to just buy one stock rather than get one tooled up, if so, any recommendations on a good one?

Thanks!
NC

[Gareth]

NC

As has previously been stated, the majority of UK diving is single 12's. There is a disproportional twinset/CCR group present on all the UK diving forums.

I would suggest visiting a few local branches & finding one that suits, i.e. makes you welcome, has an active diving/training program, & has a reasonable group of divers using twinsets CCR. As has been previously suggested try Jano's group Hellfin divers.

I would then, with the greatest respect suggest you get a little bit of UK diving in. This would get you used to our conditions, temperatures, visability & tides. If join the correct branch they can help you progress to twinset diving.

Gareth