Red Hat Diving BCD's - anyone got one?

[Chris W]

Hi guy's,

Looking for a new BCD and came across the red hat site.

I quite like the look of the Sea Pro or the Cratos - anyone have any experience of these?

The prices look very good compared to other manufacturers and the 4 year limited warranty also seem quite good.

Thanks in advance.

[IainC]

Not sure about BCD's but I know someone who has one of the wings and it is well made. They visited the owner as he is fairly local to us & said he was a good bloke.

Iain.

[Stephen Hodgkins]

I have a cratos wing. Absolutely love it. Loads of lift, loads of D rings to attach things and very hard wearing.

I have completed roughly 700 dives with my current cratos wing and its only just starting to show signs of wear and tear.

For the price I dont think you can beat them.

:)

[iain1965]

Triple L BCD's are the same as Redhat, I've got a Triple L Taurus BCD which is for the price I paid very good indeed.

You may want to check out this site first before buying from Redhat Diving, and save yourself a few pennies.

www.scubal.com/worldwide

Have fun

Iain

[Dave Woodward]

I have had a wing from John, good quality, shipped quickly and cheaply to me in China. The only North American company to ship to me in CHina is Jetsam, and that was expensive for a small box.

Dave

[rgs102]

Hi Chris,

I suspect that IainC is talking about me :D I got a Red Hat 90lb double bladder wing with steel backplate and harness from John Hewitt, the guy that runs red hat. He's in Selby, so local to me, so a couple of us took a drive over to see him. The wing is, so far, excellent, coping admirably with my twin 12s and stage (and even managing to cope with my inability to fly it :D ). The only slight criticism is the bungy that it comes supplied with is a bit rubbish, but I plan to fix that soon with some surgical tubing. While there, we had a look at his other kit, including his BCs, which looked like decent bits of budget kit. They are well put together, with lots of D rings and decent pockets. Obviously can't comment on what they are like to dive, but I would certainly have no problem reccommending them to members of our club. Not as good a piece of kit as say a Buddy Commando, but certainly as good as many other BC's on the market and for a very good price. Plus, John is a decent guy, who is pleasant to deal with and offers a good guarantee - ask him about it in case his terms of changed, but I certainly got a good one.

Bloody hell that's a long post :eek:

Roger

[Chris W]

Triple L BCD's are the same as Redhat, I've got a Triple L Taurus BCD which is for the price I paid very good indeed.

You may want to check out this site first before buying from Redhat Diving, and save yourself a few pennies.

www.scubal.com/worldwide

Have fun

Iain

Thanks for the link Iain - there is a bit of a price difference. Mind you if I get stung for import duty etc I probably won't save much; and then there's the warranty issues.

[Chris W]

Thanks for all the info guys - will drop John a mail with a few questions and see how I get on.

Thanks again.

[john@divertrainingservice]

Hi. yes the Triple L bcds are giveaway prices until you add on shipping, import duty and vat plus the shipping company will probably charge around £10 extra for taking care of that on your behalf. You dont need all that bother when you can just contact me direct john@divertrainingservices.co.uk