Good Allround BCD

[Valley Boy]

Hi All
I am looking to buy a BCD that can be used in both British and warmer waters.
So one that is not too heavy and easy to pack.
Any recommendations ?

[Diver Byrne]

I have the Buddy Commando, i find it very good in British waters and i plan to bring with me on my holidays because it isint too big

[Chris Cherrington]

There are plenty of lightweight BCs around that do not use up baggage allowance. The Buddy is a hardwearing BC but hardly "light".

Lighter material will wear out sooner, but if there is enough lift any BC will get you back topside and keep you there.

There is little to chose between any BC in terms of "performance" IMO.

Chris

[MartinW]

FWIW I used a Tigulio Hover. Fairly lightweight and masses of lift for the size of BCD. The wing effect is noticeable and it keeps your face very high out of the water at the surface.

BUT....it's not a Buddy so many on here may not approve. :p

I've now moved to a DiveRite Transpac and RecWing. Even lighter for travelling. I like it a lot. :)

[Chris Cherrington]

..
I've now moved to a DiveRite Transpac and RecWing. Even lighter for travelling. I like it a lot. :)

I also like the Transpac/RecWing very much and had one for a long time 'til it got pinched. My missus also loves hers. A very good BC for both twins and single. But (like the Buddy) a bit heavy if you are looking to shave some Kg off the baggage allowance, all those D rings and stuff :)

I would look at the cheaper Scubapro stuff, the plastic inflator valve is very light but the best plastic one on the market. The metal inflator on my BC (Halcyon) must weight 350g on its own....

Chris

[TerryH]

I'd look at basic club type BC's.

You only need a bag, so not worth spending loads and if its good enough
for 100's of students ripping it apart then it will fine with you.

Checkout the Poseidon Clublift (might be ecolift now). Has the highest rating
for a club BC in all the tests. We have 8 of them and they look cleaner
then our 12 buddies even though they are 2 years older !!!!!

Buy at the show and you should get it for well under £200.

HTH
TerryH

[Valley Boy]

Thanks all for your thoughts!-----I have been looking and come across the Scubapro T Sport, it looks and sounds A1, SEEMS like a good all rounder and only weighs 2.8kg!
Has anyone got one?-----your thought would be appreciated--;)

[Chris Cherrington]

Good review...

http://www.divemagazine.co.uk/review/reviewproduct/mps/RPN/975/RER/1/v/2

Chris

[steveh]

I bought a T-Sport from www.simplyscuba.com last month....so have only just started to use it....not disappointed and reckon a good all-rounder.

[Valley Boy]

Thanks All, I think this is the one for me !------------;) :)

[Stormchaser]

Can all BCD's accept two cylinders or is it just certain ones?

Although I currently have no intentions of diving with a twin cylinders I do not want to be in a position where a couple of years 'down the line' I have to buy a new BCD to support this option.

What is the best BCD to buy from a 'future-proofing' point of view?

[TerryH]

Well IMO there is only one, but I'd never reccommend it at the start as it
takes too much to get used to.

Apart from that there is no BC that's really future proof, cause nobody knows
what sort of diving you will be doing in the future.

One thing that is pretty certain is that a BC that takes a single cylinder now,
will be as useful when you go on your hols later. So dont spend a massive
ammount on what is a bag. Save your dosh for later when you know what
you are doing and maybe then you can look at twinning options.

So basic cheap BC.

T.

[Chris Cherrington]

...

What is the best BCD to buy from a 'future-proofing' point of view?

A cheap secondhand one off ebay. You will almost certainly get back what you paid less 10% and postage. (As Terry says its a bag of wind at the end of the day :))

Twin cylinders require a proper backpack and wing setup. (Why does everyone rush into twins..??) A standard stab is not anything like capable of coping with twins. Some models (like the buddy) will do it but they are IMO rubbish. Horses for courses...

Chris

[Matt-75]

Twin cylinders require a proper backpack and wing setup. (Why does everyone rush into twins..??)
Chris

Possibly because you are down somewhere looking at something interesting (marine life, wreck, etc), then look down at your SPG and, oh bugger, 80bar left, time to go back up. With twins thats gonna be 160 bar, so you play a little longer. Then you get a bonus after a while when your SAC goes down and you find you can spend even longer looking at interesting things.

Then some people undoubtedly migrate to the rebreather crowd and can stay down even longer looking at interesting stuff.

For me, i would give the example of the reef near the dive centre we were at in Malta. I'd have loved to just stay down their and explore, but i was limited by about 40 mins dive time worth of air (assuming i came up with 50 bar in the tank). On twins that would be double or more depending on how chilled out i was.

[Smudge]

Why does everyone rush into twinsChris


One word: redundancy!

I firmly believe that you should be self sufficient when it comes to something as important as gas/air. If your buddy is there with an extra alternate air supply that's nice, but are you willing to stake your life on it?
A pony will do (mostly, subject to depth/deco) but twins are nicer ;)

[TerryH]

One word: redundancy!

I firmly believe that you should be self sufficient when it comes to something as important as gas/air. If your buddy is there with an extra alternate air supply that's nice, but are you willing to stake your life on it?
A pony will do (mostly, subject to depth/deco) but twins are nicer ;)

All depends if you are getting twins because of redundancy or a quick fix
cause of a bad SAC. If it's the latter then the last thing anybody should
get is a twinset.

All that does is promote deeper/longer diving without sorting out the problem
in the first place.

Far better to just dive at a shallow depth until SAC is good, then go twins
once the dives progress to the point where it really is redundancy you want.

T.

[Paul Morris]

What is the best BCD to buy from a 'future-proofing' point of view?
I have a SeacSub Pro 2000. Didn't appreciate its versatility at the time. I bought it off Richard Bull when he still had a shop in Bristol, maybe he had a techie consideration in there, but I certainly didn't at the time. It was my very first jacket, and was simply the most comfortable jacket that fitted me well. I dislike the Buddy Commandos intensely for comfort and flexibility.

The pro2000 is a sort of hybrid BC/wing. Most (but not all) the buoyancy is on the back and the backpack has mounting holes to bolt a twinset on, then just unbolt and put the camband back on to dive a single. I've dived it for 4 years and its still going strong. I've used 300bar twin 7s, twin 10s, and twin 12s on it with/without a stage cylinder.

I did dive it a few times with twin 12s and two steel 10 sidemounts. It coped admirably, but was near its limits. Hence, I've just replaced it "for active duty" with an OMS wing, harness & plate setup for the big stuff, but the pro2000 has served me very well.

One *very* important point with BC/Jackets vs. wings. My Jacket was an XL and had about 29-30kg of lift. Smaller sizes have less lift, so if you're a smaller size check how much less, and decide if it will still do the job for you. Wings are usually sold on their buoyancy capacities, which is independant of harness sizing.

Please don't get one of these and try and jump in with twin 12s and steel stages in a size 'S' BCD jacket. :eek: At least you'll have plenty of gas to breathe while you figure how to get yourself off the bottom again. :rolleyes:

[Terry]

[QUOTE=Matt-75]Possibly because you are down somewhere looking at something interesting (marine life, wreck, etc), then look down at your SPG and, oh bugger, 80bar left, time to go back up. With twins thats gonna be 160 bar, so you play a little longer.

Are you sure?

Terry