Backplate or Jacket

[Kirk]

I learned to dive with a jacket style BCD.  Thus a number of years ago when I decided to buy my own gear, I bought a jacket style BCD, for I knew they worked.  It was a used Zeagle Ranger that was being sold by a local dive shop on consignment.  I could never get it to fit right, so I ended up selling it (for at least as much as I paid for it) and bought a stainless steel backplate, a single tank wing, and a single tank adapter.  I much preferred the fit of a backplate with webbing, for it was adjustable to any body type.  I also liked how it was both less buoyant and caused less drag. 

A couple years ago I went to Kauai Island, Hawaii for a wedding, and decided to do some open water dives.  I ended up renting a jacket style BCD, for that was the only type of BCD available.  I hated it.  The fit was horrible, and it kept riding up on me, trying to push my head and torso towards the surface.

When I started diving doubles (LP Pressed Steel 104s), I used the same stainless steel backplate I used for single tanks, but with a Halcyon 55 pound horseshoe wing.  I now no longer dive a single tank, and have since given up the stainless steel backplate for an aluminum backplate with a 3 pound tail weight, which together weighs about the same as a steel plate, but reallocates the weight to just where I want it when diving double tanks (this change is not really necessary, but it works for me).  This backplate, with the 55-pound wing, works just fine with a pair of heavy doubles, and an aluminum 80 stage bottle and two aluminum 40 deco bottles.  I use this setup exclusively unless I’m diving sidemount, when I use the Dive Rite Nomad system, and the lighter LP Faber 108s.

I really wish more instructors would outfit students during open water training in a backplate / wing configuration.  If students are in gear that actually fits, they may find the experience far more enjoyable, and may actually go diving again.  Having a bunch of backplates with wings in one’s rental stock is a lot more affordable as well.  If a harness wears out on a backplate, you salvage the hardware and replace it with a few dollars worth of material; yet if a harness goes out on jacket style BCD, you have an expensive piece of garbage.  Backplates never wear out; and if the outer cover of a wing has a zipper, any leak in the bladder can usually be easily fixed with a dab of Aquaseal.  Also if an open water instructor spends some time with the student getting the backplate to fit just right, that student is more willing to buy it (believe it or not, adjusting one’s gear can be a bit daunting to a new diver, and having it done just right can really make a sale). And most important, in my opinion, is that a backplate / wing system can evolve with the types of diving of a diver and one’s training.  - Kirk