Yet another backplate and wing suggestion thread.

[sim667]

So I've finally paid off my credit card, and obviously instantly taken out another one........ I've got a second hand all in one wing that I bought as an ex school wing a while back and its great to dive, but its old, tatty, and sometimes the amount of water I'm emptying out of it is a little bit more than I'd expect. So I'm thinking about keeping it for holidays, but getting myself new, sold and robust for UK diving, but the world of modular bp&w's is something I've not delved into before.

So where do I start? I'm quite floaty and tend to find I have to pile on a bit of weight to get down (14-16KG's), and in an ideal world I'd like to stick with dumpable weights on the harness and weights on the cylinder straps, so I'm not faffing with weight belts as I can never seem to get heavy ones tight enough. The harnesses without any releases weird me out a bit, and I usually dive with a 15L or 12L stumpy. In an ideal world I'd like 2 cylinder straps too, but understand that might not be the easiest on a stumpy. Also I'm trying to avoid it being horrifically expensive.

So has anyone got any suggestions? Custom Divers are just down the road from me, so I've been looking at theirs online. I know there's a halcyon setup that seems to be popular too, but I think its about 900 quid, which is a bit rich for me.

[Rick07]

Hi I am pretty new to this but do dive bpw for weighting .
You could go stainless backplate and p weight that’s 8or 9 kilos
Maybe some on tank bands but it is allot of weight on your back hope this helps

[Dave1w]

What are you doing, single, twins?
I like having weight pockets on my backplate and on singles, I have weight pouches on the cylinder strap.

Lots of different wings, I’m diving with an old buddy TekWing on I think a DiveRite backplate for singles but have. Hollis one and a Dive Rite Rec Wing sat next to me that both work well. Just something simple that works.

I would hate to buy an all new set up looking g at some of the prices


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[sim667]

What are you doing, single, twins?
I like having weight pockets on my backplate and on singles, I have weight pouches on the cylinder strap.

Lots of different wings, I’m diving with an old buddy TekWing on I think a DiveRite backplate for singles but have. Hollis one and a Dive Rite Rec Wing sat next to me that both work well. Just something simple that works.

I would hate to buy an all new set up looking g at some of the prices


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Single only......

Yeah some of the prices are ridiculous, I've been looking on mikesdivestore as I get 10% off.

Are wings much of a muchness?

[Nickpicks]

Single only......

Yeah some of the prices are ridiculous, I've been looking on mikesdivestore as I get 10% off.

Are wings much of a muchness?

Much of a muchness - it's a bag of air. Donut shaped bags are better than horseshoe shaped ones.

Red Hat are decent kit and competitively priced. If you'r on a single cylinder, the Maximus 30 with backplat and harness would be good. You'll need a single tank adapter too.

[sim667]

Much of a muchness - it's a bag of air. Donut shaped bags are better than horseshoe shaped ones.

Red Hat are decent kit and competitively priced. If you'r on a single cylinder, the Maximus 30 with backplat and harness would be good. You'll need a single tank adapter too.

I've seen the red hat diving named a couple of times. I was also having a look at the Hollis and Apex ones on mikes dive store too, but mainly because I get blue light card discount on there (its only 10%, but its not bad).

[Nickpicks]

I've seen the red hat diving named a couple of times. I was also having a look at the Hollis and Apex ones on mikes dive store too, but mainly because I get blue light card discount on there (its only 10%, but its not bad).

it depends on whether they're 10% more expensive in the first place

I've got a Red Hat backplate and harness. It works fine with both my Apeks (double) and Halcyon (single) wings.

[witchieblackcat]

If you stick to standard brands everything ought to fit together nicely. My current single setup is a frog single tank adaptor, Apeks wing, Halcyon webbing and xDeep backplate & weight pouches. It's all a hot-potch as it was beg borrowed and stolen over a period rather than being bought in one lump.

If I was changing bits the wing would be a Halcyon one because they're rather better made than the Apeks (which is single skinned) and frog equivalents (at a price)
The webbing is webbing; that said the Halcyon stuff is rather softer and nicer than some standard webbing which I like and the H's make lining things up easier than plain black.
The STA just works.
The back plate is good. Some (Halcyon) are smoother and some (Frog) rougher. On my first setup (frog twinset) the backplate rather too quickly cut through the webbing so I got a Halcyon because that was what the shop had. The current setup is xDeep because that's what the shop had going cheap at the time and it's very good. Of course smoothing a rough plate isn't too tricky with a rasp but I can't/couldn't be bothered.

The xDeep weight pouches are a bit crap. I have a 3kg bad of lead in each and if you really shook them hard the weight starts coming out. If I could be arsed I'd get something different (probably Halcyon because I know people that like them and they work). Block weight might help but I have bags so haven't tried.

[Nickpicks]

If I was changing bits the wing would be a Halcyon one because they're rather better made than the Apeks (which is single skinned)

My Apeks (WTX-D45) is double skinned (has a zipped outer with a bladder inside)

The back plate is good. Some (Halcyon) are smoother and some (Frog) rougher. On my first setup (frog twinset) the backplate rather too quickly cut through the webbing so I got a Halcyon because that was what the shop had. The current setup is xDeep because that's what the shop had going cheap at the time and it's very good. Of course smoothing a rough plate isn't too tricky with a rasp but I can't/couldn't be bothered.

I thought some of the edges on the red hat might felt a bit sharp so I ran over them all with a coarse sanding block (they are laser cut, then rumbled, so they're weren't very sharp)

[jturner]

Are wings much of a muchness?

Mostly. CD are a little unusual IIRC.

My Apeks (WTX-D45) is double skinned (has a zipped outer with a bladder inside)

The old classic 30lb wing was single skinned. It was cheap priced and very popular on here, but for the life of me, I cannot remember its name! The new ones are double skinned.

Going back to the OP, most of my club dive wings nowadays and we've got a range, so here's a few thoughts: -

Hollis - very nice (I have one and am biased a little, but the fact it's about 10 years old and still looks and works as new speaks volumes!) but the new ones contain a stupid and pointless bungee inside the outer bag that you'll want to remove, because it's stupid and pointless. No one on the planet needs a bungee retainer on a 25lb wing and almost no one on a 38lb wing, unless they're tiny and bought the wrong size or something.
Halcyon - expensive but supposed to have good customer service, though I find the inflators too short for me.
XDeep - the Zeos is a bog-standard wing and very durable. We use them for school hire kit. The NX series teardrop wing is a different shape and works best with their special harness and backplate (but will work on a standard one). It's great if you need lots of lift down low but can be a PITA when you're putting your wing down on those cylinder stands that some boats have (planks with cylinder sized holes in them to stand the kit up in) as the baggy bottom part is longer and more likely to get snagged.
Scubaforce - relatively new to us but seem durable and good value. Generic wing bascially. No frills but works.
Apeks - as discussed above. The wing is strangely narrow and deep but fits all standard stuff and is typically Apeks (heavy but tough).
Mares - just like the Apeks one in shape but less hefty and with the bottom dump on the other side IIRC.
DIRZone - mine's a light-weight one but the only standard weight one I came across is like the Zeos above ie generic, works fine etc.