Wing vs Jacket/BCD?

[Spacehopper]

Originally Posted by Dangerous Dan

I'm doing the scuba HSE as part of my university degree as a civil engineer. It will be trained at the universitys own diving school, which is called coxside - i dont think many people know bout it.
It comes at quite a discounted cost as well????? For us students Yeah

Bloody students - Stop their grants I say, Oh yes they already have

Gareth (impoverished father of 2 students)

[greekbird]

Originally Posted by gblades2

I have been looking to buy a BCD in the next couple of weeks with a 12L cylinder and a pony setup to follow later.
The price of a reasonable BCD at my LDS is around £250-£300.

I have also been looking at the Buddy Tek Wing which I can get for under £180 from kent diving. As I understand the benefits and disadvantages are :-
- does not have pockets

buddy do pockets that u can thread onto the waist band, both weight ones (that can be used for stowing things if u dont want to stick weights in them) that u can mount on your sides and a bigger one u can thread in the middle, to stow allsorts, tis big enough for back up mask, tables, little torch, knife etcetcetc

Originally Posted by gblades2

- does not have trim pockets at the back

not a major issue i dont find personally. i use twin 10s with ss plate and a v -weight, so all my weight is on my back and have not found it to be a problem. my other half was using the wing with single tank on holidays and didnt find any trimmimg issues with it either.

Originally Posted by gblades2

+ cheaper
+ can be used with a twinset by fitting longer bands

yes
and u can always keep the plastic plate on the side(for travelling) and fit a ss one if u so wish, to get some weight off ur belt.

Originally Posted by gblades2

What do you think of the tek wing?

emm it does what it says on the tin
the only thing i dont like is the pull cord inside the corrugated hose for dumping air is tempermental on mine but that's probably due to its age (i am the third user on it) and i should change-fiddle with it to fix it...mental note: must do that soon

[greekbird]

Originally Posted by gblades2

One additional question.

Oviously when using independant twins and a dry suit the wing and suit inflation hoses will be connected to alternate cylinders. If I am diving with a wet suit or single tank this is not possible. For £30 extra you can get the wing with a 0.4L emergency cylinder for inflation purposes.
Is this worth it?
You should be neutral approx anyway and you can always manually inflate the wing.

naaaah
u should be able to oraly inflate if the wing if the inflator f**s up..

[PW1664]

The same Zeagle 7700 wing for over 11years and 800 dives...

Fine for me, still as good as new, couldn't comment about anything else...

I sense that there's a bit of 'fashion' that comes into all this sometimes.

[Decodiver]

Wing and B/P on my RB and twins when I use them (never).

BC for OW courses.

[Allan Carr]

I use a Buddy Commando which I have had for 9 years, having had to replace all my diving equipment after some felon nicked it all from my car at the campsite in Beadnell. Done hundreds of dives all over the world. Now looking very faded but still functioning perfectly. Frankly, I'd rather spend my money on diving than on new equipment. If it's working well and meets the needs of the diving I do, why replace it?

I use a 12l dumpy plus a pony but with my air consumption that's not much of a restriction - I can still manage many of the dives that other people use twins on. Can't use twins myself - I've got back problems and couldn't lift the b******.

[ianwheeldon]

appologies if this has been covered before, but i did a search and nothing came up. Just thinking over the wing or bcd question for when i next splash out. all my diving is single cylinder and will no doubt stay that way for some time. Are wings mainly for twins or are there benifits for single tank use as well? Any pros/cons appreciated.
cheers
#ian.

[Conor]

I dive a single wing (dive rite travel) I like the lack of clutter, trim, portability and flexibility. If you get a wing/harness then you can switch the wing for other types of diving, but this isn't necessarily any cheaper than buying two jackets.

Best advice anyone will give you is to try a few wings/jackets before you decide. Most on here like wings but a lot are happy with Jackets, decide based on your own experience if you can.

There are lots of threads on here about this if you want to look enough (although they mostly say the above)

Conor

[MATTBIN]

Wings
Pros - easily adaptable to future use, no body crush, easily repairable, light (with ali or abs b/p), clutter free. Can be used with singles/twins/stages - possibly all on one wing. Woman friendly (I'm told)
Can be cheap
Cons - no pockets as such, some are rubbish with singles(I'm told), can be expensive

BCD
pros - good with a single cylinder, some with twins too, nice pockets (some), easy to flog to newbies on e-bay.
cons - most useless with twins, hard to attach, not enough lift etc. can be heavy, not easily repaired. Chest crushers. most not woman friendly (I'm told)
expensive by comparison to wings usually. Overly D ringed.

Personal perspective only. I have a bcd (jacket) and a wing - prefer the wing.

Matt

[ianwheeldon]

thanks both of you. guess i need to find someone with a wing and see if they'll let me give it a go.