Posted by seahunt on May 04, 2001 at 10:02:20:
Hey Michael
So now who took the wrong bait and who made the mistake?
Anyway, just to show that I will walk where both Angels and
Fools fear to tread. Contrary to your beliefs, I not only am a diver,
I even get wet. As such, I will be in 74 degree water in a week or
so. While I don't consider gear a top priority in my diving, even I
will replace my gear when I must. As such I am using the trip as an
opportunity to test some new gear. I will be bringing rental fins to test
and in Boynton Beach, I am renting two different pairs for testing for
testing there.
That's a little irrelevant, but it led to me asking the shop owner what
he thought of the backplates and wings. I have had reservations about
them, not from the point of view of streamlining or bouyancy, but from
a point of view of their of their other functional requirement, how they
work on the surface, where the diver may well be in some kind of trouble.
For that reason, I wouldn't mind trying a modern version to see how they
perform for myself. When I asked him what he thought of that rig, he
raised a similar point to my concern in that he said that as an instructor the back
floatation of wings was really bad for him because when he is helping a
student or when they grab him, he needs front floatation. So how does
that particular specialized requirement fit into your quest for
uniformity of gear?
Enjoy, seahunt