Posted by John Walker on June 08, 2001 at 17:11:44:
In Reply to: SEATEC has a nice single wing... posted by Bob3 on June 08, 2001 at 15:15:38:
My apologise. I am getting old and the memory is going. I even have one of those seatec BC's. I have sop much dive gear I forget what I own sometimes. Or maybe I'm embarrased of some of the dive gear I own. Most of it is up in the garage in boxes. Here are some of my feeling about these BC's.
One of the neat features of the Halcyon wings is the displacement of the gas in them and how they can trim a diver out. (Horizontally if anyone is wondering). Another being the streamlined nature that this created at the same time. They also use a properly lenghted inflator hose which sticks to the divers clavical area.
The Seatec wing used a longer inflator hose than the Halcyon design. This hung below the plain of the divers body and became a snag point. It also created unecessary drag. Also the bladders we're thin and pinched or rupture easily. The air chambers balanced me fine with light doubles on but the BC was to large for a single tank.
The Scubapro wing is full of gimmicky crud. The elastic used to draw the bladders in creates static pressure on the bladder. This will decrese the blow off pressure of the over-inflation valve. These bungies also creates ripple which cause eddy current around the bunched up material. A bladder that lays naturally around the tank(s) will glide like a wing and not create the unecessary drag that bungied material does. If you look at what they did to the middle of the BC with all the cut out you can imagine how unstable this this would be. Unfortunately Scuba Pro is not the same company it use to be.
The Diverite BC is a double tank bladder that will work on only doubles. They aren't nearly as robust as the Halcyon BC's but they work.
JW