Posted by Karl S. on July 02, 2003 at 08:42:51:
In Reply to: Nah ya din't posted by seahunt on July 01, 2003 at 18:03:50:
Its possible although un-kosher to hang a few gear pouches onto a backplate-harness rig, but then the d.i.r. crowd would howl and hiss at you as well.
Pockets on a back-inflation model B/C are the way I prefer to go. Zeagle makes a great line of back-inflation B/Cs. You could even stitch together the weight pouch pocket, wear a weight belt instead, and they you would have 4 nice pockets to stuff gear into.
ScubaPro and Mares make pretty good back-inflation B/Cs as well. Their air bladders are not as high-capacity as Zeagle's are however. Plus they cannot be taken apart and stuffed into carry-on luggage as easily as Zeagle's B/Cs can.
But splitting the total lead weight between a belt and the B/C weight pockets works best and most comfortably for me.
I carry my spare mask in my right B/C pocket ("sight to the right") and my "duty" lift bag and spool attached to each other in my left B/C pocket ("lift to left"). Anything else I need, like a jon line for boat diving goes into my gear pocket on my drysuit, when I'm boat diving.
Its really nice to have a couple of pockets available, for the spare mask and the lift bag & spool. And integrated weighting split between a weight belt and the B/C weight pockets is great as well.
In scuba, as well as in everything else on this planet of ours, you always have to find what works best for you. That goes for pockets too.