Choosing A BCD

you know we get a lot of questions about what's the right BCD for me what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk through the different types of BC DS so that you better understand it so stick with us we're going to go over each one of these in detail let's take a look at the first BCD here this is the jacket style BCD now this particular BCD is very popular for training students and as a rental BCD they're usually the most economic BCD some of them can be full-featured and some of them are less featured so let's take a look at what we mean by featured so this BCD fits like a like a vest and solo or like a jacket whichever terminology you want to use and what we'll do is we'll take a look here start over here we've got a prevent d-ring and here this knob is connected to a string that vents over the right shoulder now be aware not all jacket style or all be CDs have a right shoulder dump it's extremely beneficial in a feet down position and also in the neutral buoyancy position so that's the right shoulder dump we have a quick disconnect here which is very beneficial trying to get out of or trying to get somebody out of a BCD quickly there is our shoulder adjustment you pull down to tighten lift up to loosen and of course we move over here on the left shoulder this is our inflator deflator hose and there's a velcro holder here and also a quick disconnect on this side and adjuster now as we move further down on the BCD down here you see this is a rather large side to the BCD when the BCD is inflated air is not only in the back the cell it also comes into this part of the bladder we look at the features there's in this particular BCD which is the edge element the unit has a octo pocket here in other words you can fold the alternate air source pocket and slide into that pocket we have a zippered pocket here for storage and there's a metal d-ring on this particular BCD and a lot of times people may prefer to connect maybe a surface marker buoy or even connect their alternate air source using a what we call an octo holder here and then we'll move on down this one has a integrated weight pocket slides in is out and has a system here that's very solid you can hear it click into place and of course down here on the bottom we've got a metal d-ring here which somebody might like to attach a light or a surface marker buoy over here on the on the left side we have similar features another d-ring this is probably where you going to connect your submersible pressure gage and this one actually has another octo pocket here on the other side because there are some places in the world where they run the octo on the left and of course our integrated weight system over here also so that's the jacket style front let's take a look at the back all right we're on the back of the jacket style BCD up here on the left shoulder there's a vent here there's a wire that runs through the hose that you could actually pull on the hose inflator and it would vent from this left shoulder again this particular BCD on the right shoulder has a a right shoulder dump which is very beneficial this comes with a inflator hose that connects to your first stage this is a what we call a valve strap wraps around the back and helps make the the tank an integral part of the structure of the BCD this is a stiff plastic backpack in here that is both on this side on the inside the BCD and of course here you have a metal tank strap which usually you'll see only in the more expensive type of BC DS it just happens to be on this one this unit also has to trim pockets back here with both Velcro closure and the the buckles and down here it's got what we call a butt dump or a lower dump for if you happen to be in a head down butt up position you can just reach back and dump air that way instead of having to stand up or rolled up upon your left shoulder to get air out of it let's take a look at the back inflate B CDs this happens to be the scuba Pro hydros BC Bank inflate means just that it has a back mounted cell that is separate from the plate and the harness you'll notice that there's no bladder that comes around the side here and we'll start up here at the shoulder like we did on the jacket style we drop down you'll notice that it also this particular one has a right shoulder dump we have a connection point d-ring here and of course we've got a nice little mounting point right here you'll notice that this particular chest strap is movable up or down depending on the comfort of the diver as we drop down it also has a quick-release and this one actually has a round swivel here we have our shoulder adjuster again pull down to tighten lift up to loosen we drop down now one of the things you'll notice is that's different than the jacket style is this does not have a pocket but what it does have is two points here so you could add a connection attachment here to add your maybe surface marker buoy or light or whatever you wanted to it does have a metal d-ring and it does have integrated weights now there are some particular features to this BCD that are different than other back inflates but that's unique to this particular one and I'm not going to touch on those at this particular time now in the back you notice there's no real pad like on the other one this is a plate it's made out of mono preen and it's pretty stiff it's got a nice carry handle here and it's a pretty pretty solid unit we come over on this side we also have a inflate or deflate er these inflate or deflate ER buttons are both located on the top some of you'll see located on the side or located on the end on this one it's they're both on the top inflate deflate come down there's another d-ring a quick detach and adjustment here and again you'll notice that there's no connection point here but mounting spots to put a bracket on here there is a d-ring down here on the bottom so let's take a look at the back of this back inflate BCD on the back here this is where it comes over from the left shoulder it also has a vent here but this one happens to be actuated by this little lever right here and of course this could be actuated by an instructor or a dive buddy whichever we've got a right shoulder dump here on this side which is nice some of the back inflates don't have right shoulder dumps as we come down again this one has a valve strap here and it's got a a back pack here and connection points to help make the the tank rigid and hold it better this one comes with a metal tank strap and this one also has two trimmed pockets mounted high up which is in the center of mass of the diver and it has buckles on it now as we look down here you don't see a butt dump on this one this one actually is located on the inside so that you would pull it from and not have to reach around toward the back we're going to take a look at the hybrid BCD now this happens to be the Aqualung axiom the term hybrid comes from combining some of the benefits of the jacket style BCD with some of the benefits of the back inflate BCD so let's take a look at the features of the axiom so as we come down we have our pre bent d-ring and our right shoulder dump it also has our quick-release here coming down you'll notice that this one has a large octo pocket here and it has a smaller pocket versus the the jacket style BCD remember the back inflate had no pocket so this has kind of a minimalist pocket on it it does have the integrated weight system there is also a d-ring here to connect a alternate air source if you like and there's a d-ring down here on the bottom to connect whatever you might like as we come down on the other side there's also a pre bent d-ring over here our inflate or deflate are similar to the one on the jacket style BCD a little different from the the scubapro the inflator buttons on the side and the deflate button is on the end and of course as we come down this one also has another octo pocket also a small pocket here on the side for storage this particular BCD has a knife mount here on the side and of course you have your integrated weight pocket right here and of course this one does not have a cumberbund this is a it actually wraps you in the harness and the bladder stands off from the harness itself so let's take a look at the back on the back of the hybrid we'll see that there's no dump here as you come over the left shoulder it does have a right shoulder dump and of course it has a valve strap like the other two did there is a you'll notice that there's no backpack like you saw on the other ones this is to help reduce weight and what this particular BCD does it uses the bow strap and the tank strap connecting between the tank to become an integral part and stiffener for the BCD so the tank becomes a structural member of the BCD as we come down here you'll notice that this particular unit has a metal tank buckle now many of the BCD s out there utilize a plastic cam on their tank strap so that the plastic cam is actually more normal than the metal ones the little bit higher featured BC these have these metal tank buckles on them and the beauty is it just pops open it slips off really easy there's no sliding up and down it makes it very easy and convenient to use now on this one you'll notice that our axiom has trim weights back here on the back with the buckles and buckle closure and down here on the right it's got a butt dump also so folks we've taken a look at the difference of recreational B CDs the standard jacket style the back inflate and the hybrid the question a lot of times come up why would I choose one over the other most of the time we use the jacket style during training and for rental is that it gives you the benefit of being in a very upright position when you're inflated on the surface back inflate if you're on the surface and somebody's a little uncomfortable and they over inflate the BCD and they're not careful that they don't lean back then it tends to push you forward and can drive your face in the water a little bit but with what proper trimming and proper positioning maybe some training with the equipment which you should always do with new equipment before you take it out diving the hybrid is the travel benefit the lighter weight and of course the combination of having the benefits of on the surface of the jacket style and of course underwater the positioning as the backend flight I hope you enjoyed this information about BC DS join us for more of our videos if you look we've got them on mass feeding computers things along those lines so this is Bob Collins for diver supply we'll see you next time safe divers [Music]

Channel: Divers-Supply JAX

Views: 11,993

Rating: 4.6666665 out of 5

Keywords: BCD, Choosing a BCD, How do I select a BC, which is the best BCD, Jacket Style BCD, Backinflate BCD, Hybrid BCD, Backplate and Wing BCD

Id: lM88v7DwhRc

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 18 2017