My Light Travel Backplate | Safe Diving

hi everybody welcome to safe diving in today's video we're going to be taking a look at my single cylinder tank setup so um yeah so this is what i dive when i'm flying abroad on holiday i'm just diving on a single cylinder um i just want something lightweight something nice and compact nothing too sort of big and bulky um and this kind of ticks all of the boxes for me so we've got it here in front of me so um this is my single cylinder setup obviously it's a back plate and sort of harness wing setup so i've got my backplate here which is mars xr aluminium backplate which is very very light but it still gives me that kind of structure that i need from my bcd um i have a single piece harness um just because it's reliable and it's strong um but i have sort of customized it in a few ways uh the first way is that i put these dive right titanium d-rings on um these are incredibly light when you hold them it doesn't feel like you're wearing anything as you can see it doesn't use a tri-glider so the benefit of that is that you can actually move these on the fly um as long as they're sort of straight upright you can kind of move them around but then as soon as you clip anything off onto it it kind of twists it and means that it stays exactly in position so um so i have those as my two shoulder d-rings the one on my hip and yeah they just save a little bit of weight and um they're pretty small as well if you compare that to a standard uh d-rail something like that you can see how it's much much smaller profile so it's less likely to get snagged on anything it's rather it would but um still it's a little bit smaller and lighter which is exactly what i want in a um in sort of a traveling traveling bcd um on my waistband i've got my uh my dive knife something small um that acts as a little hook i'm gonna put this all on in a little bit so you can see it all sort of in position and go through it again but um but yeah that just acts as a little hook for my regulators um much the same on the other side the wing itself this is an apex d18 this is about as small as um sort of wings and bladders go as you can see it's not that much bigger than my back plate it's a bit taller um i've got a good few inches sort of at the top and the bottom but to either side it's very very compact so when you're wearing it you get a full range of motion your shoulders don't get sort of impeded in any way even when you're fully inflated the one thing that you do have to sort of take note on is that yes it has very little buoyancy so um if you're not squared away and you're not too good you're wearing too much lead um this might not be enough to actually literally get you off the bottom so um just make sure that you've got your buoyancy down before you go for anything this small um the crotch strap goes down um i usually keep a um a small dsmb just in the um the sort of the small on my back and um this is a um it's actually a small plate that's um i believe is for like a side mount canister battery um i just sort of retrofitted this um just to turn that to uh sort of fit a dsmb and then above that i have my little 15 meter spool this sort of apex lifeline i like it just because it's colorful and it's strong and it's um it's got everything that i need other than that moving up to the regulators so apex dst first stage with a five port swivel turret um so my primary i don't know if you can see that uh trying to move that bladder out of the way so the primary comes out of the fifth port and this is attached onto a long sort of two meter long hose um so i have plenty to sort of donate if i need to i'll show you how that sort of gets fitted and that just goes to a an apex xtx 50 second stage my ultimate my opto sits on a short hose on a necklace around my neck and i think that's like a 60 centimeter hose nothing too um too long but that just sort of sits in front of me if i ever need to uh i do dive with the transmitter um i quite like having air integration on my on my dive computer i just find it it's quite easy and you can kind of switch off when you're on holiday um and it'll alert you if you get down to a certain tank pressure but also it's really easy for working out your sort of sack rates and r b's on the other side if i just roll it over a little bit um so i have if i tidy these all up actually this is where a lot of divers sort of foul their gear because their hoses are all twisted around uh and i've done it so yeah no shame there as long as you notice it so over my left hand shoulder standard inflator again i'll show you that uh sort of when it's in position and then that just goes to a brass with a glass faced spg um yeah that's about it um so what i'm going to do is i'm going to get sort of relatively kitted up i'm just going to put my rash vests and so the shorts on and um and yeah i'll sort of show you how i am kitted all out uh when i'm diving somewhere nice warm and sunny so let's take a look right now okay guys so this is pretty much me um depending on the dive obviously i wear my mask and whatnot but um yeah this is kind of what i'd be wearing um so from the like inside out so i'm wearing my rash vest uh this if you can't tell is a scuba pro rash vest this is like a t-flex or something they call it um but this is mainly to protect me from the sun uh when you're diving in sort of warmer temperatures instead of slathering yourself in um sort of suntan lotion and anything um they can actually kill and um damage coral so it's actually better for the environment if you wear a rashfest it's also better for you because you get this sort of abrasion resistant suit um it means that if you brush up against any fire coral which i've done and i do not recommend it um it can actually protect you because a lot of their uh sort of stingers can't get through something thicker than uh sort of rashers material so um so yeah you're pretty safe as well as just scraping against a rock and whatnot um it's a lot better that than your sort of soft wet skin um so yeah so i usually wear a long sleeve um shirt this also makes you a little bit easier to identify in the water um because six people all in a black shorty it is really hard to identify one another whereas if you've got a guy who's wearing a bright blue full length uh sort of rash vest uh it just means that you're a bit covered down at the bottom uh you can't see that on any uh sort of cameras you might be able to see on that one um i've got my full filament tech shorts um so just sort of five pockets and that's just for storage i've done a completely separate video on what i keep in my thigh pockets that's going to pop up there um and i'm not going to go into those it's mainly my spares my kind of emergencies that's kind of what i keep in my in my thigh pockets just because it's much more convenient than having sort of waist pockets up here um i just find that they just get in the way and they're just annoying whereas if it's down by your thighs you can actually lift it much more practically um so yeah and that's typically what i wear and then just a pair of scuba pro boots just five mil boots um i've i've yet to invest in a pair of just slippers um just because a pair of five more boots will do everything from kind of summer time here in the uk to um yeah winter time in um in egypt so yeah just five mil boots tends to do me uh okay so on my left hand i have my compass um nothing fancy this is a scuba uh sunto i don't know sk7 it might be the sk8 i forget which was which but that just sits on a bungee mount on my on my hand so i don't have to worry about that sort of slipping around this is the same one that i use in my cold water setup but i just tie this sort of extra little bit of um sort of bungee up so that it fits my ungloved hand that's on my left hand side so that i can still use my inflator on my right hand side i have my shear water purix it's on the right hand side because if you're controlling a buoyancy you can use your left hand to kind of do everything that you need to um while still sort of monitoring your depth and also doing that kind of motion just to lift your inflator suddenly your your depth has changed by a foot or half a meter and the dive computer kind of freaks out so i tend to keep it on my right hand side um that's about it apart from my mask atomic venom frameless mask okay so moving down so my regulators are in a long hose primary donate so the one that the second stage i actually breathed from um sort of sits around my neck and uh and comes on this two meter long hose this one is a little bit long um if i had some time i'd probably invest in a one and a half meter hose because when it's sort of actually in position you can see i've got quite a fair amount of slack so i could probably take a fair amount off and it would still be practical this sits on a 90 degree angle just so that the hose doesn't come straight out at 180 degrees it kind of tucks behind my my head straight away but to donate it it's just as easy and yeah it's really sort of quick and effective my alternate sits around a necklace around my neck and it's exactly the same it's not bright yellow because i'm the one who's going to be using it and yeah that just goes straight in my mouth so really quick and easy coming down my shoulders uh on my left hand side i have a little torch this is a simply scuba mark one um dive torch this was uh effectively a exposure marine torch it's rechargeable it's really small it's about a thousand lumens factory sealed so i never have to worry about it sort of flooding it's rechargeable and i just attach a little xd bolt snap onto that so that's my sort of emergency backup torch but that sort of stays with me on every dive pretty much if i'm going on a night dive then i'll bring a a big sort of goodman style dive torch that i can i can physically sort of have on my hand but still use my hands um that one is pretty powerful for pretty much any uh sort of just blue water night dive but i like to have something with a bit of oomph and then back up just in case moving down to my um it's an spg so standard brass spg with a glass face just a bit stronger they don't rattle when they're um when you're using them out of the water and an xd bolt snap something with a large eye this section here so you can fit your finger through and then really control it um just makes clipping off that much easier uh other than that uh if you can see not on that camera but on that camera so i have my uh sort of crotch strap going around my waistband on my waistband i have my little dive knife and um my primary my long hose kind of tucks in underneath that and that stops that excess so the hose from just kind of flapping around but if i need to deploy my knife it's quick and easy nothing too flashy especially on holiday this is mainly for sort of fishing line you see lying around i like to collect as much as possible but you don't want anything too stabby so yeah nice and blunt but with serrated edge so i can cut through pretty much anything um and that's about it so i'm going to turn around uh you might be able to hear me because my microphone is over there um i'll try and talk if you can hear me great if you can't sorry i'm only going to talk about the the size of my wing uh so i might do some massive adr after the effect but basically how sort of small and compact it is so on my back of course you can see my my tank and my my wing the main thing that i really wanted to show off is just how small the the bladder actually is on this d18 um as you can see it's pretty much in line just with my body and um yeah it doesn't really uh sort of take up any more space but it's got plenty of buoyancy when you're on the surface as long as you don't wear if you don't have too much lead on your back it actually has plenty of lift um the only other thing to note is uh is down on the uh sort of the d-ring down by my butt um of course i have my um my little finger spool the apex lifeline instead of 15 meter and then i have my sort of dsmb that's readily available but out of the way you don't really notice it there because nothing really moves down there when you're on a dive um so yeah it's really handy place to uh sort of keep those um those sort of quick sort of grab items and yeah other than that that's the the back of it nice and streamlined nothing that's out of the way and uh sort of flapping around and uh realistically that's kind of all you need um for reference this is a seven liter tank um so uh it's not the uh sort of the standard size that i sort of have fitted i'd usually have like an alley 80 or like a uh 11 12 liter cylinder sort of on my back but um yeah as you can see it's um it's plenty big enough and um yeah that's um that bladder really sort of cradles the tank and stops it from kind of twisting around and moving okay guys so that's my warm water setup this is what i take with me traveling um all in it's pretty light especially when you compare it to one of those sort of big heavyweight uh sort of jacket style bcds um it's nice and slim on my back you can't sort of see too much of it but it does everything that i need and it's still really comfortable even in a rash vest despite there being just a piece of metal on your back you don't really feel it mainly because you've got the buoyancy of that bcd just kind of lifting you up so actually it it's not pressing down on your back but what do you think what would you change what do you dive with when you dive in sort of warmer temperatures yeah let us know down in the comments below thank you for watching and of course safe diving you

Channel: Safe Diving

Views: 6,684

Rating: 4.9593906 out of 5

Keywords: backplate, travel, single, scuba, diving, harness, aluminium

Id: pbg70IxTqus

Length: 15min 13sec (913 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 08 2020