I’m an avid diver, and as such I own most of my own gear. The only thing I don’t own is a tank-you can’t take them on a plane and it’s only about $6.00 anyway.
Anywho, my B.C. is a Diverite II transpac, it’s great for what it is and because it’s one of the only B.C.'s that easily converts to doubles (that I looked into anyway).
As good as it is, it’s not very streamlineable. My reg and oct. lines hang out and sometimes interfer with my movement. It doesn’t bother me too much but I did get to thinking: I want to bring more stuff with me on a dive (camera, writing pad, light), which I can bring now-but it’s a royal pain in the ass because the stuff is hanging everywhere.
On to the question. I was looking in adivers direct catalog and I saw some Mares BCs. They look fairly comfortable and the wires from the reg and oct can be integrating into the BC-looks like a big plus. So before I head on down to my local dive shop I was wonder has anyone used one of these BCs? Do they make a difference?
Mares makes 15 different BCs. I’m not sure which one you mean.
I don’t have a mares BC, so I can’t comment specifically, but I’ll tell you what I know. (It’s probably what you already know.)
There are a few aspects to BCs you should look into.
[li]Lift capacity. If you do mostly sport diving, most BCs are within your needs. You need more lift if you use a dry suit or carry gobs of heavy stuff with you (like tecchies.)[/li]
[li]Air Integrated Second Stage (like scuba pro air II). Here, there is a second stage regulator as part of the BC inflation mechanism. Having the Air II would allow you to get rid of octopus hose. To share air, you give the wide-eyed diver your primary (if he/she hasn’t already ripped it from your mouth) and you breathe off the BC reg. A nice feature, but it takes a bit of mental getting used to.[/li]
[li]Integrated weights. Pockets in the BC hold soft weights so you don’t have to carry as much lead on your belt. Great if you need a lot of weight and it hurts to have it all on your hips. Great if you need a little bit of weight and/or aren’t wearing a thick wet suit so lead is in BC and not on unprotected hips. Also good for relocation of weight along lateral line to streamline attitude in water. Drawbacks, it’s very easy to remove your belt and hand it to person in tender. You must let person about to lift your BC that it contains weight so it doesn’t pull them overboard.[/li]
[li]D rings. I like lots of them. If you have enough rings, you can buy plenty of gadgets to hold hoses so they don’t dangle and tangle.[/li]
[li]Spare Air[sup]TM[/sup] holders. A lot of manufacturers are making Spare Air[sup]TM[/sup] pockets in their BCs to hold the standard size of the product. An interesting feature.[/li]
[li]Ability to customize backplate. Some BCs have kits to convert backplate to accept double tanks. Personally, I’ve been down with twin 72s, but I find that the steel 110/120s are more manageable and give about the same amount of air. Plus, it’s lighter and will fit in a single mount BC.[/li]
[li]pockets. Number and ease of getting into and out of. This is important to some people. Personally, I couldn’t really care less. I carry a goodie bag with me rolled up and tubed on my tank so I can carry anything I find interesting.[/li]
IMHO, if you find a BC with the features you want/need, there isn’t a manufacturer that is so much better than another. Of course, somebody will come along and state otherwise any minute. I don’t even know the manufacturer of my BC. It isn’t that important. As long as it fits comfortably and has the features you want/need, who really cares?
I saw the OP subject and thought “aha, a question about diving, surely I can answer that!”
But then I read your full OP and have to confess that I don’t have any experience with a Mares BC either. I think Spritle did a nice job outlining the various features to take into consideration.
I checked out the link to the Mares site. While I think the Mares “revolutionary” AirTrim is intriguing and something I’d like to try, in general I don’t particularly like the design of their BCs.
The reason is that I like a more vest-like BC. Most of the pictures on their web site seem to have the air concentrated around the waist. I would certainly want to try it before buying. Is this style common for high end BCs?
Personally, I subscribe to the notion of “you can never have too many D-rings”. Having lost a fair amount of stuff over the years, I’ve realised the hard way that if you’re going down there with accessories (torch, slate, reels, etc), it’s vital to have them clipped onto a D-ring and a stretchy lanyard, so that they can be placed in a pocket when not required.
If your local store has a pool, they would probably let you try out a few different types of BC’s before you buy. That way, you could take along your own reg and determine the best hose routing, etc.
Good luck with choosing the best BC for you, and safe diving!
I don’t have any exp. with mares bc’s either but have a mares wetsuit and speargun and must say that the quality is much better then the rest. I wouldn’t worry about getting anything from them.
As for the tangle of hoses there’s a simple solution - get a J valve - ditch the octupus and the gauge. No really you can get d-rings and other attachments to help streamline your current bc.
k2dave, I’m not sure I understand your justification for the J valve. The valve hase a “reserve” that allows the user (in theory) to “run out of air” and then get some more to surface.
The octopus is used for one of two reasons.
sharing air - if your buddy runs out.
redundant second stage - if your primary second fails
I don’t see how the octopus has much to do with an out of air situation.
On your comments about mares quality, I have no personal experience, but my dive buddy has a lot of mares equipment and likes it all. he really likes his mares fins and once threatened to cancel a dive trip because he couldn’t find his mares and didn’t want to use his other pair. (Me? I have the c. 1958 Scuba Pro jet fin! - build lots of muscle, move really fast.)
Some interesting information, thanks all. I’m not sure what I’m going to do. As I said I have a perfectly good BC, but the ads for some of the Mares BC’s intreged me. I like the idea of running my hoses through my BC so my arms don’t get tangled-but then again if an emergency comes up I don’t want the BC to interfer.
Now that we have the attention of a bunch of Scuba divers…
(I’m not sure about the etiquette regarding asking another dive equipment question here rather than starting a new thread? If no one responds then I guess I’d better start a new thread.)
I’d like some feedback regarding the experiences of Doper Divers who use split fins. I’m tempted because I’m told they’re more efficient (and I always run out of air before my wife), but I’m also told that it’s harder to “hover” for picture taking.
If you use split fins, how do you like them? What brand?
thinksnow, can you e-mail me for info on what you’re charging for this aluminum tanks, how old they are, when the last pressure test was, etc? I might be interested in taking a couple off your hands.
Spritle I was saying that mainly in jest but since you mentioned it the j-valve replaces the pressure gauge not the octopus. This gets rid of one hose. removing the octupus will get rid of another hose (and just take your chances). AND YOU THEN ARE more streamlined (dam caplock).
I have used jvalves and actually like them but the tanks I have have k-valves.
Algernon I have not used split fins so can’t help you there but there are other things you can do to conserve air:
1 get more streamlined - use the min weight
2 dive higher then your partner
3 hi opal
4 use the tank w/ the most air to start
5 use your snorkel when at the surface
6 get larger higher pressure tanks
other things that you can do but it’s not recommended
1 breath off your buddy’s octopus
2 skip breathe
3 Hi Opal
Meatros, but you use “split posting”? ~grin~ I went and checked out the Force Fins web site. Those fins of yours sure look weird, yet it seems to make sense. They do look just like the fins on my Koi (fish). Would you recommend them?
k2dave, regarding your suggestions to use less air…
*1 get more streamlined - use the min weight… * I’m pretty slim and I already use the minimum weight.
*2 dive higher then your partner… * But I like to go deep.
*3 hi opal… * I thought we weren’t doing this anymore.
*4 use the tank w/ the most air to start … * We usually dive off dive boats and they usually just set up the tanks for us, therefore I don’t get a chance to “comparison shop”.
*5 use your snorkel when at the surface… * I do this too.
*6 get larger higher pressure tanks… * See my answer to #4.
*other things that you can do but it’s not recommended *
*1 breath off your buddy’s octopus… * ~grin~ Like she’s gonna like that… but I certainly would outlast her for a change.
*2 skip breathe… * My confession… I often break the cardinal rule of diving, I (shudder) sometimes hold my breath (for mere moments).
*3 Hi Opal *
My wife also has a very low heart-rate to go with her very low breath-rate. It drives me nuts. There can be five or six divers, and we’ll all come up because we’re out of air (beginning the ascent at 500 lbs say). She comes up because, well, there’s nobody but the divemaster and he’s usually running short himself. I always check her tank after the dive and sure enough, there is almost always 1000 - 1200 lbs left.
I think part of my problem is that I’m more curious than she is. I’ll be zig-zagging all over the place to try and get a good photo and she’ll just be cruising along nice and slow.
she uses 2000 psi and you use 2500 so you would have to make up 20% which is not easy.
You could also consider a pony and use that to start (take that down to 500 then switch). Your higher activity and deaper diving is going to cost you and if that’s what you like you will just have to deal w/ it.
Another thing you can do which I do quite often is run you tank down to 100psi instead of 500. I use a spareair as a backup though and if you are going with a group it’s better if you follow their instructions.
incase you didn’t know skip breathing is not just holding your breath once but basically inhale - hold - exhale and repeat (I don’t know if you got the repeat part). By practicing this not recommended method you will find how long you can ‘hold’ with out running an O2 deficit. I admit that I use this method mainly because I spearfish and will hold my breath as I round a big rock and just got use to holding. I increased my bottom time by about 10% doing this continously throuhgout the dive.
Any more questions on how to dive going directly against the teachings of every recreational dive agency?
I never really did the calculations, but realizing that my wife is 20% more efficient is eye-opening. The difference between us is greater than I realized.
And thanks for the explanation of “skip breathing”. As I mentioned, I do this occasionally, but I think I’ll develop this into more of a consistent approach. Meatros, your confirmation that k2dave is not the only practitioner of this method gives me more confidence to try it.
If my wife and I always dove on our own, I’d wait longer than 500 psi before surfacing, but we’re often diving with inexperienced divers so the divemaster usually requires a greater safety cushion.
Regarding the “Hi Opal” thing. There was a pit thread about this a while back. I don’t have time to do a search to provide a cite. Essentially the consensus was that doing this was not only stale, overdone, and passe, but Opal herself doesn’t like it. I have no personal opinion one way or the other. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it.
Meatros, thanks for your recommendation of Force Fins. I distrust anything on their web site, for after all, they’re trying to sell me something. I don’t quite understand why the fins would not be as effective for surface swimming (like snorkeling for example). Do you have a theory?
And yoga? Sounds like an interesting experiment. I’d be interested in the experiences of people who’ve tried this. If you try it, report back and let us other divers know if it makes a difference.
As for Force Fins-I think they work better underwater because it takes a lot more effort on the surface to get them under…That doesn’t make much sense.
Maybe it’s just that fins in general are easier to use underwater…