Which BCD is best for you? (scuba)

SCUBAPRO is the world's most iconic brand of dive equipment, built by and for those whose passion is found below the water's surface. Founded in 1963 by Gustav Dalla Valle and Dick Bonin, SCUBAPRO remains the industry's gold standard for innovation, performance, reliability and durability. The company's products blend advanced technologies with intuitive, sophisticated designs, allowing divers to focus on their dive experience, not their gear. For the hobbyist to the professional, SCUBAPRO's portfolio features industry-leading regulators, dive computers, BCDs and thermal protection, along with a full line of scuba masks, fins, snorkels, gear bags, scuba accessories and divewear.

Which BCD is best for you?

What's up guys I'm John owner and instructor here at Black Flag Dive Center and today I'm here to talk to you about bcds. Hopefully by the end of this video I will have cleared up some of the questions you may have I will have given you some options to think about for the needs that you have as a diver.

Now there's basically three different schools of thoughts when it comes to bcds, okay?

We have a jacket style which inflates both in the back and in the front, we have a rear inflating BCD which only inflates in the rear, and we have the back plate and weighing combo.

The first BCD I'm going to talk to you guys about today is the Scuba Pro hydros X; this particular bcd is really well made, it's made of materials that dry really quickly and don't degrade very quickly which is great as an investment. Now the advantages of this particular BCD is going to be the fact that the material dries really quickly it's got these big pockets in the front it has an integrated weight system and it inflates all the way around so when you're on the surface waiting on the boat to pick you up you can inflate your BCD and lay back and relax.

The second school of thought on BCD's is the rear inflating BCD this one is the Hydros Pro by Scuba Pro it only inflates in the rear which means it's going to give you a horizontal position in the water which is what most of us are shooting for when we're diving the advantages of this one are again the quick drying material the really well made craftsmanship and the fact that the shoulder straps and the other components aren't going to degrade quickly over time.

The third school of thought is the back plate and wing design, now this BCD is mine which is why you see all of this dangly stuff everywhere, now the reason that I've chosen this one is because it's modular in design which means that you can take it apart and put different components back on it depending on your needs which is great because it can grow with you as a diver. An advantage of this is the fact that the back plate itself has negative buoyancy characteristics which means that it's heavy in the water. Now that's advantageous as a diver because it means that you can put less weight in your weight pockets. Another advantage to this one is going to be the fact that you can change out the wing for different sizes, you can put a set of doubles on it, you can even clip a pony bottle here and here which gives you lots of room to put lots of different configurations together. Or if a piece ever goes bad it's easily replaceable, another advantage to this one is the crotch strap and I know that you guy out there are sitting there thinking to yourself 'well why would I want that?' well the truth is it holds it all together and what's great about it is it comes usually with a couple of d-rings that you can either hang an SMB on which is what I use it for or if you have a dpv or an underwater scooter you would use the d-ring in the front to clip to it and use it to have you pull you along.

Now I see a lot of recreational divers out there with a style like this one because it's comfortable. Usually it's what they've trained in and they really like it I would say that I see the majority of divers however using a rear inflating BCD but that's a matter of preference. Here's what I want to encourage all of you to do before you go out and spend a ton of money on a BCD; number one: make sure it's something that you're going to grow into and not out of.

Number two: try it first. Tons of dive shops out there are doing what we call demo days where if you want to try a piece of gear all you have to do is show up to the pool and we'll have it ready for you we'll let you try it out before you drop a bunch of money on something that hopefully is going to last you the rest of your life.

An advantage of owning your own gear is knowing how it works knowing that it's been serviced, sometimes renting gear makes that a little bit more difficult because you could rent from six different dive shops and receives six different BCD and regulator combos. Me personally I take my own personal gear everywhere because I know for a fact how it works and that it's going to work the last point that I'd like to make is remember; Buy Local. Buy from the dive shop that did your instruction for you because you probably vetted those scuba instructors. You can buy scuba anywhere but what you did was you picked a dive shop that you felt like you could trust them with your life.

The things that keeps the lights on in a dive shop is going to be stuff like this, you as the diver continuing to support your local dive shop and bringing the money back to them versus going to another shop or buying online. I hope that this video cleared up any questions that you have as always you can reach out to us with any other questions you may have or sign up for a demo day we'd love to have you thanks a lot we'll see you next time.