1) I can buy a cheap BC to have for short notice dives or possibly go the craigslist route, and hope my size comes up eventually

3) I can get a cheap set of regs...or again go the craigslist way

4) or hold off on things for a while and buy a nice backplate wing and harness and eventually a nice set of regs

.......Need as much input as possible. 

"Can't be bad if its wet"

UWF SCUBA PRESIDENT
~NATER

The BC lasted a couple seasons before I upgraded to a Hollis BP/W from MBT. If the regs ever crap out, I'll see what I can get to replace them... maybe an Atomic, but more likely Mares just because they're a bit easier on the wallet.

Have you tried a BP/W? If not, I'd suggest you try one before buying. Most people love them, but some people absolutely hate them. That's a lot of money to blow only to find out later that you don't like the gear.

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Captain of the toy charter boat "Tuggy"

Jerry West

(850)380-3257

SCUBA Instructor

"TEAM OUTLAW"

GO BIG OR GO HOME!!!

"From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to Earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free."
-Jacques Yves Cousteau,

Who Wants Some!

That you alex??

I don't dissagree with getting quality gear. But if someone is on a limited budget there isn't a thing wrong or unsafe about getting a used regulator. Regulators as a general rule. And I base my general rule on the fact that I have been diving since 1953 and never had or heard of a regulator freezing up and not supplying air. When a regulator fails it will Freezeup and freeflow. Just have a used regulator serviced buy a dive shop to be sure you have a regulator that doesn't cut your trip short because it freeflows when turned on.

The spin stops here
"I'm Sealark and I approve this message"

"From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to Earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free."
-Jacques Yves Cousteau,

That said, there are some great deals to be had in used equipment if you do your homework and know what to look for.  I wouldn't buy a used reg that I couldn't put my hands on.  If you find a used set, ask the seller to let you bring it by MBT so we can give it a free look over.  We'll let you know if it's a good deal or not, and give you an estimate if it's going to need work.

That said, also, the difference between a used, old as dirt, heavy, not the best breathing regulator, (wich I dove with for 2 years) and an expensive great breathing new top of the line lightweight regulator, while it WILL make a difference and make your divng more enjoyable, will NOT make near as much difference as getting into a BC that you like!Having a BC that fits your style, fits and works great, pockets if and where you want them, d rings accesable were YOU can easily reach blindfolded, ect, is night and day difference in enjoying your dive.

I, and most people like weight integrated. Besides not having a weight belt on your hips, the biggest gain is this. With a weight belt, to get YOURSELF neutraly bouyant, the weight belt is pulling downwards on your hips, and your BC is pulling upwards on your midsetion and shoulders, and when equal, makes YOU neautral.

With weight integrated, the BC ITSELF becomes neautral, neither pulling up, or down on you. The difference in comfort is night and day when your BC perfectly "hovers" on you, neither felling heavy, or light. Get weight integrated.

As far as rear inflate (or backplate and wing, same family/princeple), I, and many love them. When all your air is on your back nstead of wrapped around you with airbladders on your ribcage squeezing you, your range of motion is much better, not feeling "stuffed" like the michelin man and cant move. I know your going to be spearfishing, and you will appreciate that range of motion. I liked it so much, I had a very nice BRAND NEW jacket style with Airt 2 when I got certified, and scored an old as dirt rear inflate on ebay in a lot of stuff I bought. I tried it one time, and sold my brand new jacket and dove the 1 sixe too big, old (with plumbers epoxy repairs on the inflator hose as many remember) for 2 years.

Most peoples complaints about rear inflate is it "pushes" there face down in the water when on the surface. It does tilt you more forward than a jacket, but if you dont overinflate it and put just enough air to stay on the surface, it is not that bad. Many also have trim pockets in the back that you can put some of your weight in to balance that out. It is nice that in the water it holds you in that natural horizontal position perfect for swimming.

One other thing, as said, a failed reg will still let you breath. A failed BC can cause a catastrophe. new divers have a hard time getting there bouyance perfect and not overcompensating. Imagine if you lost the use of that inflator hose, or the ability to hold air in the BC?? Just dump some weight...right? You start sinking, and as you go down, you begin going faster and faster as you become "heavier" at greater depths, and its a snowball effect. Welcome to baratramua. You arent going to have a free hand to clear your ears, your gonna be struggling with your bc and trying to ditch weights. I have seen this happen, (and probably saved someones life) on the oriskany who drifted out over the edge of the flight deck and lost control of her bouyancy and went from 70 feet to 155 in what seemed like 3 seconds. It was all I could do to dump all air,and rocket after her kicking as hard as I could and grab her tank valve and stop her decent. If I hadnt of caught her when I did, she woulda wound up on the sand. (At least she can say she saw below the flight deck of the "O" on her very first dive there!)

When I got her back up th the boat, both her ears were bleeding, and it turned out she had blown both eardrums (coulda been worse).

Soooo.... you start ditching a little weight and trying to go upwards, all of this while in somewhat of a "heightened state of awareness" (also known as a mild panic), and god forbid as your dropping, you dont accidently drop to much weight and over compensate in your "panic". so you kick upwards, and drop just enough weight so you can kick upwards without completely exausting yourself.

Thats great.... good job, your at 130 feet and you remained calm and got it under control! You make your way slowly up doing a controled accent,(dont forget, the weight you ditched, you cant get that back with the push of a button), well....it was greaty at 130, but by the time you hit 50 feet, that little bit of weight you dropped like they taught you in class? Ha! You are now blowing any safe accent rate, and you are shootin towards the surface like an underwater torpedo! you are way positively bouyant as you got up to shallower depths! Your head has blown up to the size of that "Family Guys" kid, your eyes are bulged half way out of there sockets, and the cudas are following you as fast as they can up the water colum chasing the blood and brain matter trail spewing out of every orfice in your head!

And if you think a few pounds dont make that big of a difference, I (and I am sure everyone else) has dove just a couple pounds too light, felt fine, but by the time they lost a couple pounds from there tank being empty, had to fight as hard as they could to do there safety stop, even though they were just fine, even had a little air in there BC down at 90 feet.

My whole point in this, is neatral bouyance is a talent and skill, that takes time to get right (I even see expereinced divers who it seems like they dont quite got it down), and is difficult enough to maintain and adjust as you assend or desend at different depths. And that is with a fixed amount of weight, and an inflator button and dump valve. I never want to have to try and maintain or adjust bouyancy without the aid of a working BC and inflator and dump. That will take mad skills.

Sooo...if it came down too it, I would rather have my reg freeflow, than my BC go out. If you can only afford a decent one or the other, from a safety factor I think that the BC is more important.

The reason I am taking the time to write all this and try and be a little helpful Whaler...is cuz I want you to remember this, and your first time out make sure I get to go with you! I really want to try and shoot some grouper out of that Noahs Ark Ammish beard of yours! I know youll have a couple 25 pounders taking shelter in that thing!!

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UNDERWATER HELMET-CAM VIDEOS SPEARFISHING, USS ORISKANY, SHARKS, AND PICS!

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/TEAMCHUNKYLOVE

32' Marinette Dive Machine w/twin 318's   _{^{PFF FORUM MEMBER SINCE 1/2/06}}

~2009 "Unofficial PFF Spring Shark Tounament" Winners!~

_{^{~2007 Outcast Mega Shark Tournament "Beautiful Losers"~}}

^{~2007 "Unofficial PFF Fall Shark Tounament" Winners!~}

^{~13th Annual Orange Beach Spearfishing Tounament 4 Time Placers!~}

 Clint Retherford

Escambia Search And Rescue
Commander of the Dive Team
--Volunteers Always Needed--

Clay: PM sent

"Can't be bad if its wet"

UWF SCUBA PRESIDENT
~NATER

http://pensacola.craigslist.org/spo/1134928367.html

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Captain of the toy charter boat "Tuggy"

UNDERWATER HELMET-CAM VIDEOS SPEARFISHING, USS ORISKANY, SHARKS, AND PICS!

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/TEAMCHUNKYLOVE

32' Marinette Dive Machine w/twin 318's   _{^{PFF FORUM MEMBER SINCE 1/2/06}}

~2009 "Unofficial PFF Spring Shark Tounament" Winners!~

_{^{~2007 Outcast Mega Shark Tournament "Beautiful Losers"~}}

^{~2007 "Unofficial PFF Fall Shark Tounament" Winners!~}

^{~13th Annual Orange Beach Spearfishing Tounament 4 Time Placers!~}

BC ships in tomorrow

"Can't be bad if its wet"

UWF SCUBA PRESIDENT
~NATER

Glad to hear yo found what your looking for! Time to kill more fish!

__________________________________________________________________________________

UNDERWATER HELMET-CAM VIDEOS SPEARFISHING, USS ORISKANY, SHARKS, AND PICS!

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/TEAMCHUNKYLOVE

32' Marinette Dive Machine w/twin 318's   _{^{PFF FORUM MEMBER SINCE 1/2/06}}

~2009 "Unofficial PFF Spring Shark Tounament" Winners!~

_{^{~2007 Outcast Mega Shark Tournament "Beautiful Losers"~}}

^{~2007 "Unofficial PFF Fall Shark Tounament" Winners!~}

^{~13th Annual Orange Beach Spearfishing Tounament 4 Time Placers!~}

The best thing about diving. My girlfriend can't yell at me underwater

Diving is life, everything else is just a surface interval

Handle every situation like a dog if you can't eat it or play with it, pee on it and walk away.