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When it comes to a lightweight BC designed for travel, it’s hard to beat the Air Travel. no surprise, it earned the Testers’ Choice in the Travel category.
Voted Testers’ Choice in this category, the Axis delivers the functions, features and performance most coveted in a streamlined general-purpose back- buoyancy BC without unnecessary bells and whistles.
This year’s Testers’ Choice winner in the jacket-style category is a comfortable and stable BC with a good weight system, efficient valves, and a long list of convenience features.
Divers looking for an entry-level BC that’s well appointed and performs admirably — and doesn’t cost a lot of money — will be drawn to Prime MRS. It nails the important stuff at a good price, earning it the Best Buy award.
Cressi’s R1 jacket-style BC is comfortable and easy to use. It features padding in the back and lumbar areas as well as underneath the shoulders, and the air cell slides on the cummerbund, eliminating body squeeze. The rigid backpack delivers a stable ride, and the Lock Aid integrated weight system loads and ditches easily. Available in five sizes with buoyant lift up to 36 pounds
From buying new dive equipment to taking care of what you already own, these simple tips will help you get the most out of your money.
Scuba diving is an equipment intensive sport, and your gear can be a fickle ally. Assembling a collection of dive gear-specific tools and spare parts to deal with basic maintenance and minor emergencies will help keep you ready to hit the water at a moment’s notice
A load of new gear debuted in 2012, and the ScubaLab team dive-tested just about all of it. After digging deep into both objective and ergonomic test results, on the following pages we celebrate the year’s top-performing fins, BCs, regulators and dive computers, along with some first-rate travel bags, warm-water wetsuits and a couple of our top picks for safety gear.
The winner of both a ScubaLab Testers Choice and a Best Buy, the Travelight is a full-featured jacket-style BC designed for traveling divers. Constructed of featherlight 210-denier nylon, it comes with Cressi’s Lock Aid integrated weight system, two zippered pockets and six alloy D-rings. Its soft pack design can be folded in seconds and stowed in its own carry bag. For 2013 the BC features a new range of colors.
Sure, there might be other dive gear deemed more important to basic survival (a reg) or your general well-being (a dive computer) than a BC. But when it comes to being able to comfortably acclimate to being underwater — to the point where you feel like a resident rather than a clumsy topside tourist — the BC is the most important component of your kit.
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