BC advice

[Charlestondivin]

Looking for a new bc and wanted to get some advice from you guys that have a lot of experience in this area. I have been looking at the zeagle ranger and the zeagle escape. Any suggestions? Which bc's do you guys prefer for hunting?
Where do you guys find the best price on them.
I currently have a zeagle tech xl and a Dragonfly Airtrim XL. both are too big for me. I need to find a medium.

I posted here to avoid the genesis effect on fs and get some decent advice. I do a lot of spearfishing in Charleston SC CharlestonDiving.com (http://www.CharlestonDiving.com) is my website.

Thanks

[blue gun]

In a perfect world I would probably dive a back plate with no bc, a few #'s of lead on a belt with alum. 80's and pop a new 80 for every dive. If you have a problem just dump the weight. Why? To streamline. Less drag is more better. When I do dive a bc it's a diverite travel wing because they are very small and have plenty of lift. I think the smaller the bladder the better. Don't buy that tech stuff if you are not going to be tech diving. I use diverite superwings or recwings when cave diving. They have redundant bladders and enough lift for stage diving ect........
Hey! is the water cooling off in SC yet? I can't wait for the gags.
Do you charter or have a boat?

[Charlestondivin]

I have a bunch of pics up HERE (http://www.paintballcharleston.com/diving/html/spearfishing_pictures.html) Water is still pretty warm but the grouper are pretty plentiful. There arent near as many spearfisherman here in charleston as there are out your way so there isnt much competition. We get some real big bugs out this way too. Most of our bugs are over 6-7#. The thing about charleston is that we have to go out about 30-35 miles to reach some nice bottom. I usually go with a few guys who own boats here in charleston.
Here is a pic from a recent trip.

http://www.paintballcharleston.com/diving/assets/images/db_images/db_spear_aug_17_02__1_1.jpg

[Steel Shootin']

Welcome to the board, Charleston. I hope more out of staters join, cause I'd like to learn from others about their local waters.

I don't have a lot to add on the BC subject, since I dive a full vest (Scubapro Classic Plus), and most people dive the Zeagles or other back inflate. I had a back inflate, and for me, I just like the vest better. Some guys say that makes me a cloud kicker, and to that I respond, "come down the jug line with me and watch me stop on a dime 10ft from bottom, horizontal."

I do have to concede Blue Gun's point about drag. The vest probably having more drag than anything else.

[BobK]

It's all in the kind of diving you do. I like my vest for OW, but I'm going to get some cavern/cave diving training in the next few months. For that, I'll go to a backplate and wings. Also, if I ever get trained for deep wreck stuff, I'd use the backplate and wing setup. But for what I do now, the vest is fine.

[inletsurf]

Nice Stringer!!!!

[GeauxSaints]

I would go with the Ranger over the escape, for sure. The additional bells and whistles (seperate bladder, plenty of D rings, etc...) are well worth the extra money. Either way, you can't go wrong, though, Zeagle makes a fantastic product and sticks by it with that lifetime warranty.

[Merk]

I dive with the Zeagle Ranger with has all the bells & whistles. While I like the way the BC is setup I don't think it's ideal for spearfishing. Since I don't tech dive but instead strictly spearfish I really don't need everything this BC has to offer, but still paid for.

Keep in mind, with all the extras comes extra drag which is the thing I hate when I'm hunting down my prey.

Good Luck