Dive BC's

BC's Oceanic Probe QLR

Gear Snapshot

The Oceanic Probe QLR is a great BC.  No question about it, if you are into jacket style Bc's with some nice tech features you have come to the right BC.  I purchased mine and have 0 complaints after 80+ dives.  Of course, some of my fellow dive pros aren't partial to jacket BC's as they are minimalist and prefer the frame and bladder approach.  But hey, I grew up in scouts and believe in being prepared.  I love the various pockets forward and aft to keep my stuff in.  In one of the large forward pouches I keep my safety sausage which is attached to a Scubahawk Flatreel.  I use this for open water safety stops on drift dives so that boats know that I am below.  Although compact, keeping it in a pocket rather than banging around in my slipstream is a plus.  The Probe also has a pair of very slim small zippered pockets right above the larger ones.  One of these keeps my Sea Gold antifog and the other keeps my whistle with lanyard.

The left side has two conveniently placed grommet holes for the attachment of a BC knife.  This is where I have my Wenoka titanium dive knife attached.  There are two aft shoulder pockets for trim weights and two aft tech pockets for dive lights etc.

The QLR weight management system works good - as long as you make sure both the velcro and the clip are secure.  I have lost a weight bag once when I didn't do a very good job of setting the pouches in place.  Pouch replacement is not cheap - about $50 a pair and they only come in pairs!  The good news is that I bought my wife an Oceanic BC that uses the same weight pouches.

This is one very comfortable BC.  Plenty of adjustment points and a padded frame.  There are a number of D rings to hang junk off of.  I use two on a regular basis.  To the right should ring I attached an auto retractor to which is attached my reg console and octo.  This keeps them both secure inone convenient reach point.  I use a lower side ring to hang my fish stringer from when I am spearfishing. 

I love the lower and upper dump valves.  I use these almost exclusively.  The easy access makes dumping to descend a piece of cake.

This BC deserves a 5 Star rating.  The only thing I could fault Oceanic for is the lack of a life-time warranty on the bladder. The unit is well built and I have had 0 problems.
 

http://www.oceanicww.com/p_bcs_probe.html

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