Backplate / Harness

[dkdiver]

Is anyone familiar with a plate and harness made by Critical Aspect Corp.? website criticalaspect.com  Would like to know what your opinions are for this system.

[matt t.]

Do a search on TDS. There were a few threads, and nobody had a good thing to say about it. There wasn't anything on the site about a price, but on TDS I did see $300 mentioned. There is mention on the site that this plate will not work with "all double tank bands". I thought the appeal of the back plate was that is very adaptable to almost any situation (single tank, doubles, some rebreathers). I would go with a standard SS plate.

[deep_al]

I played with one at dema.  the craftsmanship on it wasn't great, the welds are sort of gnarly and the hardware is "over worked".  for example the belt buckle is just two metal buckles welded back to back so you can adjust the length of webbing on both sides of your waste, and it has a quick link welded to the bottom of the buckle for attaching your crotch strap. 

The rollers for the waist strap are nice that they allow easy adjustment of the harness size, but the shoulder d-rings arent so easily adjusted, meaning if you take harness from a big guy and put it on a smaller person the shoulder d-rings will now be on their lower chest.  I think even going from drysuit to 3mm shorty will require repositioning the d-rings. 

For the price you could get an SS backplate for your diving with your drysuit and an aluminum bp for travel and never have to adjust your harnesses.  (unless your using the back plate for multiple people)