Easier Boat Diving?

[Moby Dick]

Has anybody tried the Mini-B C-Pro scuba set up? Looks ideal for storage and use on a boat (compact, fewer trailing parts and hard edges etc)

It is a 'back-pack' with BJ, weights and bottle built-in

http://www.mini-b.com/default.html

[2divers]

I haven't tried this particular equipment but it appears to suffer from the same issue as the Mares Hub (which is a BC and Reg combination).
While it will very likely work as advertised, failure of any one peice renders your whole peice of equipment unoperable.

And I think, like the mares hub, they will want a pretty penny to repair it since you have to send the whole item in for repairs. That seems like a very small bottle and would probably get you under the boat and not a whole lot deeper without a very short bottom time.

Storage space for scuba gear can be a pain, but the only benifit I see here is the hard case that means you could lay something else on top of it with out risk of kinking hoses or damaging the equipment. That would be taken care of with just careful storage to begin with.

I'm not real worried about the repair because I figure if it did break you would probably wind up repairing it yourself (I would find a repair facility and learn how to take it apart and put it back together and buy several maintenance and repair parts kits.)

In the case of the Hub, the shoulder deflate was stuck open and had to go in for repairs since the individual did not know how to repair it himself, cost $350. Where as if that had happened on a regular BC the repair would have been 15 minutes and a $3 peice of rubber seal. He couldn't go diving while it was down obviously, if it had been two seperate peices he could have gone diving for the price of a rental BC or borrowing one from a friend.

2divers.

[Moby Dick]

Thanks, good points.

Not owning my own gear I had not given much thought to maintennace issues.

MD