Mares Dragon Fly Aria comments

Hi all,

As a novice Advanced Open ( PADI, yeah yeah gotta start somewhere) Diver,
I'm considering the Mares Dragon Fly Wing + Jacket BCD.

Any personal experiences out there ?

It's currently on Clearance at www.leisurepro.com for US$275 and I'm
interested to hear from any one who dves 15- 30 m regularly.

Is there any issue with Nitox and the Bladder ?

Has any one a comment on surface buoyancy

Can any one tell em does it have trim pockets ?

As an alternative we can now get the Triple L Brand (Man Vietnam ) for about
the same price locally.

Looking forward to some advisory comments.

Thanks, keep getting wet !



Sean

"Sean Wong" <Sean__Wong@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:BB49E7B4.1709%Sean__Wong@hotmail.com...
> Hi all,
>
> As a novice Advanced Open ( PADI, yeah yeah gotta start somewhere) Diver,
> I'm considering the Mares Dragon Fly Wing + Jacket BCD.
>
> Any personal experiences out there ?

That thing is horrifying. I'm grateful I have no personal experience with
it.

Why does a BC need to be complicated? Trim pockets? Sigh...

Oh yeah, make sure you O2 clean the bladder before you use it with Nitrox.
Don't want your BC going up in a huge fireball underwater because you
created a spark with the inflator in an O2-rich environment....

Jon

Sean Wong wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> As a novice Advanced Open ( PADI, yeah yeah gotta start somewhere) Diver,
> I'm considering the Mares Dragon Fly Wing + Jacket BCD.
>
> Any personal experiences out there ?
>
> It's currently on Clearance at www.leisurepro.com for US$275 and I'm
> interested to hear from any one who dves 15- 30 m regularly.
>
> Is there any issue with Nitox and the Bladder ?
>
> Has any one a comment on surface buoyancy
>
> Can any one tell em does it have trim pockets ?
>
> As an alternative we can now get the Triple L Brand (Man Vietnam ) for about
> the same price locally.
>
> Looking forward to some advisory comments.
>
> Thanks, keep getting wet !
>
> Sean

See below...............west

http://www.diverforum.co.uk/talkforu...hive/4768.html

Hey Jon C

Thanks for the response, you seem like an intelligent kinda dude.

Share some wisdom then,

Let me know what BC I can get that has rear inflation and pockets that don't
get cramped out when you BC's on the surface.

What sort of BC did you use on this dive ?

http://jonnythan.com/pictures/dutch_.../dscf0025.html
Sean

PS>

WTF is the cleaning of a bladder going to do I never considered Combustion
an issue or that inflators can spark!







On 28/7/2003 12:50 AM, in article LERUa.42368$wk4.166@twister.nyroc.rr.com,
"Jon C" <jon@jonnythan.com> wrote:

> "Sean Wong" <Sean__Wong@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:BB49E7B4.1709%Sean__Wong@hotmail.com...
>> Hi all,
>>
>> As a novice Advanced Open ( PADI, yeah yeah gotta start somewhere) Diver,
>> I'm considering the Mares Dragon Fly Wing + Jacket BCD.
>>
>> Any personal experiences out there ?
>
> That thing is horrifying. I'm grateful I have no personal experience with
> it.
>
> Why does a BC need to be complicated? Trim pockets? Sigh...
>
> Oh yeah, make sure you O2 clean the bladder before you use it with Nitrox.
> Don't want your BC going up in a huge fireball underwater because you
> created a spark with the inflator in an O2-rich environment....
>
> Jon
>
>

Sean are you in Australia ??
if you are and you are thinking about buying in from the USA you will be up
for GST at customs and import duty as well as a large freight bill

Paul
"Sean Wong" <Sean__Wong@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:BB49E7B4.1709%Sean__Wong@hotmail.com...
> Hi all,
>
> As a novice Advanced Open ( PADI, yeah yeah gotta start somewhere) Diver,
> I'm considering the Mares Dragon Fly Wing + Jacket BCD.
>
> Any personal experiences out there ?
>
> It's currently on Clearance at www.leisurepro.com for US$275 and I'm
> interested to hear from any one who dves 15- 30 m regularly.
>
> Is there any issue with Nitox and the Bladder ?
>
> Has any one a comment on surface buoyancy
>
> Can any one tell em does it have trim pockets ?
>
> As an alternative we can now get the Triple L Brand (Man Vietnam ) for
about
> the same price locally.
>
> Looking forward to some advisory comments.
>
> Thanks, keep getting wet !
>
>
>
> Sean
>
>

"Sean Wong" <Sean__Wong@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:BB4CC2C5.18A6%Sean__Wong@hotmail.com...
> Hey Jon C
>
> Thanks for the response, you seem like an intelligent kinda dude.
>
> Share some wisdom then,
>
> Let me know what BC I can get that has rear inflation and pockets that
don't
> get cramped out when you BC's on the surface.
>
> What sort of BC did you use on this dive ?
>
> http://jonnythan.com/pictures/dutch_.../dscf0025.html
> Sean
>
> PS>
>
> WTF is the cleaning of a bladder going to do I never considered Combustion
> an issue or that inflators can spark!

Upon rereading both of your posts, I'm not so sure about something anymore.
I thought you were making fun of me by posting that pic, but.. maybe not?
I'm not sure how to respond, but I'm feeling nice, so..

There is no issue whatsoever involving use of nitrox in BC's. The BC I'm
wearing in that pic is a jacket style Seaquest BC that was basically the
cheapest BC my scuba club could find to outfit for their rental gear. It
goes well with the Sherwood Brut regulators (IE, cheapest they could find).

The BC I'm wearing in the Dutch Springs trips from July is a Halcyon Pioneer
setup, and my primary regulator is on a 5 foot hose. Neato system, you can
find a billion posts on the topic by going to http://groups.google.com and
searching for "wings" or "pioneer" or "dir" within rec.scuba.*

But whatever you do, please trust me that there is no issue with using
Nitrox in any BC, and for your own good don't ever bring up the topic again
:)

Jon

> Yeah I was actually looking at that model
> ( ARIA ) on Leisurepro before I went to my LDS (LP was only
> $274) but I wanted to see the AIRTRIM and try it out have you
> had your any air trim problems apart from the water entry ?
> Mares say the ARIA and the new Airtrim have a new valve
> arrangement (seems odd as aren't they all dump valves similar ?)

Yeah. Well the airtrim is OK, but it sucks for teaching in, because NOBODY
ELSE has them, least of all the students in rental gear :) The airtrim
itself is fine, it's the design of it, getting the water and/or air out of
it is what frustrates me sometimes. The shoulder dump wont get air out of
the top of the back-inflate part, and the back inflate part dump valve wont
get air out of the jacket part.





>
> Sean
>
>
>
> > Mine has the velcro flaps. I was just in the shop actually
> picking up
> > my reg from servicing, and they have a new DragonFly with a
> regular,
> > normal inflator on the shoulder with the corrugated hose.
> That wasn't
> > available when I got mine a year and a bit ago. Bleah :)
> >
> > As far as photography goes, jacket or back inflate is personal
> > preference, but knowing where your balance and fulcrum
> points are with
> > that particular jacket/wings is is more important. :)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >

> >
> >
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >>
> >> Subject: Re: Mares Dragon Fly Aria comments
> >>
> >>
> >> Hey ,
> >> Thanks for the comments,
> >>
> >> I did a test dive with this years model and found the
> Airtrim system
> >> to be great. I didn't have any trouble with water entering but I
> >> struggled a little on the dive until I remembered the
> diagonal "Air
> >> trim pneumatic vents" were on left shoulder and right
> bottom, I was
> >> happy enough to order one on the condition that it came
> with the new
> >> Integrated weight system
> >> (IWS) pocket style Mares are touting " MRS ".
> >>
> >> I want to do some UW Photography so having a jacket style I was
> >> advised can make that a little easier.
> >>
> >> Does your's have the old Velcro IWS ? Wit the threaded
> weights or the
> >> new "normal" IWS ?
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks for your considered response
> >>
> >> Sean
> >>

> >>
> >>> I've got a DragonFly BCD and it's fairly streamlined, it's pretty
> >>> comfortable, and it's stable on my back underwater. It
> looks cool,
> >>> too. that's about where it ends though :)
> >>>
> >>> the AirTrim inflator (as opposed to a more traditional
> >> inflator) sucks
> >>> pretty hard and it's difficult to get all the air out of
> >> it. In doing
> >>> so, you get a lot of water into the bladders.
> >>>
> >>> Conversely, it's hard to get that water back out when
> >> you're cleaning
> >>> and rinsing your kit at the end of the day, unless you inflate it
> >>> first, but then you have the getting-all-the-air-out
> issue all over
> >>> again, or just get frustrated and shove it in your locker
> partially
> >>> inflated like I do, and then have to get all the air out at the
> >>> surface before your next dive.
> >>>
> >>> I love it and I hate it all at the same time. As soon as I
> >> can justify
> >>> it, I'm going to sell it and buy another SeaQuest ProQD
> which I had
> >>> before. :)
> >>>
> >>> Fortunately, Im in the position where I can buy new gear
> every year
> >>> and sell off my old kit while it's still "fairly new" and
> >> recoup a lot
> >>> of the money.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 10:33:58 GMT, in rec.scuba.equipment
> you wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Hi all,
> >>>>
> >>>> As a novice Advanced Open ( PADI, yeah yeah gotta start
> >> somewhere)
> >>>> Diver, I'm considering the Mares Dragon Fly Wing + Jacket BCD.
> >>>>
> >>>> Any personal experiences out there ?
> >>>>
> >>>> It's currently on Clearance at www.leisurepro.com for
> >> US$275 and I'm
> >>>> interested to hear from any one who dves 15- 30 m regularly.
> >>>>
> >>>> Is there any issue with Nitox and the Bladder ?
> >>>>
> >>>> Has any one a comment on surface buoyancy
> >>>>
> >>>> Can any one tell em does it have trim pockets ?
> >>>>
> >>>> As an alternative we can now get the Triple L Brand (Man
> Vietnam )
> >>>> for about the same price locally.
> >>>>
> >>>> Looking forward to some advisory comments.
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks, keep getting wet !
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Sean
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>


On 30/7/2003 12:33 AM, in article BB4CC2C5.18A6%Sean__Wong@hotmail.com,
"Sean Wong" <Sean__Wong@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hey Jon C
>
> Thanks for the response, you seem like an intelligent kinda dude.
>
> Share some wisdom then,
>
> Let me know what BC I can get that has rear inflation and pockets that don't
> get cramped out when you BC's on the surface.
>
> What sort of BC did you use on this dive ?
>
> http://jonnythan.com/pictures/dutch_.../dscf0025.html
> Sean
>
> PS>
>
> WTF is the cleaning of a bladder going to do I never considered Combustion
> an issue or that inflators can spark!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 28/7/2003 12:50 AM, in article LERUa.42368$wk4.166@twister.nyroc.rr.com,
> "Jon C" <jon@jonnythan.com> wrote:
>
>> "Sean Wong" <Sean__Wong@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:BB49E7B4.1709%Sean__Wong@hotmail.com...
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> As a novice Advanced Open ( PADI, yeah yeah gotta start somewhere) Diver,
>>> I'm considering the Mares Dragon Fly Wing + Jacket BCD.
>>>
>>> Any personal experiences out there ?
>>
>> That thing is horrifying. I'm grateful I have no personal experience with
>> it.
>>
>> Why does a BC need to be complicated? Trim pockets? Sigh...
>>
>> Oh yeah, make sure you O2 clean the bladder before you use it with Nitrox.
>> Don't want your BC going up in a huge fireball underwater because you
>> created a spark with the inflator in an O2-rich environment....
>>
>> Jon
>>
>>
>