If you’re properly weighted, it is as suitable for coldwater diving in thick dive-suits as it is for diving in the tropics in a skin. It will more than satisfy the wants of many recreational divers. Read more...

The Liberator is a very nice BC for single-tank diving. It meets the needs of lift, comfort, stability, safety and ease of use like a trooper. Read more...

X-Deep Stealth 2.0 Rec is a grand piece of kit, and if you’ve never dived sidemount it does indeed offer everything you need. Read more...

If you want a wing with dual bladders and high volume, you won’t regret buying the Scubapro X-Tek Pro System Extreme. Read more...

The X-Deep Ghost is a minimalist wing-style BC built around an aluminium skeleton backplate and intended to hold a single cylinder. Read more...

OMS has been making highly thought-of wings for a good while. Read more...

US maker Atomic has positioned itself unashamedly at the top end of the market, with pricing to match. It doesn’t do budget Read more...

The Mares Prime Upgradeable is a low-cost BC from the eponymous Italian company founded by Ludovico Mares in 1949 Read more...

Scubapro was one of the innovators that popularised the stabiliser or jacket-style BC in the late 1970s that eventually displaced the horse-collar Read more...

My first BC was a buddy commando profile. I dived with it for years, home and abroad, and then bought a wing and retired Read more...