Cressi Scuba Diving Back-Inflation BCD - Comfortable as a Backpack - Vertical Weight Pocket System - High-Volume Pockets - Scorpion: designed in Italy

The Cressi diving back inflation Scorpion BCD has a doughnut-styled bladder. It has a small corrugated inflator hose that's too long for my wife and I, who are using tanks that are shorter than an aluminum 80 by about 6 inches. The BCD fits me well. My wife and I like the lack of velcro in the waist belt, but I find that the quick-adjustments on the belt loosen too easily, and have to be tightened after each donning.The pockets are great, with large, relatively easy-to-open zippers. Larger zipper pulls would make them easier to open. The pockets are not designed to hold weights, but as I only use 6 pounds of weights (3 per pocket), and am so neutral, that I don't care about the non-ditchability of the weights. For travel, when we use different tanks that require more weights, we switch over to the weight pockets. These pockets are mounted vertically, which is ideal for ditching, but makes them hard to install on a BCD that's vertically oriented, such as one mounted on a tank. I found that the only easy way to snap in the weight pockets is to lay the tank/bcd on its side, and the pockets can be installed easily. I've used this BCD with a dry suit and a lot of weight, and have had no problems with accidental weight loss.Overall, this BCD is simple, with almost enough D-rings. It doesn't have a really good knife mounting location that I've found. The red tank valve strap has a snap closure, which I've found necessary to use when mounting the tank. For this version of the Scorpion, they've expanded the Velcro coverage on the tank band, so the strap is held better in place that with the original version (although, IMHO, it could still use some work).The BCD traps air/water in the bladder, and is a bit on the difficult side to vent. I found that remaining vertical in the water column and using the right hand shoulder dump remote pull cord works the best. The lower dump valve is exceptionally hard to use, and is no good, IMHO, when you need to dump air quickly. The inflator valve is a bit difficult to use also, as both your left shoulder and the valve need to be precisely aligned to make it work efficiently. The tank band and BCD control the tank well. With no weight trim pockets, I felt more stress on my lower back than I prefer.Overall, if you don't use a ton of weight, don't need trim pockets, and want a good recreational BCD that isn't too heavy, and dries quickly, then give the Scorpion a go. It's a good value!