 |
 |
| EXTRA |
HEAD to HEAD:
TUSA Platina Evolution V BEUCHAT Masterlift Air Plus
Pitched to crack the British market, here are two similarly priced products with very different characteristics - in the red corner a BC from the Orient, in the blue corner a French design. Which is the heavyweight?
Both TabataUSA (TUSA) and Beuchat are well-known brands worldwide but until comparatively recently had enjoyed little exposure before the British diving public. So we took a standard BC from each company and compared them.
The TUSA Platina Evolution is made in Taiwan, while the Beuchat Masterlift Air Plus comes from France. Confusingly, Beuchat also make a BC called the Evolution.
FIT
I found the BC from TUSA a snug fit and relatively easy to get into, considering that it employs a harness threaded through a hard backpack within the main jacket.
The cummerbund was easily adjusted for length before use, and I was able to customise it quickly to fit me perfectly. There is the usual over-strap and buckle for this, and a sternum strap too.
The cummerbund of the Beuchat is simply elasticated to make it fit, and its overlying belt and buckle also has a degree of elastication. Done up tight before a dive, this compensates for suit shrinkage caused by pressure at depth.
A sternum strap with a pinch-clip stops the shoulder straps slipping off the wearer. There is also a small zipped pocket suitable for your car key, provided you dry it off before you stick it back in the ignition! A hard backpack concealed behind a softer cushion completes the picture of a very conventional design.
INTEGRATED WEIGHTS
Lead is easily stashed in the integrated-weight pouches of the TUSA, which are securely fastened in place using a system of overlapping velcro-covered flaps.
|
| WEIGHT RELEASES: Velcro flaps on the TUSA, webbing on the Beuchat |
These are augmented by trim-weight pouches at the back, which come in useful when using a floaty aluminium cylinder. I used a 15 litre steel cylinder, so needed only 4kg of lead with a 5mm full wetsuit.
The Beuchat's integrated weight pockets are themselves large enough to hold 5kg each, and are closed by velcro. Unusually, they are retained within the integrated weight system, not by more velcro but by a length of webbing, which is passed through a half-slot and back on itself after a flap with a female half has been folded back to cover it.
|
| TRIM WEIGHTS: In pocket on the TUSA, none on the Beuchat but massive buoyancy |
Large toggles give immediate access if you need to remove the weights quickly. So secure do the manufacturers believe this to be that the weight-pockets are confidently angled downwards. It works.
POCKETS & D-RINGS
The pair of pockets on the TUSA looked a little small, but they proved more than adequate for items such as a sausage buoy, small torch and my reef hook, which I was also able to deploy easily when necessary.
The pair of stainless-steel D-rings either side were diminutive but proved strong enough to take the load in sometimes quite fierce flows of water, depending on which side I chose to clip on.
Two similarly small D-rings are positioned along the BC's front bottom edge, with two regular-sized D-rings at the shoulders.
More for function than flair, the Beuchat has D-rings of heavy-gauge stainless steel and large pockets with heavy-duty zips.
DUMP VALVES
Beuchat's beefy D-rings and
chunky dump toggle |
I was diving in an area of exceptionally strong currents. This meant getting into my kit quite smartly, and being able to dump any air remaining from the last surface wait equally speedily, so that I would get down quickly and not miss the dive-site.
With the TUSA, dumping air was usually done by pulling on the corrugated hose to activate the valve at that shoulder. As I usually hold my camera in my left hand, it would have been more convenient to have pulled on the right shoulder dump, but the toggle of this BC was so mini-sized that I was rarely able to find it when I wanted it.
If I owned an Evolution, it would be no big deal to replace this toggle with a bigger one. The valve it operated also looked rather petite.
Although the TUSA is a well-made product that does its job well, the key feature of the Beuchat is that it is appropriately massive in every way.
There are no mini-sized dump-valve fittings or toggles here. Everything is chunky and purposeful, and that includes the dump valve integrated with the direct-feed corrugated hose, the right shoulder dump and the lower-back dump valves.
Similarly, the direct-feed control of the TUSA looked jolly nice but was almost impossible to fill by mouth because the mouthpiece, unlike that of the Beuchat, had been almost completely designed out. Why should you need to fill by mouth? If you are at the surface and your air supply has been totally drained. That's all I'm saying!
BUOYANCY
At the surface there was so much lift with the TUSA, even with a large steel tank, that when fully inflating it I felt I was almost being hoisted out of the water.
So what is the unique selling proposition of the Beuchat? A massive buoyancy cell that concertinas in two parts and gives almost as much lift as the largest wing-style BC. This will accommodate the needs of the diver who uses a heavy steel tank but also adds a few extra kilos of lead to his weightbelt - "just to be sure".
CAMBANDS
TUSA comfort band adjustment
and dump toggle |
A novel feature of the TUSA is the tank "comfort band". This goes round the neck of the cylinder, and by pulling down on small D-rings, not unlike the larger ones on the loose ends of the shoulder straps, you can stop the tank pulling away from you when you are still at the surface and kitted-up to dive.
This band did make strolling on deck while waiting to dive quite comfortable, despite the size of my tank. Alas, the single tank camband was positioned very high up the BC, so I always had it strapped to the highest part of the straight sides of my tank. It looked rather precarious, but it stayed secure for all 15 very hard dives.
The Beuchat also has a single camband, but with a novel quick-release buckle that enables you to remove it from a tank quickly without unthreading the webbing, even when the demand valve is already fitted.
WHICH IS BETTER?
The Beuchat reflects solid traditional values but it didn't "integrate with my person" nearly as well as the TUSA. I found myself swimming within the Beuchat rather than it becoming part of me. Perhaps I have been dieting on too much fish and rice and could do with a year of fattening up on some good solid stodge.
I'm sure that if the Beuchat suits a red-blooded Frenchman, it will probably do the same for his equally robust cousin on this side of La Manche.
With almost matching recommended retail prices, the TUSA Platina Evolution is all dim sum and green tea and costs £319 (sizes XS-XL), while the Beuchat Masterlift Air Plus is boeuf en croute washed down with a rich red burgundy. It costs £315 in sizes S-XL.
CPS Partnership (TUSA) 01424 442663, www.tusa.demon.co.uk
Polar Bears (Beuchat) 01566 773654, www.polarbears.co.uk
|
