Wings

What a backplate and wing actually gives you

A backplate and wing splits buoyancy into three parts you can change independently: a rigid plate against your back, a harness that carries it, and a wing that inflates behind the cylinder. The gas sits behind you rather than around your waist, which works with a horizontal trim instead of against it.

The practical consequence is that the rig grows with you. A plate and harness bought for single-tank reef diving is still the plate and harness when you move to doubles. You change the wing, not the whole unit, and that is the main reason divers who make the switch rarely go back.

Choosing between the systems we stock

Single-tank recreational

The XDEEP Zeos 28 and Zeos 38 Wing Systems are built around a donut-shaped bladder that spreads gas evenly and vents cleanly whatever position you are in, with the cylinder's centre of gravity lined up against the centre of buoyancy so trim comes naturally. Halcyon reaches the same place by a different route. The Eclipse System keeps an infinitely adjustable harness and lets you pick the plate material; the Infinity System adds the patented Cinch quick-adjust harness and integrated weight pockets. The Evolve System uses Halcyon's circular bladder, which hugs the cylinder and makes fine trim adjustment easier regardless of body position.

Travel and lightweight

If weight in the bag is the constraint, look at the XDEEP Ghost Wing System and the XDEEP Zen Ultralight Wing System. Ghost is the low-drag, ultra-light option. The Zen Ultralight builds on the Zen with a double-shell Cordura wing, so the weight saving does not come out of durability, and it carries the NX series harness and a modular weight system.

Doubles and technical

The XDEEP NX Zen Wing System uses a deliberately narrow bladder to cut drag and reduce entanglement risk, with the inflator repositioned for stability at the surface. Halcyon's Eclipse Pro System brings a carbon fibre Cinch backplate, integrated weight pockets, a quick-adjust crotch strap and a carbon fibre single tank adapter. The Evolve Pro System pairs the circular bladder with the Cinch harness. The Apeks WTX D30 Complete Wing sits alongside them, supplied as a complete wing rather than a bladder on its own.

Sidemount

XDEEP's Stealth 2.0 range comes in three builds. Stealth 2.0 REC is the simplified recreational version, compact, modular, with a central dump valve that is easy to reach. Stealth 2.0 Classic adds more ditchable and non-ditchable weighting options and a double-layer wing whose outer Cordura layer protects the inner bladder in overhead environments. Stealth 2.0 TEC carries a larger wing attached directly to the harness, sized for large steel cylinders, with an adjustable spine weight pouch and a port for a second dump valve.

The hybrid

The Apeks Exotec BCD is the outlier in this collection: an articulated backplate that pivots at the waist to follow your movement, wrapped in a BCD-style package with a height-adjustable plate, flat-folding pockets and a one-handed G-hook chest strap. Worth a look if you want backplate positioning without assembling a separate plate, harness and wing.

Plate material and harness type

Two decisions drive most of how a rig feels. Stainless steel plates put weight high and central on your back and take that weight off your belt. Aluminium and carbon fibre keep the rig light for travel, but you carry the difference as lead elsewhere. Halcyon's Eclipse System is offered in carbon fibre, aluminium or stainless in standard or small sizes; the Infinity System in aluminium or stainless.

On harnesses, continuous webbing has nothing to fail and nothing to fiddle with once it is set to you. Halcyon's Cinch quick-adjust system, available on the Infinity, Eclipse Pro, Evolve and Evolve Pro systems, trades a little of that simplicity for the ability to loosen the rig topside and tighten it in the water. That matters more than it sounds in a drysuit, where your bulk changes with the undersuit.

Fitting, assembly and asking us first

Some systems here ship as a complete package and some are supplied for assembly on purpose. Halcyon's Eclipse System is the clearest example: it requires assembly so you can specify the configuration you want rather than accept a fixed build. Either way, harness webbing has to be set to your body before the first dive, and a plate that is the wrong size for your torso will never quite come right no matter how good the wing is.

If you are coming from a jacket, a single-tank system with integrated weight pockets is usually the sensible first step. If twinset or rebreather diving is where you are heading, buy the plate and harness once and plan the wing around the cylinders you will genuinely carry. Tell us what you dive, where you dive and what you wear, and we will put a configuration together with you.