REVIEWS

• Back To Reviews

God bless the Italians lol

Tigullio T52 Hover BCD
Available in S, M, L and XL, the Tigullio T52 Hover costs £365.
Beaver Sports 01484 512354, www.beaversports.co.uk

Plus Points
+ For those who want both a wing and a conventional BC
+ Sensible weights set-up
+ Buoyancy where it’s wanted
+ Looks good

Being one of those divers that not only want my kit to fit well, be comfortable and practical! But I also want to look good as well lol

I have to thank our Italian brothers at Tigullio for coming up with there fantastic T52 Hover BCD! Guys You ticked all the Boxes lol

This bit of kit has loads of cleaver features, is well made and has Italian style to boot! lol

After having dived in this for nearly 10 dives now I find its gives me great control during my dives! But like every piece of kit its not perfect lol In my opinion it has only 2 draw backs in its design. The first is that the dump valve toggles are a bit on the difficult side to locate! This is mainly due to the fact that they are grey and should be made out of a higher viz martial! The second is that the pockets are slightly on the small side and can be difficult to access! Appart from that its a trully great piece of kit!

Here’s a review from the Divernet magazine

BCTigullio T52 Hover
Sometimes I see a bit of kit that I can’t wait to get my hands on. The Tigullio Hover BC is one such item. Why?
I am often sent BCs for testing, and it is often only the fine detail that separates one design from another. When it comes to using and writing about kit, it’s very much easier when you can deal in broad brush-strokes, even though the detail is equally important. The Tigullio T52 Hover is designed in Italy and, like many Italian products, it is full of innovative ideas.
To begin with, it looks unlike any other BC. Is it a wing? Is it a plain BC? No, it’s what its manufacturer calls a ‘Sequential Buoyancy System’!
It has a double-bag arrangement constrained within abrasion-proof mesh and sturdy elastic bands. This stops it flapping under water and during horizontal swimming. Fill the wing fully and the air overflows into a second compartment, to bring peace of mind to those with misgivings about the buoyancy and attitude provided by a wing at the surface.
The front is a conventional waistcoat design, so the diver can be supported low around the hips, putting him high and vertical in the water when he needs to be.
The Tigullio T52 Hover is clearly aimed at single-tank users, because it comes with one camband. Single tanks are often made of aluminium, but that floating feeling towards the end of the dive is mitigated by trim-weight pockets at the back of the conventional part of the jacket.
Integrated-weight pockets, secured by slabs of Velcro, are an optional extra, on either side at the front. This is where I see improvements being made in the future. Many other BC manufacturers are now adopting ways of making integrated weights more secure, with quick-release buckles and the like.
Otherwise, the T52 lacks for nothing. It has an industry-standard pull-dump at the left shoulder operated by the corrugated hose, and another at the opposite shoulder, threaded through to a toggle over the right breast. There is a dump valve at the lower part of the wing and yet another, operated by a toggle threaded through to the front of the BC, to the lower part of the waistcoat section.
There is a cummerbund with 30mm strap and buckle over, and a sternum strap through which I would tuck the corrugated hose. I hate dangly bits and there’s no need to do any hose-raising to jettison air with this BC.
Two big stainless-steel D-rings are provided for those who like the dangles. There are smaller ones, too. The two side pockets are capacious and have opposing zips, and everything is well constructed in a mixture of denier 1000 and 840 cloth.
With a single tank, this BC delivered everything it promised. I tried it with the co-operation of Emperor Divers in Hurghada. In the salty but coldish northern Red Sea in December, I was using a lot of rubber to keep warm so needed 12kg of lead. With 4kg in the trim-weight pockets and 8kg in the front integrated-weight pockets, I never noticed the load when out of the water and was exceptionally comfortable in it.
The buoyancy was always where I wanted it. The T52 Hover dumped air without me having to consider my attitude in the water, and gave masses of surface buoyancy to hold me comfortably upright when required. The pockets were easily accessed but the contents stayed secure behind the double zips. And the whole thing looked good.
When it came to returning the weights to the boat’s lead-locker, I was able to drop them from the trim-weight pockets easily, though it was a bit more difficult emptying the integrated-weight system. The only point I would make is that, as the buoyancy chamber is so complex, any water that gets into the BC needs to be drained via the dumps from both the wing and the waistcoat section.
If this product is so good, why haven’t we heard of Tigullio? It’s the company’s 50th year but I guess it was so occupied with its home market that it didn’t realise that divers lived in our northern island nation. Now it has a UK distributor.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

Stay up to date with all the latest news and offers from Fish 4 Divers.