REVIEW OF THE SCUBAPRO NAVIGATOR LITE BUOYANCY COMPENSATOR FROM A SCUBA SERVICE TECHNICIAN, SSI INSTRUCTOR CERTIFIER
The Navigator Lite was launched in Australia at Scuba Culture back on 1 May 2025 with several people jumping at the offer made on the night. I also took the opportunity of procuring one for myself with the aim of putting it through its paces in Vanuatu.
Firstly, the Navigator Lite has been designed and built as a travel BC. It is a light weight, back inflation, weight integrated recreational system with a harness design similar to the very popular Hydros Pro.
The construction of the BC is rugged, tough with a focus on minimalistic practicality.
Whilst in Vanuatu, I had a 11.8Lt tank as my back gas and carried another 11.8Lt tank of deco gas, this tank was slung on my left hand side clipped off to one of the utility loops on the harness at the top clip and to the webbing D-ring below the weight pocket for the lower clip.
With a bungeed rear inflation air cell with 42lbs of lift capacity, carting around 2 large tanks was a breeze.
The weight pocket design is another area where Scubapro has paid attention to detail, each weight pocket comfortably held up to about 3Kg of weight (6kg in total – not that I needed that much), but more than sufficient to counteract the buoyancy of a Scubapro Sports 5mm steamer.
Other features of the BC are the positioning of the dump valves with one on each shoulder (left hand side cabled through the inside of the corrugated hose), another at the bottom of the bladder on the right hand side and the Scubapro balanced and serviceable power inflator.
The serviceable power inflator is fast becoming a unique and a money saving feature of the Scubapro BC as opposed to many other brands who no longer have a service kit for their inflator systems, many brands require you to purchase a new inflator every time you service your BC, some brands go as far as only making the powerline available (Shoulder assembly through to power inflator) – the range of costs for these is from $88 for an inflator to $267 for a powerline…. The service kit for a Scubapro BC is $28.
The BC has a truckload of adjustability and comes in only 2 sizes, XXS to M and L to XXL but one cool feature that adds to its impressive attributes is the colour covers that can be fitted and interchanged from dive trip to dive trip. In Vanuatu, I used the Blue Camo cover, I think that I’m leaning towards using the White cover on my next dive trip (Palau – October 2025)
All in all, I love the new Navigator Lite, it ticks all the boxes as far as weight is concerned, it packs down to nothing in my luggage, it’s come back from diving wrecks in Vanuatu without a scratch, it outperformed many wing and plate systems as far as lift capacity for a single tank system. The new cinch tank securing strapping system is an absolute stand out feature that allows the diver to readjust the strap based on the width of the tank with minimal fuss and it’s capped off by a cool system that can be personalised based on the colour you want to dive in!
If you’re a travelling diver, you simply can’t go past this BC!
Scubapro Navigator Lite BC. For more information go to: https://scubadiveshop.com.au/products/navigator-lite-travel-bcd?_pos=1&_psq=naviga&_ss=e&_v=1.0&variant=50953549938964
