Aqualung

Aqualung Axiom i3+ Women's BCD

Women's-specific cut of the Axiom jacket BCD with Aqualung's lever-operated i3+ inflate/deflate system in place of a conventional power inflator.

Aqualung Axiom i3+ Women's BCD
3.5Comparison Score
$899
Buy on Amazon
Released2024
Stylejacket
Weight-integratedYes
Lift capacity35 lbs
Backplatenone
D-rings6
Trim pocketsYes
Material420 Denier Nylon
Travel-friendlyNo
Dry weight—
Fitwomens
Sizes2XS–M/L

"Lift capacity" is the manufacturer-rated buoyancy the wing/bladder can provide at the surface. Match it to your exposure suit, tank, and weighting, not the biggest number available.

Pros
  • i3+ side lever adds or dumps air with a single motion instead of a separate inflate/deflate hose
  • Scalloped sides and a shortened torso length are cut specifically for a women's fit, shared with the standard women's Axiom
  • Wrapture harness, GripLock tank band, and SureLock II weight release carry over from Aqualung's men's Axiom lineup
Cons
  • Costs $70 more than the standard women's Axiom for the i3+ mechanism alone
  • Aqualung's own spec sheet reuses the men's sizing/lift-capacity table on the women's product page, so exact per-size lift figures for this model aren't confidently verifiable
  • Jacket-style bladder is bulkier than Aqualung's back-inflation or modular lines, and not marketed as travel-friendly
Diver community sentiment
Mixed opinions

Diver discussion, largely on Scubaboard under the shared Axiom/Dimension i3 platform the women's version uses, is split. Longtime owners praise the i3 lever as intuitive, liking being able to vent from any body position since all dump valves open simultaneously, and report hundreds of dives without failure; the Wrapture harness is repeatedly called very comfortable once sized correctly. Recurring complaints are mechanical: the lever getting bumped or snagged on crowded boats causing unwanted inflation/deflation, and at least one report of the actuator conduit kinking in storage, causing a valve to stick open.

Scubaboard: i3 inflator mechanism discussionScubaboard: Axiom i3 vs standard AxiomScubaboard: women's BCD comparison thread

Summarized from public forum discussion (Scubaboard, Reddit, and similar), not a survey we ran ourselves. See the linked threads for the original conversations.

The Aqualung Axiom i3+ Women’s pairs the women’s-specific Axiom cut, shortened through the torso with scalloped hip panels, with Aqualung’s i3+ lever inflator in place of a standard power-inflator hose. It shares the Wrapture harness, GripLock tank band, SureLock II weight system, and bladder retraction system with the rest of the Axiom line, and comes in sizes from 2XS to M/L.