Is quick release important?

[Thalassamania]

You would be very wrong to assume you could control an ascent in this situation. 10lbs positive at depth very quickly becomes far more buoyant as you ascend. Even 5 lbs would be problematic for most divers.

5 lbs is in the range of the smallest lungs I’ve ever seen on an adult diver.

Personally, I've never heard of or seen a weight belt coming off unexpectedly. (I'm sure it happens, but it's probably pretty rare)

I’ve had it happen exactly once.

IMO, there are other ways of ensuring safety at the surface; first among them is to never be overweighted in the first place. Sure, that's not the entire answer. (Okay flamers, have fun!)

You need to be “overweighted” to the tune of the weight of your gas and that should be compensated for in your BC.

I'm sure there are lots of divers, especially new divers, really especially new divers with poor skills who need extra weight to initially get down, for whom being able to dump weight AT THE SURFACE is a useful emergency measure.

What they really need is a little relaxation.

But, it certainly does not describe every diver in OW, and it does present the problem of accidentally losing weights at depth. I would venture a guess, and I freely admit this is a guess, that most incidents of DCS in OW single tank diving are caused by rapid ascents and not excessive bottom time.

You’d be wrong. DCS is cause by excessive bottom time, you’ve got to be pretty close to the line before speeding up, even to say 180 fpm, will make much of a difference. Now AGE, that’s another story and is ascent rate independent, though its easier to embolize when you rise quickly in the water.

The issue of ditchable vs non ditchable weight is just not so cut and dry as to say "all OW divers must have ditchable weight".

Is anything ever?

 

[Lucy's Diver]

Its what risk you are willing to live with. In scuba, the gear is generally designed to fail in way that gives you air: regs tend to fail in free flow. Bad, but at least there's some air there to breath.
With easy to ditch weights, the failure sends you up. There's air up there, even in a chamber.
If you are wearing lead you can't ditch, any bouyancy gear failure will send you down. You'll skip the chamber ride, but you'll die.
People are also missing (or intentionally ignoring) the rescue issue. If you, perfect diver whose gear never fails and who never panics, needs to be rescued, your rescuer is going to look to ditch your weights. The inability to do so may well kill you.

 

[Karibelle]

Personally, I've never heard of or seen a weight belt coming off unexpectedly. (I'm sure it happens, but it's probably pretty rare) It's the accidental deployment of integrated weights that I would be concerned about. In particular, weights secured by velcro seem to be vulnerable to falling out; that one I've seen a few times.

It's more common that you'd think, I think. Consider a diver in cold water with a wetsuit, not a dry suit, that is 7 mm. He puts his weights all on a belt, descends horizontal then at depth goes to head up, feet down position... his wetsuit has compressed, he hasn't adjusted his weight belt and as his hips go down, his weight belt falls off his skinny butt...

kari

 

[Mverick]

7 pages of arguments on a topic NOBODY is going to agree on.

From Commercial divers to Technical diver to Newbie divers. NOBODY wants to bullet to the surface. By dropping your weights. Uncontrolled ascents will kill you just as dead as drowning.

Of course commercial divers carry drop weights. I also carry 100lbs of weight to keep me down in current. Ever tried to climb out with that much weight on? It ain't happening.

 

[Thalassamania]

7 pages of arguments on a topic NOBODY is going to agree on.

From Commercial divers to Technical diver to Newbie divers. NOBODY wants to bullet to the surface. By dropping your weights. Uncontrolled ascents will kill you just as dead as drowning.

There is no consensus because (and please excuse my singling you out) folks continue to maintain things that are patently untrue such as: “Uncontrolled ascents will kill you just as dead as drowning.”

 

[taliesin58]

For the pro-ditchable people-

Is my rig ok, even though my weights aren't the typical quick release? (You have to open up the pockets and grab the weight)

 

[Matt S.]

In my opinion, which may not be worth much at 13 dives, ditchable weight must be easily accessed by a rescuer. (I find the argument of supporting a rescuer's efforts to save your butt to be pretty compelling.) So I would say no, a weight pocket that must be located and opened is not adequate, because the rescuer may not have the luxury of time. A quick release buckle in the usual place, or the big colored handles of integrated weights are the way to go.

Just my newbie $0.02.

Side note: In my OW class, my plastic weight belt buckle failed. Luckily I was only in knee-deep water at the time. If it hadn't failed on the beach, it might have failed when I tightened it at depth. So I was sold on SS buckles early on.

 

[Thalassamania]

For the pro-ditchable people-

Is my rig ok, even though my weights aren't the typical quick release? (You have to open up the pockets and grab the weight)

The issue in my mind is not "ditchability" but rather will you be close to neutral if you remove your rig. If not, then you've got a potential problem if an entanglemet such as a fishing net requires that you remove your tank.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I cant see a single situation where ditchable weights would be useful underwater. You have your BCs buoyancy, drysuit buoyancy, SMB as emergency buoyancy and buddy has the same. Thats 6 things that have to fail together to cause a problem.
.

This is almost unbeleivable from a dive instructor. What if you are negative on the bottom, alone and you suddenly lose all your air supply (which could happen via 25 different methods.) Some people might not want to swim the whole way.

What if the diver is overweighted and jumps in with the air off and sinks deep before he realizes what's going on?

What if a diver runs out of air and sinks to the bottom and goes unconcious? A rescue diver might possibly like to drop the victim's lead, especially if the other divers tank is empty and the rescue diver has his BC nearly full at depth just to compensate for his own wetsuit compression

What if a diver jumps in over weighted, starts sinking deep and fast and then realizes his ears are not clearing and then hits the inflator and it is unconnected? I would drop the belt before my eardrums imploded.

My friend almost drowned last year because he was somewhat overweighted, had no ditchable lead and entered the water solo with the tank off. He got one breath from the regulator and there was no more, although he obviously didn't know that until he had exhaled. He continue to sink as he deployed the pony reg, which was also turn off. Now he was pretty deep and pretty heavy and had no way to inflate anything. He powered his way up with large freedive fins, but said that he was seeing stars and almost didn't make it.

I can understand how many people will dive with no ditchable weight in certain situations (as I sometimes do), but to say that you have no idea why a fast dump might be useful in certain situation is hard to imagine.


Also. even if a weight belt is lost at depth, it is not difficult to learn to control a bouyant ascent by flaring out, laying on the back and spreading eagle. Even when I'm 20 lbs bouyant I can control my ascent rate to a reasonable level.

 

[TeddyDiver]

"all OW divers must have ditchable weight".

I missed if someone really said that. So if you please, a quote. Stating smth to be safe isn't a must!