A couple of ?? about my new Halcyon Rig

[Gombessa]

That's a completely rational concern. In class, you'll not only learn what a balanced rig is, but you'll also have beginning and end of dive weighting tests so you'll be able to experience first-hand how a balanced rig feels and how much, if any, ditchable weight you'll need to get to and stay comfortably at the surface. That should help alleviate any anxiety over your weighting concerns.

 

[Scott L]

Despite having a big H on them many view the ACB as being not DIR.

As far as ditching weights the DIR answer is to dive a balanced rig. Loosing you weights and blowing past your stops is a bigger concern than "Pulling the eject handle and hoping for the best".

Jot down these questions and ask your Fundies instructor. I'm sure the concepts of "proper weighting" and "Diving a Balanced Rig" will cover these during the lecture.

I suppose it is due to the fact they have a decidedly Oceanic/Scuba Pro look.

 

[rongoodman]

If you need just a little weight on your harness belt, the small XSScuba weight pockets are cheap and compact. They'll each hold up to a 5# solid weight, and you can dump them individually. They'll also fit on your tank cam bands.

 

[lamont]

In a lot of the reports I have read about diver fatalities, a common thread is that a lot of people don't ditch their weights. I am just having a hard time getting used to the idea of diving with no ditchable weight. My setup came with the ACB system and the adapter weight, so I have either of those as an option. I am going to the pool in the morning to try out the weight belt, the acb, and the trim pockets to see what makes it easiest to stay horizontal.

Its more important to maintain an adequate gas supply (including the ability to share gas with your buddy), in which case ditching weights as a sudden reaction to a crisis becomes much less important.

In all the cases where the divers died "due to not ditching their weights" you'll find that they also failed to maintain adequate gas reserves, didn't know how to / couldn't reach their valves, became buddy separated, couldn't share air, buddy also ran OOG, etc, etc, etc. At the technical diving level all of that becomes unacceptable and ditching weights from a 20 minute / 240 foot dive is just about suicidal unless the boat has a recompression chamber.

 

[MonkSeal]

My main concern is having ditchable weights at the surface. All the diving I have planned is open water, but I'm sure as my skills improve my fear of not having ditchable weight will decrease. Having proper buoyancy and trim are my main goal.

I guess you use wetsuit. In that case you can put weight belt over harness.