ANOTHER BP/W thread!--Weight belts?

[Jaeger45]

Okay, so I'm fairly new to the BP/W and long hose configuration. I trained diving doubles, and needed no additional weight to dive. However, for some of my local diving, I've switched to diving a single HP 100, which, with my drysuit, requires a bit of weight.

The trouble I've noticed is that when I put a weight belt on, the crotch strap interferes with the weight belt and vice versa. It's hard to adequately tighten the weight belt for good fit, and when tightened, it puts tension on the crotch strap, which interferes with freedom of movement at the waist (and chafes a bit!).

This can be remedied by putting the weight belt under the crotch strap, but this sort of defeats the purpse of easily ditchable weight, although I suppose its not much worse than diving with a BP and doubles with no ditchable weight.

Any thoughts?

 

[Brandon]

Weight belt goes under the crotch strap and harness when diving a BP/W. It's not that hard to ditch if you had to...

-B

 

[Tortuga68]

Some people put it under at the front and over at the back (or vice versa) - best of both worlds, you won't lose it if it slips and it's easy to ditch

Or you could get some pockets and get rid of it altogether

 

[Blue Sparkle]

Some people put it under at the front and over at the back (or vice versa) - best of both worlds...

Thanks for that idea, Tortuga.

I started out with it under (always had this nagging worry about the rental plastic buckle coming undone and putting it under the crotch strap and made that seem less likely), but then when I would go to take it off in the water it would get hung up on the back part of the crotch strap (because.... a block of weight on each side). So then I went to wearing it over but was not totally happy with that either. For some reason the over/under combination didn't occur to me

I'll be trying that out next time.

 

[TSandM]

I think there has been, on prior threads, a consensus that if you have redundant buoyancy, diving with the weight belt under the harness is fine. If you don't, you may need or want to have the weight more readily ditchable, and then you have to fuss with getting the weight belt outside of the harness.

I don't dive wet except in very warm water, so when I don't have redundant buoyancy, I also carry very little weight at all.

 

[formula1mb@aol.com]

You can also use weight pockets on the belt, this way even with the weight belt under the harness the pockets are always accessible. XS scuba has these reasonably priced pockets, can hold 5 pounds each and slides onto any belt:

XS Scuba Quick Release Single Weight Pocket WB101QR with reviews at scuba.com

 

[Bonairetrip]

Diving dry, I would pick one of three alternatives:
a) Under the crotch strap;
b) Add weight to the plate (i.e., DSS has some bolt on weights);
c) Use something like a DUI weight & Trim Classic.

I picked C and could not be more pleased.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

I normally use a DUI harness with a BP/Wing. It goes under the crotch strap and allows weight release without removal. More importantly, it can be moved up or down along your torso while diving to adjust your horizontal trim to be exactly correct.

 

[spectrum]

When diving dry I use DUI W&T and the crotch strap loops around the BP&W harness waist strap.

When I dive wet I loop the crotch strap around the tail side of the weight belt. This way if the belt needs to be released the crotch strap slides off of the weight belt webbing and can be readily ditched.

Pete

 

[spectrum]

When diving dry I use DUI W&T and the crotch strap loops around the BP&W harness waist strap.

When I dive wet I loop the crotch strap around the tail side of the weight belt. This way if the belt needs to be released the crotch strap slides off of the weight belt webbing and can be readily ditched.

Pete