Basic skills in a hogarthian rig

[japan-diver]

This is the DIR forum right?

 

[Tortuga68]

Fair point

Thought I'd read something about DIR weight belt placement being different for diving dry and wet though

 

[JeffG]

With a properly balanced rig ditchable weight is not something needed

Really?

 

[JeffG]

Fair point

Thought I'd read something about DIR weight belt placement being different for diving dry and wet though

george did write some stuff about Dry = Under and Wet = over. This had to do with how much weight you needed vs how much buoyancy is lost at depth by your exposure protection.

With a small wetsuit, my weightbelt is minimal, so I put it under my harness. I never wear a thick wetsuit becuase they suck for so many reasons.

 

[Tortuga68]

Thanks Jeff

I recall I also read somewhere about people wearing their weightbelts under their drysuit (ie over their undergarment), and also about an over/under (front/back of crotch strap) configuration, but that may well have not been a DIR thing

I'm not a DIR diver and I only dive wet & don't use a weightbelt - I use an ACB and/or cam band pockets on my singles wing when required - but I'm curious just the same

Did a search but couldn't find a concise answer on the DIR perspective

Another thread hijacked I guess

 

[JeffG]

Did a search but couldn't find a concise answer on the DIR perspective

The quick answer is that if you are using a think wetsuit, at the start of the dive you are negative the amount of the weight of gas you are carrying plus the amount of buoyancy lost on your wetsuit.

That weight may be more than a diver could swim up.

If that is the case then the diver has to be ready to removed the weight belt so he/she can make it back to the surface.

So you would have the weight belt outside the harness.

A drysuit doesn't have this issue because its buoyancy is ~constant throught the water colum.

 

[japan-diver]

The DIR answer as stated is that with a balanced rig you could swim it to the surface if you had a buoyancy failure. A DIR practitioner would not dive a wetsuit so deep that they would be caught in a situation where it lost all its buoyancy if in a dry suit the wing and dry suit failing at the same time would almost be an unheard of happening. (and then deploying a lift bag would be a better solution allowing you to still control you buoyancy at decompression stops during ascent) During decompression diving the loss of a weight belt would be a more likely and serious problem than loss of wing/dry suit buoyancy in most cases so it is worn under the crotch strap.
Because a weightbelt is under the crotch strap does not make it non-ditchable if needed. Also if a diver would have to drop weight in most cases they would not need to drop all their weight but only a small amount - when diving dry I wear a weight belt and could easily unbuckle the belt and slide a weight off the belt if needed without removing it all the way.
Where to put your weights is up to you but if you weigh the risks and probabilities of the various scenarios happening- accidental loss of a weightbelt is a greater problem with a much higher possibility of happening than loss of buoyancy requiring ditching weight - especially if you start with a balanced rig.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

Here's a nice video of gear removal and replacement while in good trim: YouTube - Equipment removal midwater - Discovery Divers Tokyo

Issues with snorkels can avoided by not wearing one.