BP/W setup. Weight belts or weight pockets?

[Nemrod]

Hi Folks,

I got to dive with my new BP/W setup last weekend and like it a lot.
(Previous BC was Seaquest, Balance.)
I dove with two 5 lb weights on a weight belt situated at my sides. The set-up I test dove a month ago used soft weight pockets on the belt. Ditching weight was done by lifting up on the Velcro flap and pushing out weight from the bottom.
Overall, the shoulder straps and crotch strap can be tightened a little more next time.

Do most BP/W users prefer weight belts like I have it or weight pockets?
If pockets, where do you prefer to mount them?

Thanks,
T

All but a few bp/wing divers use a weight belt. I do have one of my several rigs, specifically my warm water rig, set up to use two XS quick release weight pockets, WB101QR, maximum 5 pounds each. I pull up on the tab and the weights go out the bottom, not the top. They are mounted on the harness waist belt. Which is very crowded on my 30 inch waist to get everything there.

I have used Dive Rite "small QR pouches," 15 pounds each total, on my medium rig but have since gone back to a belt. It simply is not really practical, room and space, as well not desirable as in the event of a doff and don, to dive weight integrated, especially with a wing/bp when in all but the lightest exposure gear. The resulting difference in buoyancy between the diver and the rig is very difficult to handle in such a situation. Regardless, I do distribute some weight to cam band pouches, four, maybe six pounds max depending upon the exposure gear requirements.

N

 

[buddhasummer]

I use a weight belt. I'm small and don't really have the room on my waist harness for pockets. I do use cam band pockets to take some of the lead off my belt. In a wetsuit I require no additional lead. In a drysuit I require a lot. 4KG on a weight belt is about the max my back can take.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I think integrated weights are one of the worst evolutions in gear development. It was designed solely for comfort without any thought to it's drawbacks.
There was just a thread about doing doff and don skills underwater with an IW rig and the complaint was that the rig went down and the person went up when the two were separated.
I like weight belts with hard weights worn under the crotch strap. Put on your belt then put on your rig.
If you accidentally lose your belt it will be caught by the crotch strap. If you really want the belt gone there are two things you need to do, pull the harness waist strap then the belt buckle. Some do right hand pull on each and some do left for harness and right for weight belt. I do right for both to keep one hand free.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I think integrated weights are one of the worst evolutions in gear development. It was designed solely for comfort without any thought to it's drawbacks.
There was just a thread about doing doff and don skills underwater with an IW rig and the complaint was that the rig went down and the person went up when the two were separated.
I like weight belts with hard weights worn under the crotch strap. Put on your belt then put on your rig.
If you accidentally lose your belt it will be caught by the crotch strap. If you really want the belt gone there are two things you need to do, pull the harness waist strap then the belt buckle. Some do right hand pull on each and some do left for harness and right for weight belt. I do right for both to keep one hand free.

Pretty much exactly what I do.

I very seldom wear a weight belt. I'm a bit dense (ya I know ) and I don't get cold very easily so my suits are not very buoyant.

When I do need ballast beyond what my plate, harness, reg, and empty tank provide I use a belt. I wear it under my harness. Deco divers tend to have a different view of ballast and the risks associated with inadvertent loss of ballast.


Tobin

 

[walkonmars]

Thanks for the inputs,
I'm beginning to wonder how the jacket BC became so popular in the first place?
I'm guessing a combination of things including it was a time when the industry left the horse collar and back inflate BC jacket attempts? It was a simple set-up to crawl into without much adjusting or thinking. Just choose one of 5 sizes (XS, S, M, Lg, Xlg) and it will work adequately well. Actually, for teaching classes it is the best tool for instructors. Less worry about fitting the students.
Also, the magazines and advertisers pushed the format hard and rated them against each other and never to a BP/W set-up.
The reading public would not be happy to not see articles showing the latest gear. Editors may have discouraged an author to print ..."XYZ BC was a clear winner with some great features and comfort but I still like my backpack wing as a standard set-up."

 

[RJP]

Thanks for the inputs,
I'm beginning to wonder how the jacket BC became so popular in the first place?
Actually, for teaching classes it is the best tool for instructors. Less worry about fitting the students.

If you think that through for just a minute...

As an instructor I can get by with four BP/W systems, which will fit any four students I might have. And as they are infinitely adjustable they will fit them perfectly. With jacket style I'd need 16-20 jackets in order to ensure I could accommodate any four random students. And the jacket style would still not fit many of them perfectly. (Never mind the fact that BP/W is just a better, more balanced, more stable platform for new divers.)

 

[halocline]

If you truly need 10 lbs and you don't want a weight belt, you can get 4 camband pockets (I use the xsscuba ones) put 2 on the waist belt, and one on each camband. Start with 3lb weights in the waist belt pockets and 2lb weights in the camband pockets. If you're head-heavy, go to 4lbs in the waist belt pockets and a single 2 lb weight on the lower camband.

You have roughly 16 lbs of total ballast (10lbs lead and 6lbs plate) and that's just about getting to the point where it's really better to have it split up between your rig and your body; that means a belt. But that's an opinion, not a hard fact. It will definitely make your life easier if you ever have to remove your rig at depth. Sometimes it is convenient to be able to do that; maybe to tighten a camband or remove an annoying piece of seaweed.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The jacket was just an attemp at convenience and appeal, and it stuck.
In the late 70's early 80's scuba was being heavily marketed to a whole new group along with a new easier way of learning To dive, so the advent of the jacket just fit right in with the mentality of the times.
And of course all the colors were available and could actually be used with all that extra fabric. So they also became a fashion statement.
The BP/W didn't actually come back in to vogue until the 90's thanks to DIR, although in a slightly different form than a backpack but still similar in concept. But interestingly most dive shops I see still refuse to acknowledge that a BP/W is a solid trend and here to stay. Unfortunately there is a lot of political controversy surrounding the BP/W because of DIR and the whole aura of that system including BP/W still has a stigma to many dive shops that believe the two go hand in hand - not true.
When I got into diving and for a while afterward a jacket or some version of back inflate was all you could get.

 

[seaseadee]

Ideally, you want to have weight on yourself (ie, weight belt), such that if you with this weight will be neutral of slightly positive.

I have a question about this statement. At what point in the dive should you be neutral or slightly positive? At the beginning or at the end? (Assuming no air in the wing)

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I have a question about this statement. At what point in the dive should you be neutral or slightly positive? At the beginning or at the end? (Assuming no air in the wing)

I use a steel tank and a 5 lb plate. All the rest goes on a belt, depending on the tank from 10 to 20 lbs.
I wear a 7 mm 2 piece full suit with hood, booties, and gloves.
At least I know with weight on me to balance things out it wouldn't be a rodeo clown act desperately trying to hang on to a sinking rig.