Do you care about ditchable weights?

[beester]

As already stated it depends on your setup, and where and how you dive. If you do deeper dives, with a heavy set, using a thick wetsuit (double 7mm), then ditchable weight will be very necessary, because at the heaviest (beginning of the dive at the deepest part) you probably won't be able to swim this weight up.

If you dive in the tropics with a alu single tank, you probably don't need any ditchable weight because you're not taking much weight down with you (me typically about 3kg/6lbs)

I dive a "balanced rig", meaning a rig I can swim up when it's the heaviest and can keep down when it's the lightest. So in all normal situations the only variance will be the weight of the gas I'm breathing. This difference in weight is most of the time manageable between beginning and end of the dive.

However having said that... I do dive a small weight belt (2KG/4lbs) to dump. It's not as easy to dump as my previous dumpable weight (battery pack), because it's below my crotch strap of the BP/Wing but I'm sure I'll be able to dump it if necessary.

So it all depends.

 

[Storker]

I regularly doff my weights and hand them to the boat tender before climbing aboard. Makes it a bit easier to board a small private boat with a narrow boat ladder. Hard to do that without ditchable weights.

I also realize that anyone - me included - can end up in a sticky situation if Murphy is on board, and having the option of ditching some of my lead to float higher - particularly if that sticky situation includes a bit of a chop - seems like a Pretty Good Idea™ to me.

Whether or not I can be called "experienced" is for someone else to determine.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I just got back from my LDS and had an interesting discussion about weight systems.

Essentially, I was told that an 'experienced' diver (whoever classifies as such) does not need and/or use ditchable weights.

I personally never had to ditch weights but do like the idea of being able to do so in case of an emergency.

My current setup allows to ditch though not in one motion - I would have to open velcro, reach around things and funnel the weights out.

Now I'm wondering who really cares about ditchable weights or at least the ease of ditching them?

At the risk of re-stating what others already have said ...

If a diver, given whatever gear configuration and exposure protection he's diving in, determines that he is not so overweighted that he cannot swim from the deepest point in his dive plan to the surface in the event of a total loss of buoyancy compensation, then he MAY decide not to have any lead that is readily jettisoned or "ditchable." However, one reason that is frequently given as to why a diver MAY nonetheless prefer to have at least some lead in ditchable form is so that, once he reaches the surface, he can ditch weight to make himself significantly buoyant and thus better able to deal with the situation without concern of going under again. For example, the diver may be feeling faint.

In some combinations of gear configuration and exposure protection, it may be essentially impossible to be able to swim to the surface in the event of a total loss of buoyancy compensation without ditching some weight.

 

[Steve_C]

And
- If you have cramps or other physical issue swimming it up may be difficult.
-If you loose a fin (I rescued a sinking fin a month ago from an experienced diver who lost it as he approached the boat.)

 

[dmaziuk]

If I need weights -- and I usually do -- I prefer them ditchable.