Question Do you ever practice dropping weights and handling the unexpected ascent?

[Divin'Papaw]

No. I have no need to ditch weights, at depth or otherwise.

 

[dmaziuk]

If you are going to practice it, always make sure to look down first

Up, too.

Though one has to wonder: why? You drop the lead, you'll do a polaris. It's elementary school physics, what's there to "practice"?

 

[rx7diver]

... I remember coming across a wide-eyed diver holding on to the hand rail of a wreck, feet up. He'd lost his weight belt which was on the deck of the wreck. Not sure what his plan was if I hadn't have come along!

When I had just begun diving a drysuit (1993, IIRC), I wore the rubber weight belt (old-school weight belt with a wire buckle) I wore with my two-piece farmer John. On one particular drysuit dive, I was on the surface attempting to reel in my DSMB (a lift bag) that I had sent up from a Mackinaw Straits shipwreck. My wreck line caught my wire buckle and tripped it open, and I lost my belt and my homemade weights. Thereafter I wore a nylon weightbelt with *two* SS buckles whenever I dove my drysuit. You really don't want to accidentally lose your weight belt at depth when you're diving dry!

rx7diver

 

[rongoodman]

If you dive between 3m/10ft and 6m/20ft, you should only have to add a tiny amount of air to your BC to offset the weight of a full cylinder.

Five pounds of air would require about 2 1/2 quarts of air in your BC to offset it.

 

[tursiops]

Five pounds of air would require about 2 1/2 quarts of air in your BC to offset it.

"A pint is a pound, the world around."

 

[Blackcrusader]

A weightbelt with more than 6kg/13lb of lead is a suicide-belt.

I dive in shorts and T shirt almost all of the time. I will stay in shorts but put on my sharksin if water temps less than 22c

I use four 2kg weights on my BCD. 8kg you say?
2kg in each insert and 2kg in each back shoulder pocket. Yeah I am so naturally bouyant lol

Put on a wetsuit I need even more.

 

[MB NZ]

My opinion and nothing else, I perceive the risk of accidental loss of dive weights to be greater than being unable to ditch weights. All of my lead, 4-8kg depending on exposure protection goes in trim pockets on the cambands. It can be taken out on the surface in an emergency (I've actually done this), but is unlikely to go astray underwater.

I would imagine that with recreational gear at least, if you can't swim upwards in wetsuit in the event of a catastrophic loss of BCD buoyancy, then you are seriously over-weighted. In a drysuit, you have two devices that can be used for bouyancy.

Back to loss of weight belts on wrecks. I've heard of people attaching their reel line to a wreck and using it to control their ascent. Not recommended, but it is a possibility if you run out of other options.

 

[Blackcrusader]

My opinion and nothing else, I perceive the risk of accidental loss of dive weights to be greater than being unable to ditch weights. All of my lead, 4-8kg depending on exposure protection goes in trim pockets on the cambands. It can be taken out on the surface in an emergency (I've actually done this), but is unlikely to go astray underwater.

I would imagine that with recreational gear at least, if you can't swim upwards in wetsuit in the event of a catastrophic loss of BCD buoyancy, then you are seriously over-weighted. In a drysuit, you have two devices that can be used for bouyancy.

Back to loss of weight belts on wrecks. I've heard of people attaching their reel line to a wreck and using it to control their ascent. Not recommended, but it is a possibility if you run out of other options.

I had a diver in my group have his whole socket blow off his BCD deeper then 30m. I grabbed by DSMB clipped it to his D ring and brought him to the surface. He didn't have a DSMB but he bought one before his next dive.

 

[Miyaru]

I dive in shorts and T shirt almost all of the time. I will stay in shorts but put on my sharksin if water temps less than 22c

I use four 2kg weights on my BCD. 8kg you say?
2kg in each insert and 2kg in each back shoulder pocket. Yeah I am so naturally bouyant lol

Put on a wetsuit I need even more.

I didnt say 8kg but more than 6kg droppable. The rest of the required weight should be non-droppable.

 

[Blackcrusader]

I didnt say 8kg but more than 6kg droppable. The rest of the required weight should be non-droppable.

Thanks for clarifying and I maybe misread what you meant. I can easily drop my weights from the two inserts around hips that would be 4KG for me. Also another reason I have my weights in the back pockets in socks, one to protect the pockets, another is that if they need removing you undo the clip and the sock will slide out of the pocket in the sock.