Drop the freaking weights!

[Subcooled]

Put most if not all of your weights on a belt and make the belt the last piece of equipment you put on so it can be the first thing to come off unobstructed in an emergence (...) You people go on endlessly about holding a perfect hover and integrate your weights to better achieve that goal. This is NOT a good idea if it comes at the expense of your LIFE!

If one accidentally drops the weights while diving under ice,
(a belt carrying 16 lbs of lead may be difficult to tighten properly around a diving suit; I have bad personal experiences)

then that person will end up pinned against the ceiling. This can be an unpleasant position as the hole in the ice is not visible from there. One needs to descend to see it. Any lines on the bottom may be to far to follow, too. So... where's the exit? How do you manage to swim while feeling the pull of the heavens and beeing flat against the roof? You'll die, unless of course, the ice mercifully crushed your skull.

A fresh diver may drop a weight belt by mistake, and get scared by the speedy ascent. With a drysuit there is the added excitement of escaping air through the neck seal and hence lost visibility. In that cloud of bubbles and hearing the OPV's pop, the diver may hold his/her breath and get a burst lung. Don't know if it hurts, but it probably only happens once.

Dropping weights under the dive boat may hurt, too.

Integrated weight pockets (secured with velcro and clips) can be dropped one by one, are safer attached, and more comfortable.

People that do not have any droppable weights usually use at least two buoyancy devices: both the BCD (or wing) and the drysuit.

The diving history is riddled with deaths of people that did not ditch a weight belt or weight pockets. Some of these accidents are recorded on video and they are not fun to watch. In distress people do not think clearly. If one has never ditched weights on practice dives then (s)he will not do that in an emergency either.

 

[beaverdivers]

Couldn't agree more!, with my SS back plate and a 5MM suit I only need 2 lbs of weight, the 2lbs are ditchable, and if ditched I wouldn't be bulleting to the surface.

Are you using a steel tank or a standard 80AL?

 

[Subcooled]

I have to add that commercial divers, open water divers and penetration divers (ice, wreck, mine, cave) have very different needs due to the differences in environment, tasks to be performed, and so on. So how could there even exist a one unified solution that is the best of all, for all?

 

[Tortuga68]

It is really is 100%; of course some of them are such disasters that they should have dropped their weight before getting in the water! Then there are those that need to ditch a lot of sub-cutaneous weight long before booking the boat.

A fat joke; you'll be banned from the pub now

 

[PaloPinto]

Are you using a steel tank or a standard 80AL?

Al80's

 

[Rich Keller]

I think the ice diving scenario would fall into the 1% category and is not something I would do on scuba anyway but that is another discussion altogether. As for integrating weights solely for trim we are only talking about a few well placed pounds not all of your weight.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I never want to put all my weights in or on one system and advise my students to never do so as well. Of course the first thing we do in the OW class is work on weight requirements. And by the end of the pool sessions we have done as much as possible to optimize placement and distribute them as well so they are not an all or nothing approach.

 

[tracydr]

I'm still working out where I'd like all my weights to be when diving cold water. I have found that 16 pounds on a weight belt kills my lower back, making more than one or two dives an impossible dream. I've also found tin difficult to put that much on my waist because I simply don't have that much real estate there. I do have the Halcyon pockets that go on my harness around my waist. Even these are not ideal as again, I have barely enough room for the pockets, a knife, and the buckle for the harness. Add a can-light and one of the pockets has to go. Finally, I've found that too much weight on the waist causes me to be in a very vertical position, horizontal trim is not even close to possible.
I'm still working my issues out but a weighted STA,steel tank and steel backplate ( my short plate is two pounds lighter than a regular) seems to be a good start. I'd like to figure out a better system similar to the Halcyon pockets for my ditch able weights. Something that hopefully doesn't take up so much room around the waist.
Surely other small cold water divers have this problem?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I use a standard weight belt with 4 individual XS scuba weight pockets on it. I can reach all of them and take out a weight as fast as dropping a belt. I also sell a pocket by a different mfg that has Velcro and a quick clip on it. Mount it upside down on the belt and the weight is not coming out until you undo the clip. It is a simple squeeze and yank and the weight drops out. One smooth continuous motion. My Gf has them on the cam bands of her BC and I use them on the bands of my travel wing set up.

 

[AfterDark]

If one accidentally drops the weights while diving under ice,
(a belt carrying 16 lbs of lead may be difficult to tighten properly around a diving suit; I have bad personal experiences)

then that person will end up pinned against the ceiling. This can be an unpleasant position as the hole in the ice is not visible from there. One needs to descend to see it. Any lines on the bottom may be to far to follow, too. So... where's the exit? How do you manage to swim while feeling the pull of the heavens and beeing flat against the roof? You'll die, unless of course, the ice mercifully crushed your skull.

A fresh diver may drop a weight belt by mistake, and get scared by the speedy ascent. With a drysuit there is the added excitement of escaping air through the neck seal and hence lost visibility. In that cloud of bubbles and hearing the OPV's pop, the diver may hold his/her breath and get a burst lung. Don't know if it hurts, but it probably only happens once.

Dropping weights under the dive boat may hurt, too.

Integrated weight pockets (secured with velcro and clips) can be dropped one by one, are safer attached, and more comfortable.

People that do not have any droppable weights usually use at least two buoyancy devices: both the BCD (or wing) and the drysuit.

The diving history is riddled with deaths of people that did not ditch a weight belt or weight pockets. Some of these accidents are recorded on video and they are not fun to watch. In distress people do not think clearly. If one has never ditched weights on practice dives then (s)he will not do that in an emergency either.

When I ice dive the exit is at the end of the line that is tied to my harness and wrapped around my wrist. I can find the exit with my eyes closed.

The very 1st thing I do when I reach depth is snug up my weight belt. Accidental loss of a weight belt is the divers fault at least 99% of the time. Never had a belt break never had a buckle unknowingly open.

---------- Post added October 12th, 2013 at 03:19 PM ----------

I use a standard weight belt with 4 individual XS scuba weight pockets on it. I can reach all of them and take out a weight as fast as dropping a belt. I also sell a pocket by a different mfg that has Velcro and a quick clip on it. Mount it upside down on the belt and the weight is not coming out until you undo the clip. It is a simple squeeze and yank and the weight drops out. One smooth continuous motion. My Gf has them on the cam bands of her BC and I use them on the bands of my travel wing set up.

Ditto! I use 2 Velcro weight pockets on my harness waist strap. They are not inverted. Instead I put a line with a big loop in it to extract the weight even with 7mm gloves. Takes less time than getting my belt off actually. There can be anything from a 2lbs weight to a 5lb in each pocket depending what configuration of tanks and suit I'm diving.