Drop the freaking weights!

[Akimbo]

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

I wish it was a joke instead of a health concern.

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?

It depends on how you define the problem and solution. I define the problem as all divers need to avoid becoming positively buoyant (by more than a few pounds) before clearing overhead obstacles and completing decompression obligations. The unified solution is the ability to drop weight in an emergency without accidently losing weight, which can create an emergency.

There is no reason that recreational divers who do not deal with hard or soft overheads need to have unreliable weight release systems. There is also no reason for divers in any category to fix all their weight to avoid accidental loss.

 

[jord1990]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned getting narced. The accidents I heard where people should've dropped their weights were on deep and on air.

Jord

 

[Malpaso]

I'm still working out where I'd like all my weights to be when diving cold water. ...
Surely other small cold water divers have this problem?

I'm not small, I'd say average size, but having just switched from jacket BC to BP/W, I'm also trying to find the best places for all my weight. With the jacket I had weight on the cam bands, belt and pockets, with both the belt and pockets ditchable. Now I have the plate, with weights on the cam bands and belt, so only the belt is ditchable, and the belt is under the crotch strap. Does it make sense to add pockets to the waist belt and/or harness, and move weight from the belt?

 

[Akimbo]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned getting narced. The accidents I heard where people should've dropped their weights were on deep and on air.

Jord

There are a bazar number of accidents where a diver and their buddy are found on the bottom out of air and wearing their weights in less than 100'. OK, a solo diver can black out for any number of reasons that are hard-to-detect on a post mortem. All the air in their tanks can leak out past their limp lips if the cause of their demise was not OOA. But two deceased divers side-by-side out of air and wearing all their weights? That’s not narcosis or a medical problem.

 

[scubafanatic]

I have weight spread out over myself and my kit ALL of it is ditchable. I left a weight belt on the bottom one time, darn thing had me pinned!

Never accidently lost a lb. of lead. The one thing I will not use are integrated weights, IMO those are an accident looking for the right time and place to happen.

I'm fine with well-designed integrated weights, I'm using Diverite and Halcyon weight systems, two of the biggest/most respected brands in the 'tech' diving community, so I'm kinda doubting they're selling 'death traps'.......just sayin'.

 

[FM1520]

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?

16 lbs on a weight belt is way to much and why "tin" ? You may want to try putting the weight of the air in your full tank on a rubber weight belt as ditch-able and bolt the rest to your bp and/or tank bands. I use a LP 95 which is about 8 lbs neg full so I put two three pound wights as ditch-able the rest is either on my BP or tank bands.

 

[scubafanatic]

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?

The Diverite vertical release pockets ( 16 lbs @ 8 lbs X 2 pockets) are a little bit narrower than the Halcyon ones (10 lbs @ 5 lbs X 2 pockets) , freeing up a bit of waist real estate.

---------- Post added October 12th, 2013 at 05:33 PM ----------

There are a bazar number of accidents where a diver and their buddy are found on the bottom out of air and wearing their weights in less than 100'. OK, a solo diver can black out for any number of reasons that are hard-to-detect on a post mortem. All the air in their tanks can leak out past their limp lips if the cause of their demise was not OOA. But two deceased divers side-by-side out of air and wearing all their weights? That’s not narcosis or a medical problem.

Where are you reading/hearing about such incidents ? This is news to me, and I follow Dandy Don's reports closely. Why couldn't it actually be narcosis ?

 

[dshorwich]

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.

16 lbs on a weight belt is way to much and why "tin" ?

I think that was just a simple typo for "it".

 

[Altamira]

I suspect that like most other things that we screw up or forget to do in high stress situations is a matter of what we train, or not train, to do on a frequent basis. Actual dropping of weights does not appear to be something most divers practice with any frequency or on a continuing basis, much less during formal training. We talk about when to drop weights in training courses, but I don't think it is actually practiced with anywhere the same degree of regularity as say clearing the mask, out of air, buddy breathing, CESA, etc. When was the last time you actually dropped your weights when practicing skills, especially in open water? After all, who wants to possibly lose a weight belt or integrated weight pocket doing a practice drill? Critical responses that we don't practice over and over are the things we are most likely to forget in high stress situations, and may be the thing that kills you.

 

[AfterDark]

I'm fine with well-designed integrated weights, I'm using Diverite and Halcyon weight systems, two of the biggest/most respected brands in the 'tech' diving community, so I'm kinda doubting they're selling 'death traps'.......just sayin'.

That's good hope it always works out for you. I'm sure no company thinks they are selling death traps as you put it. My opinion is based on decades cold water of diving carrying a lot of weight and trying different gear, and I stand by it. Integrated weights are just not as simple to dump as a properly worn weight belt. In a emergency that may make the difference.

---------- Post added October 12th, 2013 at 07:52 PM ----------

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?

Trident sells fill'em yourself ankle weights. They can be stuffed with quite a bit of weight and hung from your D-rings even buckled together around the bottom of your tank where you can reach the buckle and release them. I use 10lbs on a weight belt w/a 7mm farmer john wet suit and 20lbs w/ a 4mm crushed neoprene dry suit the rest are in pockets on the waist belt of my harness and ankle weights.