Drop your weights or not...

[Divedoggie]

Here is my take.
On the surface:
If a diver went oog and ended up doing an alt air ascent or a cesa, the power inflator is oog too and isn't going to inflate the bc and provide positive buoyancy at the surface. The next step is oral inflation. If this is not possible due to wave action, exhaustion, etc, then the diver should drop weights to attain positive buoyancy. The oog diver struggling on the surface should not spend too much time attempting oral inflation, and should drop weights immediately if unable to orally inflate bc. On the surface, when in doubt, drop 'em.

Underwater:
The feces must REALLY be hitting the fan to justify dropping weights. Weight distribution is key, facilitating the dropping of SOME weights. Stop, think, breath, act. Keep your poop in one pile. At the first sign of an emergency, deal with the emergency. People's interpretations of an emergency will vary wildly. If they all dropped entire weightbelts at the first sign of their interpretation of an emergency, we'd be seeing a lot more diving injuries and deaths than we see today. Underwater, if drowning is imminent, as a last option and a roll of the dice for survival, drop 'em.

 

[vshearer]

At one time the navy proposed 100fpm ascent rates. Keep your airway open and drop if needed. I think too many new divers are getting the idea that dropping weights is a last resort and will lead to injury. Far from it.

Flaring helps with keeping you sub-orbital on exit.

 

[RJP]

I was trained to ditch my weights if for some reason I can not attain positive buoyancy. A last ditch effort......

I'm very concerned about the number of posts in the other thread - especially from experienced divers - where the advice seems to be "drop your weights at the very first sign of an emergency."

As AfterDark has pointed out, the more reasoned approach would seem to be "ditch your weights if you have an emergent weight/buoyancy problem" not just "if you have any problem."

 

[nes999]

I was taught the only time to drop your weight was when your going to die anyway so they can recover the body. but you got to remember you failed several times before this.

 

[Blue Sparkle]

I was musing on my OW instruction in that A & I thread. Quite a few people mentioned possibly ditching weights at the bottom, and I really could not remember discussing that in class (which, when it was stressed as important in the thread, really made me think back in a "did I forget something?" way...). But as I think on it more, I guess two things I do remember us learning were these:

1) Weights had to be easily and reliably ditchable, by ourselves or our buddies. ALWAYS and quickly (which does not mean you should drop them willy nilly, but just that they should be easily droppable).

2) Runaway/buoyant ascents were very bad and were always a LAST choice after all other choices were impossible or exhausted.

Blue Sparkle

 

[RonFrank]

My buddy lost half his weight in Catalina (one pocket). We did OK until we got to about 20 feet, and then he had no options other than a quick ascent to the surface.

I would suggest dropping weight is a last resort option, and should only be done at the surface unless one is significantly overweight. In that situation dropping part of the total weight is a better solution but that is based on the emergency. Loosing weight and pouches should be an easy decision vs. dying.

I have never dropped weight, and can not think of a situation where that would be necessary other than a failure of my BC if I was not wearing a drysut. A complete BC bladder failure is unlikely as one would have to really put a huge hole in one before it became useless. Learn to orally inflate the BC in case of a inflator malfunction.

New divers who may consider dropping weight should think really hard about that decision, and then likely only the amount of weight necessary to gain positive buoyancy. If at the surface, by all means dump it all if staying at the surface is an issue.

 

[mdb]

I dive with some weight on a weight belt, some in BC weight pockets, a few pounds on the tank band.

Since I dive solo, most of the time, my pre-dive mental check is to drop the 10 lbs on my waist first, get buoyant, and go from there.

 

[warmwaterturner]

I have spent the afternoon considering what Ken Kurtis has had to say on the accident thread. Drop the weights and possibly suffer the consequences of the ascent. Keep the weights and hope someone recognizes that there is a problem and finds your body on the bottom before it is to late. I was taught to drop weights as the result of a surface emergency and NOT as the result of an emergency at depth. If I recall correctly - and I am probably not but I seem to remember the number in the neighborhood of 94% as being the percentage of diver deaths where weights had not been dropped. That being the case - this percentage indicates a problem in training.

 

[DandyDon]

I drill on weight ditching on the boat and in the water first dive of every trip, but I will stick to my "normally, generally" on the surface that got me blasted by the expert as "worst peice of advice...ever seen in this forum." Yeah, I'll drop them if needed but only as needed - after considering better options. If that is the only way to reach the surface, sure - but I prefer others ways.

He also suggested...

...it may make sense even in very warm water to dive in at least a 3mm suit so that if you have to ditch everything, you know you've got something that will either keep you on the surface if you make it there on your own or will float you to the surface if you're still submerged and become unconscious.

Adding an unneeded wetsuit and 4# of more lead? I'll pass on that too. My BC has lift even empty; I'll stay with it.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

I have a very digital response.
-I would drop lead as a first line of defense when struggling at the surface.
-I would use it as the last line of defense when at depth.

I do however always, without fail set up my weight so I can do an incremental drop of 1/3 to 1/2 of my ballast so I have options.