Dropped weight belt - how to react

[jbd]

lost a weight pocket during a dive on the Black Bart. At depth she did just fine--probably due to proper weighting and the fact that she is a good diver. We followed the line up for the ascent and I noticed she had a firm grip on the line when we reached 15 feet and was turned on her side. I just thought it was odd of her to do that since I was not aware of the missing weights on one side.

I have found weight pockets in the quarries and lakes. I have also been diving with folks who had trouble all day with weights falling out.

Yes I think with proper weighting you can kick down and recover your missing weights whether they are from an integrated system or a weight belt.

 

[cyklon_300]

buckle to the wt belt to lessen the chance of an inadvertent release...

I saw my partner's belt loosen and start to drop from her hips...I scissored her with my legs and had my hands free to refasten the belt...got underwater applause from the DM for the 'save'...she uses a double buckle now.

 

[jonnythan]

jbd once bubbled...
lost a weight pocket during a dive on the Black Bart. At depth she did just fine--probably due to proper weighting and the fact that she is a good diver. We followed the line up for the ascent and I noticed she had a firm grip on the line when we reached 15 feet and was turned on her side. I just thought it was odd of her to do that since I was not aware of the missing weights on one side.

I have found weight pockets in the quarries and lakes. I have also been diving with folks who had trouble all day with weights falling out.

Yes I think with proper weighting you can kick down and recover your missing weights whether they are from an integrated system or a weight belt.

But with weight pockets, you can only lose a bit of your weight at a time.... whereas if you have 24 lbs on a belt, it all goes at once.

 

[jonnythan]

Oh yeah... if you dive horizontally, that belt isn't going anywhere

 

[DiverBuoy]

Conor once bubbled...
In the post dive babble the DM/ instructor leading the dive said the right thing to do was to let him go and that way only one of us would have risked injury and therefore the other would have been in a better position to rescue him.

This is really odd for the DM to say ... considering the fact that you both were so easily able to arrest your ascent and recover the weightbelt (good thing at 70' you weren't too far off the bottom). How far up in the water column would you say you went to retrieve your buddy? Did your buddy start out right away pointing toward the bottom and finning for his weight? Or was he struggling for a few moments (while rising rapidly) to figure out how to let air out? If in fact you ascended a number of meters chasing after your buddy ... the DMs advice was completely sound - about putting yourself in jeopardy.

Conor once bubbled...
From my point of view if I had of felt that I was being pulled to the surface too fast I would have had to let go in order to be able to rescue him later, but it would always be worth attempting to prevent the uncontrolled ascent in the first place.

That deep a few meters isn't going to make much difference as long as you were continually breathing - saving your buddy was the right thing to do if your ascent distance was minor.

You said you were new but being AOW and having 20 dives, it might be appropriate for me to ask if you own your equipment. Then if yes, did the alarm on your dive computer go off? Do you have PC download capability - care to share your profile?

Conor once bubbled...
...can you guys give us your perspective on what to do.

I think I'll do my rescue diver course soom

Cheers

Conor

The rescue class will likely be the most rewarding non-professional class you'll ever take and it will greatly improve your buddy skills and environmental awareness.

 

[Uncle Pug]

Conor I think you did the right thing... much better than the diver in this story:

Many years ago my son was diving with one of his buddies (both in their teens.) They were pole spearing lingcod in 60fsw.

Dave had lost his weight belt but was able to grab onto a large boulder on the bottom... however his weight belt had fallen down between several boulders and he wasn't able to reach it.

He motioned for his buddy to come over and retrieve the belt but the kid figured that what Dave really needed was help to the surface!

:bonk:

So Jimmy grabs hold of Dave and hauls him off the boulder he is clinging to and of course they both shoot to the surface.... Jimmy swimming up as hard as he can and Dave swimming down as hard as he can.

Fortunately both knew enough not to hold their breath... and Dave learned not to dive with Jimmy.

BTW... double buckles on a weight belt is one solution... but I figure a crotch strap is a much better one as it has other advantages as well.

 

[ERP]

This post reminded me of something I was thinking about the other day.

On one of my first dives I attempted to stop my buddy from an uncontrolled ascent when she (underweighted) couldn't maintain her 15ft "safety stop", and ended getting dragged to the surface. Neither of us was hurt, but I've been thinking about how best to deal with this situation.

If the visibility is good and you can establish that your buddy is OK on the surface do you do finish your stop?

OK so what if the visibility is 5ft, do you follow them on the ascent, obviously maintaining a safe ascent rate?

And what if the current on the surface is significantly different than it is at 15ft?

My thoughts are that if neither of you are in any danger and there is no risk of seperation you probably finish the stop. Otherwise you should make a safe ascent.

Just thinking and wondering what other peoples views on this were.

 

[Phil TK]

One of the biggest causes of weight belts coming off is due to bad maintenance. I would estimate that well over half of the dive ops I've used in Asia and Europe hang on to too many old belts for too long (those for divers who hire their gear -I have my own belt and very nice it is too) They have good ones for sure but everyone knows the feeling when you're last to find a belt -you often end up with the manky old twisted up thing sitting at the bottom of the weight crate -with 70lbs of lead on it and a 10 year old buckle (usually yellow!).
We've all seen them, the old, knackered and frayed belt -very often too long for some reason with 4 feet of surplus waving in the breeze. The buckles are worn out and mildly 'wedge' the belt instead of snapping shut crisply. Sometimes the buckle jams up with the frayed bits -which can lead to other sorts of problems.
It would help if people were taught to be 'nice' to ops weight belts. Sliding off weights when the thing is dry frays the belt and dropping it on the deck doesn't help the buckle. Maybe the usual practise of looping belts shut through benches causes premature wear as they sway with the boat.
I'm probably overstating the case here but the weight belt is the one piece of kit people don't really look after.

Phil TK

 

[stiebs]

Firstly Conor, I also believe that you did the right thing, as long as you never felt that you were compromising your own safety.

Secondly,

tampascott once bubbled...

Do you agree with proper weighting you should be able to kick down and get your weights? I'm thinking if you drop your weights and take off like a mistle, your carrying too much, but, again, I'll defer to an instructor on that point.

Ideally yes. If you carry all your weight on one weightbelt, you're generating a single point of failure - the buckle! Having said that, when I bought my BC eons ago, weight integrated systems were not commonly available, so I dive in a 7mm wetsuit, carrying 28lb around my waist. If I lose that at 33fsw, I'll quite likely get airborne after breaking the surface.

On the other hand, in warmer waters I've conducted a 100fsw dive wearing a full length 2mm wetsuit without a weight belt. I did feel a little bouyant on the way down, but filling my pockets with a couple of largish rocks kept me weighted enough for a steady safety stop on the way back up..

Conclusion? Maybe the benefits of having a distributed, partially ditchable weight system should be highlighted and even encouraged during OW training in cold water environments.

My AU$0.02

 

[Genesis]

with a wetsuit in cold water is that the shift is a real problem, and one you can't really "get around".

A partial ditch is not really the answer; if you do that and swim up you'll end up with a runaway ascent as the suit regains its buoyancy. Neither is the "chestnut" about not using steel tanks - its the SHIFT in the buoyancy that is the problem, because at depth, no matter what you use for a tank, you're severely negative due to it. The only REAL answer, if you're diving with a rig that has a lot of shift due to depth (e.g. wetsuit compression) is to have some backup means of buoyancy in the event that your BC malfunctions.