Getting rid of my weight belt?

[DocWong]

Hi,

I'm thinking of getting rid of my 8 lb weight belt. Since it's only 8 lbs, it would be easy to install a "V" weight between my tanks or add some bolt on weights onto my backplate and eliminating the need for a weight belt.

My reasons for this is that it would be simpler to not dive with a weight belt and possibly my trim would be better.

The disadvantage would be that I would not have any ditchable weight besides my canister light.

Does this make sense or not a good move?

I'd appreciate input on this.

I dive in cold water in Northern California, Monterey Bay, dry suit, double Faber 85s, in standard DIR configuration usually carrying a Luxfer AL 80 deco bottle.

Harry Wong
www.docwong.com
Preident Northern California Oceans Foundation
Project to sink navy ships in Northern California

 

[verybaddiver]

you must be 'doing it wong' then

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

you must be 'doing it wong' then

DIW???

 

[Mo2vation]

Hi,

I'm thinking of getting rid of my 8 lb weight belt. Since it's only 8 lbs, it would be easy to install a "V" weight between my tanks or add some bolt on weights onto my backplate and eliminating the need for a weight belt.

My reasons for this is that it would be simpler to not dive with a weight belt and possibly my trim would be better.

The disadvantage would be that I would not have any ditchable weight besides my canister light.

Does this make sense or not a good move?

I'd appreciate input on this.

I dive in cold water in Northern California, Monterey Bay, dry suit, double Faber 85s, in standard DIR configuration usually carrying a Luxfer AL 80 deco bottle.

Harry Wong
www.docwong.com
Preident Northern California Oceans Foundation
Project to sink navy ships in Northern California

Ditchable weight.

a) Unless you're diving a Pro14, your light probably isn't ditchable weight. I mean, is a 2# canister going to make the difference between swimming to the surface or not?

b) You're not diving 25# of lead. So with 8#, its weight, but hardly significant ditchable weight.

c) You're in a drysuit. You have redundant inflation. Wing fails, no biggie.


I dive with 8# (10# when photographing) and I've been diving the ACB for years. As you doubtlessly just read, I've recently moved to a heavier plate and chucked the ACB in favor of a 4# weight belt.

I could probably pour a V weight and be done with the belt, but you know, I like having a lighter rig to schlep around between dives, on the way to the site and all that (without the ACB, it is lighter and easier to handle.) The non-diving plusses of a weightbelt are mounting up.

I love being able to take my light on and off easier. And positioning the light on the waist band and not doing the Bungeeroo anymore.

You could always hunt down a heavier plate, double up a couple of SS plates, strap a 4 pound block on each side, get an ACB, pour a V weight, etc, etc, etc...

Lots of ways to lose a weight belt (or most of a weight belt.) But being concerned about not having ditchable weight in your situation (drysuit, small weightbelt, presumed tiny can light) is no thing. Maybe if you were diving wet with a BC and a 26# weightbelt....

Others will chime in. But in my opinion, "not having ditchable weight" in your situation is nothing to be concerned with.

---
Ken

 

[Derek S]

Harry -

Pay no attention to the Brit who thinks they're funny.

Using a V-weight is a perfectly good solution to getting rid of the weight belt.

 

[PfcAJ]

Trim pockets are pretty neat, too.

If your rig is close to neutral at the end of your dive, I'm sure swimming up a few lbs isn't going to be that tough. I vote got getting rid of the weight belt. I am blessed and use no additional weight when I dive a single 80, 5mil suit and ss plate.

 

[lamont]

if you are interested in technical diving -- ditchable weight, or any weight which is not very secure is not a terribly good option because it can result in a ballistic ascent and explosive decompression. you definitely don't want a lot of weight that can slip off. most (all?) of the SCRET divers have gone the direction of eliminating weightbelts in favor of v-weights in order to completely eliminate the possibility that they could lose their weightbelt, which could result in a fatality on their dives.

ditchable weight kind of suffers from the same problem as quick releases -- the weight has to ditch only when you want it to and not when you don't. questions to ask would be under what situation you would ditch weights, and what would happen to you if they accidentally ditched themselves? i know that back when I used a weightbelt I nearly lost it once or twice, so I can't say that I trust them to stay on very well...

 

[limeyx]

Trim pockets are pretty neat, too.

If your rig is close to neutral at the end of your dive, I'm sure swimming up a few lbs isn't going to be that tough. I vote got getting rid of the weight belt. I am blessed and use no additional weight when I dive a single 80, 5mil suit and ss plate.

It's not the *end* of the dive that you need to be so concerned with swimming the rig up though. The hard part is at the *other end* of the dive

 

[micknewton]

I’m currently reading the book “Doing it Right: The Fundamentals of Better Diving”, and on page 92 it states…

“As a worst case scenario, imagine a failure occurring early in the dive that would cause the diver to have no control over buoyancy; e.g., what would occur if the air was not turned on, the BC was not connected or the BC failed. Here the diver would be weighted down by both the weight required to offset surface buoyancy and the weight of the gas in the cylinders. In this situation, the diver should be able to remove enough weight (in the form of a weight belt or a canister light) to enable him/her to swim to the surface.”

And, on page 93…

“Nonetheless, it is important not to overweight the diving rig with too much fixed weight, because it will prevent one from “ditching” the weight and swimming to the surface in the event of an emergency.”

So, let’s say you’re at the beginning of a dive and your BC fails. No problem, you just swim to the surface, right? What happens if you loose one or both of your fins at the same time? Can you still swim to the surface?

I’m also reading the book “Diver Down” by Michael Ange. On page 13 he writes…

“No one thing kills you. This rule is borrowed from the aviation industry and refers to the fact that there is rarely one specific cause for an injury-producing accident or fatality. Generally, one problem gets bigger, leading to another problem and creating a chain reaction of events leading to panic.”

Sure, it’s not very likely that you would experience a BC failure, and even less likely that you would loose one or both of your fins at the same time. However, I’m sure that it’s not impossible either. Remember, Mr. Murphy is a *****, and he never sleeps.

FYI, I’m a total diving newbie and have virtually no experience. I just happened to be reading these two books at the time I saw this post and thought I’d throw this out there.

 

[kidspot]

Hey DocWong - fwiw when I lost my weight belt on my doubles (lp72's) my trim went way off - however I too didn't want to wear a belt, so I put the weight in two XS Scuba weight pockets on my harness waist strap. Worked great for me... Of course we are different people, so you may find the opposite to be true.

Aloha, Tim