Has anyone ditched weights before?

[Wildcard]

I had to dump lead recently. Not mine. I was picking up too much fishing trash and had 5 lbs in one pocket and was swiming sideways BTW I still want to do the clean up there. I bet we can get one ton or more of lead off the bottom.

 

[Get Tanked]

I almost lost my belt on one of my first ocean dives in Cozumel. It was hanging down under me and about to come off when the DM stopped me and tightened it up and folded the loose end back under like they taught me not to do in class. But those old rental belts wont stay closed and you cant really feel when its come loose. I later noticed that most of the experienced divers were folding the loose end back under their belts. They said its better than loosing it. Who's right. Any suggestions.

 

[lascuba]

I had a situation where I had to ditch someone else's weights. I was on a line doing a safety stop and a woman comes rushing up with wide eyes. She had run out of air so I gave her my aas. She spit it out and continued to the surface. I went with her and she started yelling and drowning. I pulled both of her weight pockets and towed her back to the boat. We brought her into EMS and she spent 5 hours in the chamber.

She is lucky to be alive. She obviously did not think once about ditching her own weights.

 

[Vicente]

My chica was doing her AOW in Cabo, and the frakkin rental belt popped loose while she was vertical. Needless to say she went to the surface against her will from 70 feet or so and we sweated out some hours watching her for symptoms. Fortunately none occurred. Since then I've become just as concerned about making sure weight stays ON as with getting it off when needed.

I called DAN of course, and frak the cost of roaming. The doctor on-call was very helpful even if it was just basic advice, DAN is well worth it.

 

[WarrenZ]

My sister lost one pouch after her OW dive check offs. We were just burning the rest of her tank when she hooked it on some weeds and yanked it out. She was so overweighted that when she lost it she was able to dump air and make a normal controlled ascent. She could have continued the dive as I searched for the weight however she was listing pretty bad and was slightly light with out the extra lead. I found the pocket after about 2 min of looking. That’s the nice thing about small clear springs It is easy to find things that are lost.

 

[adza]

I almost lost my belt on one of my first ocean dives in Cozumel. It was hanging down under me and about to come off when the DM stopped me and tightened it up and folded the loose end back under like they taught me not to do in class. But those old rental belts wont stay closed and you cant really feel when its come loose. I later noticed that most of the experienced divers were folding the loose end back under their belts. They said its better than loosing it. Who's right. Any suggestions.

Since no one else has had a stab, I'll give you my opinion - for what it's worth.

What is the more common / greater danger?

1) The possibility that you will need to quickly/immediately drop weighbelts, or

2) The possibility that your weight belt could slip off, and you could have an uncontrolled ascent to the suface?

It probably depends on the type of diving that you do, but I would be more worried about losing my weightbelt and having an uncontrolled ascent, than needing an extra couple of seconds to ditch my belt, unless I was diving very shallow, with no overhead environment!

Not only is an unsecured weightbelt a threat at depth, you've also got to think of any poor soul who decides to swim underneath you at the wrong moment. :turtle:

 

[DiveMonkeys]

I almost lost my belt on one of my first ocean dives in Cozumel. It was hanging down under me and about to come off when the DM stopped me and tightened it up and folded the loose end back under like they taught me not to do in class. QUOTE]

Yep, I lost a rental weight belt in Coz at 45 feet and watched it "flutter" down to a small ledge at 55. That's when the training kicked in--not thinking too much about it, I just swam to 55 feet, picked it up and replaced it, and double-checked the buckle.

I think many issues arise from being over-weighted. Training and practice, training and practice, training and practice---you can't get too much of it.

 

[Scubapat]

I think many issues arise from being over-weighted. Training and practice, training and practice, training and practice---you can't get too much of it.

Practice makes perfect

 

[Prostar]

Yup, once. It was my first ever ocean/boat dive out from Wilmington, NC. I had tons of things go wrong that day.

As soon as we got to the bottom of the anchor line, my weight belt slipped off and I started floating up. I managed to kick for all I was worth, snag the belt and replace it. Oh, it gets much better than this.

As we moved along the bottom, I noticed that I was having a hard time keeping up with my more experienced buddy, even though he wasn't going very fast. He came back to me, saw that I was in some distress, dropped my belt for me and escorted me to the surface. After we kicked back to the boat, he went back down to rejoin the group and finish his dive. I was ok.

It turned out that the jacket of the farmer john wetsuit I was wearing was WAY too tight and caused a squeeze that knocked all the stuffings out of me. The squeeze, combined with having to kick so hard to retrieve the belt the first time, took all the energy I had in store for that day.

After I got back up on the boat, I peeled the wetsuit off and lay back on the dive bag for the rest of the afternoon. The exhaustion, coupled with the North Carolina sun and my left arm laying across my self, left me with a great sunburn on my chest that looked just like a dive flag. That tan mark stayed with me clear into December of that year.

I was back out the next week, suited properly, and had a great dive.

Jeff G.