Has anyone ever had to ditch their weight?

[SkipperJohn]

This seems to me to be rather drastic. Questions have been asked about all sorts of ascents. I don't believe this has been asked.
I would imagine that ditching your weight, while good for getting you to the surface in an emergency, would be bad for getting you there too quickly.

 

[dpbishop]

In 30+ years of diving I've never ditched, but I've found 3 weight belts on the bottom, so somebody must have. What I want to know is, why do I always find them at the beginning of a dive. it's a pita to carry an extra weight belt the whole dive!!!

 

[seaducer]

I have never had to ditch. The only time I might consider it is if I am stranded on the surface in rough conditions. But with my configuration in warm water, I have no, or nearly no ditchable weight to begin with, so that kind of makes it a moot point I guess. At least half the time...

Other than that, if I were to come across an unresponsive diver who was out of air and I had a deco obligation, I might consider dropping their weight and sending them up with a slate or something (I remember reading a story about just this event and the diver was resuscitated).

 

[NudeDiver]

This seems to me to be rather drastic. Questions have been asked about all sorts of ascents. I don't believe this has been asked.
I would imagine that ditching your weight, while good for getting you to the surface in an emergency, would be bad for getting you there too quickly.

Well, keep in mind that you don't have to ditch ALL your weight - at least with integrated weights. You can just ditch one pocket and see if that helps you out before ditching the other one.

I ALMOST ditched weights once. I was significantly overweighted and plunging into the darkness like a bullet train straight to hell. I finally got my act together around 85' or so, and avoided ditching.

What I want to know is, why do I always find them at the beginning of a dive. it's a pita to carry an extra weight belt the whole dive!!!

Just because you find them, doesn't mean you have to take them.

 

[rstofer]

Just because you find them, doesn't mean you have to take them.

Of course you have to take them. A 5# block is worth about $20 these days (retail). Heck, that pays for the gas to drive to the coast.

Richard

 

[CalgaryDF]

I think that ditching weights is more practical once you are already at the surface and are trying to maintain buoyancy.

 

[AbyssalPlains]

Just because you find them, doesn't mean you have to take them.

I think people should take any weights they find, if for no other reason than helping prevent littering the sea floor with toxic metals. Just as I collect trash while hiking, I'll take anything I find during a dive that doesn't belong there. If someone claims it later on the boat, all the better. If nobody claims it, I have done my little share to keep the ocean a little cleaner. By the same rationale, I will always try NOT to dump my weight. I can't really see a lot of situations where one really has to. IMO, ditching weights is advocated way too liberally in dive training. If we put the same emphasis on proper weighting, weight ditching would be a non-issue in all but the most severe cases.

 

[dkktsunami]

This seems to me to be rather drastic. Questions have been asked about all sorts of ascents. I don't believe this has been asked.
I would imagine that ditching your weight, while good for getting you to the surface in an emergency, would be bad for getting you there too quickly.

The concept of "ditching weights" applies to remaining on the surface with ease, not to a method of reaching the surface rapidly. If weights are ditched while wearing a heavy wetsuit you are likely going to have a very unpleasant ride with some real bad results at the surface. Controlled emergency swimming ascent, CESA, is the proper option.

 

[NudeDiver]

I think people should take any weights they find, if for no other reason than helping prevent littering the sea floor with toxic metals.

But as rost points out, at $4/lb (new), you can be sure that if you don't take it, someone else probably will. It's not like a Big Mac wrapper that has no value.

But if it is that big of a concern, and of carrying the stuff around is such a PITA, then just carry a lift bag with you - and if you happen across some weights, send them on up to the surface and carry on with your dive. Surface swim back to the weights when you're done. Get some extra exercise, save the environment, and make a little extra cash on craigslist all in one shot.

 

[Nemrod]

Yes-----

I think I was like 14 and had been forced upon a boat full of 20 and 30 somethings, girls and guys. They dropped me of in some pretty deep water, only like a hundred feet, and told me that when I came up to swim over to the boat, that they would be "right over there" and down I went and away they went. You know, thinking back, I am not sure really how much actual diving they were planning on engaging in. I used my air up, sucked my tank flat and surfaced. Hmmm, I don't see any boat right over there or over there or anywhere else. Finally a wave lifted me up high enough to see the boat, like, I dunno, a mile away or maybe I was only a few hundred yards, dunno. I started swimming, now this was before there was a such thing as a BC and I was getting a bit water logged, at some point I started sinking, I would fight to the top, gulp water, put one finger, then two, then three until I found myself exhausted. At that point I dropped my weight belt and the good old 1/4 inch Rubatex suit lifted me upward. In a fog I somehow swam, floated, drifted, dog paddled up to the boat. At which point, hey kid, where ya been? where is your weight belt, aw, GD-------!!!!**** he lost his weight belt. Kid, what the h----- is the matter with you, those things cost money, what, you think it grows on trees? Some "girl" flipped her nose up at me and I don't think I dove anymore that day. I think as it was I got as much bottom time as they did, it was just a dif-----------. That is OK, I told on them. True story, mostly.

N