eelnoraa
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Stainless steel buckle from DGX is only $3.25 if plastic one is giving you an issue.
Hog harness: stop stuff from moving around waist belt?
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not going to bother reading all the threads but here's my take.
You can make a weight belt for super cheap. Take the old not big enough harness that you had to replace, buy a waist belt buckle for $5 from DGX or whatever they're charging and make your own. Balanced rigs have been mentioned before, and you shouldn't have to worry about ditchable weight. If you do, you aren't diving a balanced rig, this is why deep diving in a wetsuit is frowned upon. With only 10lbs for salt water, you better be able to kick that to the surface in a total wing failure, if you can't, then your rig is unbalanced and you need to bring redundant buoyancy with you.
Friction is all that is needed to keep those types of tools in their place, but if you are concerned, many of us keep shears in thigh pockets which are quite inexpensive, and then something like a trilobyte, or Benchmade 7 Z-knife go on the computer strap. I prefer these little Z-knives to a standard cut down knife for open water diving since they can be used one handed, same with shears, but the DGX combo is pretty good. If you aren't doing penetration you may want to consider just getting a thigh pocket and putting the shears on a piece of bungee with a clip in there since you are likely to not need them. Put a cheap Z-knife on your computers wrist strap and you'll be good to go.
Once the rig is on, accessories like this won't move because of the waist strap tension. Left side you want them to move a little bit so you can slide them around to wherever is comfortable as this changed with exposure protection, but they won't fall off courtesy of the buckle. Right side I've actually found a simple slide lock is typically enough to keep anything from coming off, but you typically don't put much of anything on that side because the real estate is somewhat limited when you get a can light into the mix. Can light plus an extra buckle and you don't have a lot of room, especially with a weight pouch. If you're diving sans can light and still using a long hose, Deep Sea Supply makes a simulator for like $10 that keeps the hose tucked and is really spiffy.
and as always
Equipment Configuration | Global Underwater Explorers
that is your friend for these types of questions.
You can make a weight belt for super cheap. Take the old not big enough harness that you had to replace, buy a waist belt buckle for $5 from DGX or whatever they're charging and make your own. Balanced rigs have been mentioned before, and you shouldn't have to worry about ditchable weight. If you do, you aren't diving a balanced rig, this is why deep diving in a wetsuit is frowned upon. With only 10lbs for salt water, you better be able to kick that to the surface in a total wing failure, if you can't, then your rig is unbalanced and you need to bring redundant buoyancy with you.
Friction is all that is needed to keep those types of tools in their place, but if you are concerned, many of us keep shears in thigh pockets which are quite inexpensive, and then something like a trilobyte, or Benchmade 7 Z-knife go on the computer strap. I prefer these little Z-knives to a standard cut down knife for open water diving since they can be used one handed, same with shears, but the DGX combo is pretty good. If you aren't doing penetration you may want to consider just getting a thigh pocket and putting the shears on a piece of bungee with a clip in there since you are likely to not need them. Put a cheap Z-knife on your computers wrist strap and you'll be good to go.
Once the rig is on, accessories like this won't move because of the waist strap tension. Left side you want them to move a little bit so you can slide them around to wherever is comfortable as this changed with exposure protection, but they won't fall off courtesy of the buckle. Right side I've actually found a simple slide lock is typically enough to keep anything from coming off, but you typically don't put much of anything on that side because the real estate is somewhat limited when you get a can light into the mix. Can light plus an extra buckle and you don't have a lot of room, especially with a weight pouch. If you're diving sans can light and still using a long hose, Deep Sea Supply makes a simulator for like $10 that keeps the hose tucked and is really spiffy.
and as always
Equipment Configuration | Global Underwater Explorers
that is your friend for these types of questions.
Apart from using normal belt slides to keep weight pockets in place, DiveRite has a couple of interesting ways of securing their weight pockets on their rig; you can check it out on http://youtu.be/Nhx_Lrb0siQ.
Just a comment on shears -- after reading a lot of posts from folks here, I thought it might be a good idea to have them. I bought some (in fact, I've bought several sets). Even the titanium ones seem to have a steel rivet in the center, which rusts and eventually fails. I gave up and went back to my knife, and a Trilobite cutter. I don't do wreck penetration, nor do I dive where there is a lot of fishing done using steel leaders, so almost anything I'm likely to encounter will fall to one of those.
dumpsterDiver
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I'm feeling like the grumpy old man, but it REALLY scares me when somebody with 0-24 dives is asking if they should dive with zero ditchable lead. And the answer is.. if "DIR" divers dive (a balanced rig) without any ditchable lead.. well then I certainly can dive with no ditchable lead..(even while wearing 10 lbs of it).
The comment that I don't want to buy a weight belt because it cost more money and is another thing to buy -seems so silly- when a weight belt probably costs less, is probably more comfortable, easier to operate, easier to ditch and makes handling the BC and switching tanks much easier than pockets that are going to crowd the waist band.
Don't DIR divers have dry suits normally? Do they really wear 10 lbs of unditchable lead? If they do wear 10 lbs of unditchable lead and wet suit, I bet most of them at least experiment and prove to themselves they can swim the rig up when the tank is full and the suit is crushed to its' maximum...
Just BORROW a weightbelt and see how that feels. If you want, put a small weight or two on the cam band, but the novice diving with 10 lbs of non-ditchable lead (if they are wearing a wetsuit) is just not smart in my opinion.
The comment that I don't want to buy a weight belt because it cost more money and is another thing to buy -seems so silly- when a weight belt probably costs less, is probably more comfortable, easier to operate, easier to ditch and makes handling the BC and switching tanks much easier than pockets that are going to crowd the waist band.
Don't DIR divers have dry suits normally? Do they really wear 10 lbs of unditchable lead? If they do wear 10 lbs of unditchable lead and wet suit, I bet most of them at least experiment and prove to themselves they can swim the rig up when the tank is full and the suit is crushed to its' maximum...
Just BORROW a weightbelt and see how that feels. If you want, put a small weight or two on the cam band, but the novice diving with 10 lbs of non-ditchable lead (if they are wearing a wetsuit) is just not smart in my opinion.
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Dumpster, not quite
If diving a balanced rig you should never be more overweight than the weight of gas in the tank, about 5lbs for an AL80, and up to about 10lbs for a wetsuit. If you can not bring a 15lb diving brick up from the bottom of a pool and keep it at the surface without fins, you have no business getting anywhere near a scuba rig. With fins, and the buoyancy brought back to your rig by the wetsuit re-expanding on ascent, you are only kicking the lost buoyancy up until it comes back. At the surface you should be no more negative than the weight of air in the tank, 5lbs. Easy to stay at the surface sculling, and the odds of having a true TOTAL wing failure is pretty much zero. You can always remove and inflate it with a hole at the bottom, but as soon as you ditch the rig, you are positive again.
Ditching weight at depth is dangerous as hell and should be avoided at all costs. It should only be ditched at the surface, and like I said, if you're diving a balanced rig, you are only as negative as the weight of the tank at the surface. For tropical diving, that's only 5-6lbs.
Weight belt cost, $3.25 for buckle + $4.50 for 6ft of 2" webbing= under $15 shipped to you. Super cheap
DIR divers only wear drysuits when appropriate, which is typically due to weather or need for steel doubles. With wetsuits they have no issue with double AL80's, or wetsuits for warm water diving.
If diving a balanced rig you should never be more overweight than the weight of gas in the tank, about 5lbs for an AL80, and up to about 10lbs for a wetsuit. If you can not bring a 15lb diving brick up from the bottom of a pool and keep it at the surface without fins, you have no business getting anywhere near a scuba rig. With fins, and the buoyancy brought back to your rig by the wetsuit re-expanding on ascent, you are only kicking the lost buoyancy up until it comes back. At the surface you should be no more negative than the weight of air in the tank, 5lbs. Easy to stay at the surface sculling, and the odds of having a true TOTAL wing failure is pretty much zero. You can always remove and inflate it with a hole at the bottom, but as soon as you ditch the rig, you are positive again.
Ditching weight at depth is dangerous as hell and should be avoided at all costs. It should only be ditched at the surface, and like I said, if you're diving a balanced rig, you are only as negative as the weight of the tank at the surface. For tropical diving, that's only 5-6lbs.
Weight belt cost, $3.25 for buckle + $4.50 for 6ft of 2" webbing= under $15 shipped to you. Super cheap
DIR divers only wear drysuits when appropriate, which is typically due to weather or need for steel doubles. With wetsuits they have no issue with double AL80's, or wetsuits for warm water diving.
PfcAJ
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or be glad they're only like $3 each and replace them every few months when they need it
dumpsterDiver
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Several ridiculous statements, Ditching weight at depth should be avoided at all costs... if you believe that, then never have any ditchable lead.
If you think wetsuit compression can only amount to 10 lbs, then you have never dove deep in a thick suit, the loss can be double that.
The odds of having a total wing failure are "pretty much zero".. I've had total and complete BC failure twice now, and narrowly avoided it by an inspection on a third time. A diver should ASSUME they will have a total wing failure and devise a means to survive (rather than assume it won't happen).
I recently filmed myself ditching about 28 lbs of lead and then filling my BC with about 40 lbs of air and doing a buoyant flared ascent..Probably faster than 60 feet per minute... but I was much more buoyant than most divers would ever be after ditching all their lead. Ascent was effortless and controlled.
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