If weight belt fell off?

[themagni]

Some regs don't breathe as well when you are lying on your back also.

Really? Mine work in any orientation without hesitation. I get just as much air standing on my head or upside down. (Referring to underwater orientation, of course.)

Is it a common thing, or did I just luck out when I bought my regs?

I try to limit my weight belt to the weight of air in my full tank and otherwise be neutral. For single tanks that's 5 or 6 pounds. That limits the change in buoyancy should I have a belt malfunction and is just easier to don and deal with in general.

If I'm not wearing 30 lbs. plus, I'm going for a swim, not a dive. A friend told me that on vacation, he went from his normal 42 lbs. down to 9. I haven't heard of anyone getting away with less than 20 pounds up here.

I put 10 in each pouch, 10 on my tank, and one 2 lb. ankle weight on my tank for each fleece undergarment.

 

[InTheDrink]

Really? Mine work in any orientation without hesitation. I get just as much air standing on my head or upside down. (Referring to underwater orientation, of course.)

I think it's not uncommon. I've dived with quite a few (admittedly rental) regs that don't take kindly to inversion.

J

 

[Missdirected]

Is it a common thing, or did I just luck out when I bought my regs?

If you bought it without doing any research, you lucked out.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Really? Mine work in any orientation without hesitation. I get just as much air standing on my head or upside down. (Referring to underwater orientation, of course.)

Is it a common thing, or did I just luck out when I bought my regs?

All regs should work fine in all orientations (i.e., you can still breath them). Some regs will breath a little wet in an inverted position (vizualize the orientation and mechanics of the exhaust valve in the 2nd stage, you'll understand why). Many regs will breath a touch harder in some positions. Physics at work.

Best wishes.

 

[segraves1]

I'll put my (very) limited experience in.

I dive a BP/W with a hogarthian harness and have all my weight "permanently" attached to the BP. By "permanently" I mean I have a cast weight down the "spine" of the BP (I cast a weight that bolts in using the STA bolts) and use non-ditchable "tail" pouches (filled with shot) bolted to the BP's lower holes.

I gave a lot of thought (and research) to this setup before I did it. Everyone argues that "in an emergency, you must have ditchable weight." What seems to be missed is the idea that EVERYTHING is "ditchable weight" if need be. Further, a balanced (non-over weighted) rig should be such that one COULD swim it to the surface without added air in the BC (this will be assisted by gears tendency to gain buoyancy as you ascend).

EX:
On my first open water dive, I got tossed onto the beach by 6 foot surf and COULD NOT get back up (kept getting hit with waves)....in the end I simply un-clipped my harness, slipped out, and got up.... wala...ditchable weight. I then retrieved my gear and walked out....

In comparison, going INTO the dive, my dive buddy lost his weight belt in the surf, could not find it, and had to have the instructor retrieve it or else he could not have continued the dive...


Someone made a point about "the number of diver fatalities in which divers are found on the bottom will full weight on." To me this seems like any issue of statistics, "there may be more than is being stated." My guess would be these individuals had an issue that "ditchable weight" could not have solved (ex: uncontentious, injured, out of air, etc...long list...).

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Avoiding losing a weight belt is easy. I run my weight belt under the crotch strap and if for some reason the weight belt becomes unbuckled it would fall down and get caught by the crotch strap. If I really need it gone all I have to do is undo my waist strap on my rig and it would fall away.
Simple

 

[segraves1]

Avoiding losing a weight belt is easy. I run my weight belt under the crotch strap and if for some reason the weight belt becomes unbuckled it would fall down and get caught by the crotch strap. If I really need it gone all I have to do is undo my waist strap on my rig and it would fall away.
Simple

I have to say, that is a good idea....I'll keep that in my "note to self" box for future reference (if I ever need a weight belt for some reason)

 

[Gombessa]

Avoiding losing a weight belt is easy. I run my weight belt under the crotch strap and if for some reason the weight belt becomes unbuckled it would fall down and get caught by the crotch strap. If I really need it gone all I have to do is undo my waist strap on my rig and it would fall away.
Simple

I've had a couple of lost weight belts fall straight down from under the crotch strap. Once the buckle came loose, all that had to happen was for one side to fall out first, and the other followed.

 

[rstofer]

Is it a problem now? How so?

Re: integrated weights.

In my view, integrated weights are evil. That view is not shared my most.

First of all, I want the weights to stay in place. The same problem with losing a weight belt has happened many times with integrated weight pockets. Particularly the style that uses Velcro only without some kind of mechanical attachment (buckle). Even then, there is anecdotal evidence that the pockets can still fall out.

Why is it that when you are horizontal in the water, your integrated weights are in a perfect position to fall out? Rhetorical question because the alternative would be that they fall out the bottom when you are vertical.

I agree that the BCs with ripcord systems are probably quite satisfactory.

Second, I don't want to increase the weight of the BC. My grandson is 10 years old. The full Al 50 weighs about 25# and he has 14# of integrated weight (10# in the pockets and 4# for trim weights). That's a lot to pick up. He has another 10# in the harness. It might be better to move that 10# from the integrated pockets to the harness. We'll probably try that pretty soon.

At some point he will have a SS backplate and that will eliminate the trim weights and the rest of it will go in a harness. He will have roughly 18# in the harness.

When he can hump an HP 100, he will be able to drop about 5# from the harness so that will get him to 13# - maybe less. But, of course, he will be getting bigger so he will have a more buoyant wetsuit.

If you decide to remove your BC underwater, it would be nice to be wearing enough ballast to stay on the bottom How much weight is a function of the wetsuit and the depth but it will certainly be more than just a few pounds. There might be very good reasons for removing a BC underwater such as rehanging a cylinder that slipped. Then again, I only by BCs and BP/Ws that have dual cambands. Been there, done that with the single bands. Won't happen again!

Anyway, I'm not a fan of integrated weights for cold water diving. Sure, if I was still diving in warm water with 6# of weight, I would carry it in an integrated BC. But, I'm not...

Richard

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I've had a couple of lost weight belts fall straight down from under the crotch strap. Once the buckle came loose, all that had to happen was for one side to fall out first, and the other followed.

The other thing that some people do is put two buckles on their weightbelt. You just have to remember to undo at least two things or maybe three (crotch strap).
I've never lost a weight belt so all this is speculation to me. I always use a high quality stainless buckle and make sure it's one that has a good snap down latching feel. So far so good.