Not ditching for fear of losing. Black or NTSB neon inserts?

[MichaelMc]

SEASOFT ORANGE MESH Weight Pockets

Kind of like these?

Yes !!! Points go to SeaSoft !!!

Edit: Also Zeagle got it right as well with yellow neon inserts, for surface ditching.
Mesh Weight Pouch 12lb

 

[yle]

Michael, a couple things came to mind as I read your post:

1. You're worried about losing a ditched weight pouch during a drill. But search & recovery skills are part of the DM program. Which means every ditched weight pouch is an opportunity for you to practice your S&R... and if you're worried about not being able to find a weight pouch (which are the easiest things to find... they tend to go straight down), then maybe you could use more practice with S&R until you're more confident.

2. You're worried that in a real emergency you might hesitate to drop weights because... you might drop the wrong color? You should definitely get more practice and training until this issue is drilled out of that small part of your brain. As a DM, your training should allow you to make the right decisions, even under stress, in an emergency situation.

My post might sound a little sarcastic, but I really don't mean it to be. My point is that with effective DM training, I think you'll find the issues you're worried about will fade to nothing. And then you'll answer your own question, i.e. why weight pouches are all black.

 

[Storker]

If you're in a situation dire enough to require you to ditch weights in order to survive, it's hard to see that the potential cost of a couple of weight pockets would be an issue. The fact that it's a concern at all is interesting.

If it was a clear-cut "If I don't drop my weights, I'm going to die" situation, then you're right. Bit if it's a situation that is less obvious, such as you can't see the boat but you know it's around somewhere (so you know it's going to be a fairly long wait), or the seas are building up while you're waiting, I could see some people considering their chance of getting their weights back and avoiding the cost of replacing them, being a consideration.

Denial isn't just a river in Egypt. And people sometimes have very irrational priorities when in an emergency. Or rather, expect irrational behavior from people who are in an emergency

It's a sad fact that way too many dead divers are found on the bottom with their weights in place. There are many indications that divers in distress tend to wait too long to ditch their weights. There's probably a darned good reason that our national Diving Association refunds ditched weights, no questions asked, just provide an incident report (IIRC some shops in that weird country outside our borders have the same policy).

I for one applaud anything that might make the barrier to ditching weights - when it's appropriate - lower.

 

[KevinNM]

Go here:IDENTI-TAPE - 3M SOLAS Reflective Tape - USCG Approved

Buy a 15 foot length of 3150-A as wide as is practical and wrap it around each pocket when the pocket is dry, then seat it well and give it some time to bond. It sticks pretty well to woven nylon (and rubber - I use it on my black jetfins).

It won't help if you drop it into 6 feet of silt, but on sand or other stable bottoms it shows up pretty well.

 

[MichaelMc]

yle,
Thanks. I’m not really worried about it during a drill. On search, I’ve lead a real life 10 diver low vis gear search effort. I can always learn more, but feel comfortable on doing a search or just looking down and seeing it in the sand.

Yet I’m sure my subconscious mind can tell the difference in retrievability between neon and black, and it kind of likes that small weight pouch. I could drill and drill my mind and body many times to ignore the black v.s. neon in the ditch choice. But if I can fix that issue from my couch on land, with a gear change that doesn’t add complexity, that seems better. Similarly, I can stay in flat DIR style trim with small down motions of my fins, or, while on land, I can also move and fine tune trim weights, as I’ve done.

Yes, there are many issues with bigger impact. I would not be telling a new diver neon pouches come before many other issues. If we are in the situation of new students, on a boat in swells, preparing them, this is not the issue to spend time on. And for me, lack of a redundant oral inflate bladder and lack of a redundant air cylinder come to mind. I’m working on moving in those directions.

But if I look at my ditchable weight pouches, there is a small problem there. Neon would be better, and it’s the same weight and size, and maybe very close cost. Leaving that, small, bit of my gear, and that offered by most companies, wrong, to my mind.

Suppose we are at home or in our design lab, figuring out how to set our gear, and maybe theirs. Are you saying they are black because we are busy with bigger stuff? Which I get. Or are you saying that among color choices black is the right one? Because they are not all black, two above come in neon. If I were making pouches and ordered several yards of neon instead of black for the pouches, how much would be the extra cost? $1 per? $5 per?

Go here:IDENTI-TAPE - 3M SOLAS Reflective Tape - USCG Approved
.

Excellent. Thank you! That can retrofit my pouches nicely!! It would still make much more sense to me if they came in neon. It might help some of those, who do not tweak their gear, from leaving weights on when they should not.

 

[Captain Swoop]

Buy some fabric paint.

 

[rmssetc]

Hi, I’m new posting on the board. I assist in teaching scientific diving at UC Berkeley, where I’m a graduate student. This post is about a near miss I could see myself making. I don’t think it’s far fetched. It doesn’t involve any accident I know of. I’m just wondering about my gear, and maybe all our gear. It might be a little thing we can fix.

My thoughts on the pros and cons.
Pros:
* Color not slowing down my stressed brain on if or which weight to ditch.
* Few worries finding them after a practice ocean ditch drill.
* Option of ‘safety is key’ discussion when appropriate.

• Divers below the falling weight have a slightly better chance of seeing the lead missile plummeting towards them.
• Easier to identify your weight pockts vs. others on a crowded boat (at least until neon becomes the new black).

Cons:
* Some neon shining out of the outer pocket during the dive.

I don't know how that's a "Con".

I think this is a fine idea for training, when the person practicing ditching weights might actually be thinking of the color of the pocket or belt. Outside of a training situation, I find it hard to imagine that being a serious consideration...and the diver (and companions) will be too occupied with other things to make retrieving the weights a priority...leading to a seabed littered with brightly colored reminders of ditched weights of long ago.

 

[TMHeimer]

Yes I guess you could paint any integrated weights or belts if you want. As you said, finding black pockets during a drill is easy--even with seaweed, grass--assuming you're not dropping them in 20' of low viz water. As far as a real emergency, as pointed out, it's not a concern if a life is at stake. I personally can't think of anything in between where I'd want to drop my pouches-- such as rough surf near a boat and a long wait--unless a big hole all of a sudden in my BC. Not likely.

 

[Marie13]

I've lost a weight or two when they had to be pulled during my OW dives as I don't have the upper body strength to make a deep water exit fully geared up, and the weights were accidentally dropped to the bottom in 50 ft of water. They were black. I didn't worry about it. They were gone. Move on. Worrying about the color of your weights seems something odd to be concerned about.

 

[lerpy]

If I had to ditch weight I would not be concerned over the colour. Everything I have learned however is there is pretty close to no reason to ditch weight at depth, it would have to be a pretty extreme situation. Personally I do not have any weight to ditch myself. With double 130's and stage and deco I am pretty heavy.