I agree with you, Walter, but that isnt what I meant. I too perfer to be weighted neutral @ 500PSI and on the surface.
Let me give you an example. With my full, shorty, and hood, I require 30 to 32lbs of lead in salt water with an AL80. Lets break that down. The suits and hood have positive buoyancy of 22lbs on the surface, I have a positive buoyancy of 6lbs when breathing normally, and the AL80 has a positive buoyancy of approximately 3lbs when at 500PSI. Add those up and you get 31Lbs, which is the amount of lead needed. Suppose I had all this lead in my BCs weight integration system and with my Ranger, a single pull dumps it all. Ok, Im diving a wreck at 100fsw, to the sand, and I inadvertently back into a sharp object and puncture my BCs bladder badly. It wont hold any air, and I have around 1000PSI left in my tank. At 100fsw my wetsuits would have been compressed and they will have approximately 5.5/6Lbs of positive buoyancy at 100fsw. The tank would be approximate 2Lbs positive, Im still 6Lbs positive, and I have 32lbs of lead. So Id actually be 18Lbs (6 + 2 + 6 32 = -18lbs) negative at this point. So with no BC, Id be firmly planted to the bottom. Not sure if I could swim up the 18lbs or not, never really tried it. But Im in no immediate danger, Im calm, have air, and aint going any deeper, so the situation is manageable, but I need to get to the surface safely. If I were to drop all 32lbs, Id become 14lbs positive at 100fsw, the wetsuits would decompress as I ascended and Id pick up 16 more pounds of buoyancy from them along the way, making me +30lbs by the time I got to the surface. Would it not be safer to drop only part of the weight, say 12Lbs, which would make me a negative 6Lbs after dropping the weight, which I should be able to swim up pretty easy. As I ascended Id still gain the buoyancy of the suits (16lbs) making me +10lbs when I got to the surface. Dont you think this would be safer than dropping them all in this situation? Would you not be moving rather fast with +30lbs of buoyancy, and probably be bent when you reached the surfaced?