Placement of the weight belt and dropping it

[billt4sf]

Emily and I (thought we) understood that the weight belt should be UNDER the crotch strap so that it doesn't get dropped unintentionally. We have now also discovered that neither of us needs a weight belt in tropical diving, me with a 2.5mm shorty and her with no wetsuit. I wear a 10 lb SS plate and she wears a 5 lb AL plate.

Are we making a mistake here? What if we were OOA and could not orally inflate, we have nothing to drop.

Is there *any* reason to ever drop a weight belt at depth?

- Bill

 

[PfcAJ]

Can you swim up from depth with no gas in your wing and full tanks?

Can your rig float without you in it?

Can you hold a 10ft stop with an empty tank?

If you can do all those things, you're fine.

 

[Tortuga68]

Search for 'balanced rig'

As for over/under, you'll find different opinions; my preference is for both i.e. under at the front and over at the back - makes it easier to ditch if you need to, while still providing the advantage of being harder to lose accidentally

If you want/need to have ditchable weights, there are other options than a weight belt i.e weight pockets/integerated weights. Personally I dive tropical just with a SS BP/wing, no weights, no problem

By the way, being OOG doesn't mean you can't orally inflate

 

[TSandM]

I've never been able to come up with a situation where I would need to drop weights at depth. You'd have to have quite a set of failures to get there. However, dropping weights at the surface is the first step in any significant problem, because once you have done that, you will not sink, and all problems are better managed at the surface, once you have arrived there.

You should have practiced orally inflating while somewhat negative in your OW class. You have to kick up to do it, but it can be done. Where you might have a problem is with a diver who is too panicked to remember how to do this, or who has arrived at the surface after an out-of-gas emergency and has suffered barotrauma or something making it impossible for him or her to do it. It's difficult to orally inflate someone else's BC for them, and might be dangerous if they are panicked. It's easier to go underwater and drop weights.

Those of us who are willing to dive with no ditchable weight are gambling that we will not be the diver who arrives at the surface, out of gas and panicked, or out of gas and disabled. Since I practice diligent gas management and dive with buddies who do the same, I think it's sufficiently unlikely that I'll end up in either of those situations, that I am willing to take the risk. If you assess the risk differently, you should change your gear to permit ditchable weight.

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . .
Those of us who are willing to dive with no ditchable weight are gambling that we will not be the diver who arrives at the surface, out of gas and panicked, or out of gas and disabled. . . .

I've never seen it put that way, but that's exactly it.

I am not certain that I have yet reached the point where I feel comfortable making that gamble. I just don't feel I can say for certain that I will never have an episode of panic on the surface or have some other reason to want to improve my security at the surface by ditching some weight. The balanced rig concept and "swimming it up" are things I am grappling with right now.

 

[eelnoraa]

I wear a 10 lb SS plate and she wears a 5 lb AL plate.

Are you sure? Most SS plates is 5lb, AL plates are 2lb.

If you rig is balance, I see no reason to drop weight at depth. And the only reason I can think of is a total wing failure, you swim up your rig to the surface, then drop some weight so that you can stay floating without kicking while waiting for help. But again, why your plates are so heavy?

 

[billt4sf]

I've never been able to come up with a situation where I would need to drop weights at depth. You'd have to have quite a set of failures to get there. However, dropping weights at the surface is the first step in any significant problem, because once you have done that, you will not sink, and all problems are better managed at the surface, once you have arrived there.

You should have practiced orally inflating while somewhat negative in your OW class. You have to kick up to do it, but it can be done. Where you might have a problem is with a diver who is too panicked to remember how to do this, or who has arrived at the surface after an out-of-gas emergency and has suffered barotrauma or something making it impossible for him or her to do it. It's difficult to orally inflate someone else's BC for them, and might be dangerous if they are panicked. It's easier to go underwater and drop weights.

Those of us who are willing to dive with no ditchable weight are gambling that we will not be the diver who arrives at the surface, out of gas and panicked, or out of gas and disabled. Since I practice diligent gas management and dive with buddies who do the same, I think it's sufficiently unlikely that I'll end up in either of those situations, that I am willing to take the risk. If you assess the risk differently, you should change your gear to permit ditchable weight.

Another on-target posting from Lynne. We have been practicing oral inflation, BTW. It's not that easy.

And does the weight belt go UNDER or OVER the harness?

eelnora, I was going from memory. I'll weigh them again when we return home --- uhhhhh...shoot! That's tomorrow.

- Bill

 

[TSandM]

Basic theory is weight belt goes over the harness when diving wet; under the harness when diving dry, because you have redundant buoyancy. In practice, it is quite a challenge to get a heavy weight belt on over the harness when diving cold water; but then again, diving a thick wetsuit to much of any depth isn't a balanced rig, and isn't very DIR.

 

[tracydr]

The weight belt can go how you like but I believe most people put it under the harness.
Maybe they have weighted STA's or the DSS plate screwed onto the plates.