Remove DIR plate underwater Weight belt over harness

[DomaNitrogen]

I dont know why would i ever want to do so. But most people who looked at my DIR configuration with my weight belt over the harness; They said you cant remove your gear underwater.
My reply was i dont need to. But deep down inside i wanted to remove it just to prove a point. And cause i dive wet i put my weight over my the harness.

So i went to the pool and tried;
removed the long hose and unwrapped it over my body and hooked it to the right D-ring and used my backup reg.
removed the necklace from my neck still breathing from backup
unfastened the weight belt a little bit; to be able to remove the crouch strap.
unfastened the harness buckle.
removed the crouch strap from two ends of the weight belt
remove the gear by reaching out the tank from above my head

Done it took me less then 1 min to do so and that is the first time. next time i will get a cam and video tape it and post it.

To put the gear back on same steps in reverse. But one trick is crouch strap twist a little bit ( I will figure something out).

Again i dont know why i would want to remove it but it's a skill. i can remoive my DIR gear if i ever want to.

Cheers

 

[SparticleBrane]

And cause i dive wet i cant put my weight over my the harness.

?? Why not??

I put my weight belt (if required) over my crotch strap for easy dropping if need be...
Even if you do that, getting out of your gear is easy.

Perhaps I just misinterpreted part of your post?

 

[rjack321]

Weightbelts customarily go under the harness. At least with a drysuit and heavy undergarments up here, the only place you want to be dropping a weightbelt is on the surface.

 

[DomaNitrogen]

Sorry my mistake i edited it the post "Weight belt over harness"

 

[Adobo]

The instructor in my open water class demonstrated the underwater gear removal skill and had us do it ourselves.

To this day, I haven't figured out why one would take off their rig while underwater doing a recreational dive. I am sure there are a couple of very obvious reasons that escape me though. The only one I can actually think off is a situation where you get some line or some kelp wrapped in an area you can't reach. But even then, you buddy should be with you and should help be helping you get untangled.

With my relative inexperience, it seems that the underwater gear removal thing is largely a useless skill.

 

[riguerin]

Being able to doff your rig in the water is a useful skill to have. One practical situation where I have used this on several occasions is when diving from a small craft with no ladder or platform ... such as an inflatable or a panga. It's common practice to first doff your rig on the surface, tie it off or hand it up, before attempting to hurl yourself back into the boat.

 

[TSandM]

Taking your rig off at the surface is useful for diving off small boats.

Taking your rig off at depth may be critical in just the wrong kind of circumstance. A friend of mine was doing a cleanup dive at a local site, in about 20 feet of water but in poor viz. Her companion swam away from her, and when she tried to follow, she discovered she was caught in fishline. Her buddy didn't return, and she was unable to free herself, and got down to 500 psi (they were toward the end of the dive). She had to take her rig off to see where she was caught and cut the line. By the time she made the surface, she had 300 psi in the tank. Her errant buddy didn't surface for more than five more minutes. Yes, this was a double failure (entanglement and buddy separation) but it could have had disastrous consequences even in shallow water, had she not managed to free herself.

So I wouldn't say it's a useless skill. I'd say it's a rarely required skill.

 

[lamont]

Being able to doff your rig in the water is a useful skill to have. One practical situation where I have used this on several occasions is when diving from a small craft with no ladder or platform ... such as an inflatable or a panga. It's common practice to first doff your rig on the surface, tie it off or hand it up, before attempting to hurl yourself back into the boat.

Usually in that situation you want to take your weightbelt off first and pass it off anyway...

 

[riguerin]

Usually in that situation you want to take your weightbelt off first and pass it off anyway...

Yeah, in most cases I'd agree. Ultimately it probably depends on buoyancy characteristics of you exposure suit versus how much weight you wearing on the belt.

For example, wearing my dry suit w/300gm undies in salt water, I find that leaving the 4 lbs on actually helps stabilize me a better once the rig is off. Otherwise, I have to fight a bit to keep my lower half under me ... everything tends to want to float to the surface, putting me on my back. YMMV

 

[SparticleBrane]

I'll also point out that taking your gear off is a good test of buoyancy control/breathing (if you do it mid-water), and at the very least it's a good confidence builder. Teaches you to be slow and methodical (and relaxed with good technique! ) While it might not be something you do on every dive, I find it's another skill to have in your bag of tricks. Kinda like bare tank breathing.