Set up weight for Dive Rite back plate

[fisherdvm]

Got one of those old wide yellow dive rite weight system and attached it to the right side of the waist belt (without the buckle). I loaded that up with 8 lbs.

Then I tried to put a regular weight belt on (with about 18 lbs of weight).

Then I tried to drop the belt, but it got caught on the crotch strap.

How are you suppose to put the weight belt on, over or under the crotch strap? Or should you simply try to integrate the weight onto the BC?

 

[Rainer]

I wear a weightbelt with about 12lbs in cold water (dry) and 2lbs in warm water (3mm wet). I always run the weightbelt UNDER the crotch strap. I can hardly imagine a scenario where I'd want to drop my belt, and running it under the crotch strap at least increases the chance of not losing the belt if it were to come loose. This happened to me on the Yukon in San Diego, where the rental belt I was using (I brought all my gear except my belt, won't happen again) broke and started to fall off. Caught on the crotch strap for a moment, but before I could grab it (not sure what I would have done with it, as the buckle had broken), it fell to the sea floor. While it didn't end up being too much of a problem (I made my way back to the anchor line and ascended doing all my stops), at least running it under the crotch strap gave me a chance of not losing it.

 

[fisherdvm]

That does make sense. I could always drop the 8 lbs if I wanted a little buoyancy. I might get a steel back plate and shed a few more lbs off the belt.

 

[String]

How are you suppose to put the weight belt on, over or under the crotch strap? Or should you simply try to integrate the weight onto the BC?

My belt is always under the crotch strap - i dont want it coming off by accident thereby killing me.

 

[ClayJar]

It's easy enough for me to swim my gear to the surface intact, and losing a weight belt when I'm diving dry would be quite a difficult problem to recover from. (Completely flooding the suit and then swimming down while making the ascent and stops is not something I'd like to practice.) With that in mind, my weight belt is under the crotch strap.