Solo with a weight belt

[Spimon]

The very real risk of accidentally losing a weight belt far outweighs its benefit in the extremely rare circumstance that I need to remove my kit underwater. In my opinion. Weight belts make me nervous.

I've had quite the opposite experience. The only time I've accidently dropped weights was from an integrated system. The integreated system releases weights forward (or down when horizontal) if the clip isn't done up properly or comes undsone for any reason.

The weight belt, even if unclipped stays hanging around my waist, but I've never had a weight belt accidently come undone.

Only time I've removed my kit at depth was to move the tank down a little. The tank was longer than my own tanks and hit the back of my head. Not absolutely necessary, but became much more comfortable.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Hi nielsent,

I wear a weightbelt. For the type of dives I do, it makes the most sense.

The main reason for most non-techincal divers to drop weight would be to handle a surface emergency. It is rare for a single tank diver to need to drop weight to get back to the surface.... the problem is staying there if you have a BC completely fail (rare, but happens), and then cramp-up, get ill, exhausted, etc.

I do understand your example about having to remove your rig underwater; if all of your ballast weight is on the rig, you'll have an interesting time as you become "positive" and your rig becomes more "negative" :shocked2:

Anyway, considereing pro's and con's of ditchable weight are interesting (for me anyway ).

My feeling is, whenever possible, some ditchable weight is a very good idea for most recreational divers.

"Tech" divers are a different animal, and most often have backup sources of buoyancy (lift bags, dry suits, buddies ), and often cannot return directly to the surface due to deco obligations, and typically are diving heavier rigs (doubles, stages, reels, etc.) so they may be so "negative" that they do not have (or want!) ditchable weight.

So I think each diver needs to carefully evaluate whether the greatest risk is not being able to stay on the surface (single tank, open water, recreational diver); or whether a premature ascent to the surface (tech diver with deco obligation) is the greater risk.

Best wishes.

 

[AfterDark]

When diving with my 7mm farmer / hooded vest and my AL80 I need 38 pounds to be able to submerge. I've got 25lbs. on a weight belt, 10 lbs clamped on to my tank and another 3 lbs clipped to my bc. All but the 10 lbs on the tank is ditchable.

At no time can I envision parting with my bc, I've been entangled twice, once with and once without a bc, once solo the other time with a buddy (we were both entangled) the only thing I was concerned about dropping was my knife.

Now that I'm the owner of a steel 102 and the water is warm enough to drop the vest and the 5mm gloves I'm down to 25 lbs on my belt. This is much better! All of that is ditchable and will turn me into a vertically launched missile at some point during the ascent. Forty years of diving I've never lost a weight belt. I've used a spring loaded buckle for years and 20' is belt tighting depth, head down a$$ up tighten the belt, continue the dive.

I'm always refining my rig, I'm working on spreading the weight around to have more options and I don't turn into a missile if I do need to drop my belt.
As always the biggest obstacle is $$. A harness with dicthable weights is probably the easy and best solution but there's that $$ thing.

 

[FritzCat66]

Interesting discussion. It seems as if an ideal situation for both rec and tech solo divers would be to have some sort of weight integrated with our suits so as to be neutral or just barely positive in just the suit at depth, with the balance on our rigs. Yet both weights would need to be droppable at the surface.

 

[joe8mofo]

What of the instances where the person diving needs no weight? I dive an AL backplate and as long as the tank on my back is a steel 95 or larger I need no lead. I am sure there are many out there that dive with all of their weight on their backplate, and add a steel tank and you may very well need no lead.

 

[AfterDark]

What of the instances where the person diving needs no weight? I dive an AL backplate and as long as the tank on my back is a steel 95 or larger I need no lead. I am sure there are many out there that dive with all of their weight on their backplate, and add a steel tank and you may very well need no lead.

I prefer to have some ditchable weight. Even though I've never had to ditched them I like the idea of being able to reach the surface without kicking in an emergency. The idea of not having to deal with weights is a temping one I must admit!

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

What of the instances where the person diving needs no weight? I dive an AL backplate and as long as the tank on my back is a steel 95 or larger I need no lead. I am sure there are many out there that dive with all of their weight on their backplate, and add a steel tank and you may very well need no lead.

Sorry, this is going to be "longish", and maybe not a direct answer... the short answer is it depends

My opinion (others my differ ) is that you have to step back and look at your overall buoyancy and sources of reserve buoyancy before you can determine whether it is "ok" to dive without ditchable weight.

What I look at personally when determining how much (if any) weight needs to be ditchable is this:

"How negative is this rig (with me in it) at the surface with a full tank? How about at depth? Will it drown me if I have a complete BC failure?"

I do think it is a good idea to configure your rig so that some of your total ballast requirement remains "ditchable". But some divers in tropical water (thin wetsuits) may end up with no ditchable weight, even diving Al80's. But here we are talking about maybe < 10 lbs negative max??... so with fins on it is manageable in the event of a BC failure.

And with thin wetsuits will there be minimal buoyancy lost at depth (thin wetsuits can't lose buoyancy they don't have to begin with).... the issue will probably be the ability to remain on the suface.

But what if you substitute a heavier LP steel tank and backplate on a thin diver with a thin wetsuit?? Again, I think it comes down to the ability of the diver to aviod drowning at the surface if they cannot inflate their BC. You need to figure out how negative you are going to be by calculating the buoyancy of your rig, your exposure suit, and you.

I began diving in the pre-BC era, and dove steel 72's with the equivalent of 5mm "beaver tail" 2-piece wetsuits. We did have to be pretty careful with weighting.... but properly weighted, it really was not that big a deal.

My wife dives without ditchable weight. I have more "bioprene", so even with a 3mm wetsuit, I have 8 lbs on a weightbelt, 10 lbs in a heavy SS backplate and STA... I could have all of it attached to my rig without a problem (I only use a "squirt" of air in my wing for floating on the surface, and it stays empty until I pass 50' depth)... but I'm more comfortable keeping 8 lbs ditchable, especially for solo.

Best wishes.

 

[joe8mofo]

Sorry, this is going to be "longish", and maybe not a direct answer... the short answer is it depends

My opinion (others my differ ) is that you have to step back and look at your overall buoyancy and sources of reserve buoyancy before you can determine whether it is "ok" to dive without ditchable weight.

What I look at personally when determining how much (if any) weight needs to be ditchable is this:

"How negative is this rig (with me in it) at the surface with a full tank? How about at depth? Will it drown me if I have a complete BC failure?"

I do think it is a good idea to configure your rig so that some of your total ballast requirement remains "ditchable". But some divers in tropical water (thin wetsuits) may end up with no ditchable weight, even diving Al80's. But here we are talking about maybe < 10 lbs negative max??... so with fins on it is manageable in the event of a BC failure.

And with thin wetsuits will there be minimal buoyancy lost at depth (thin wetsuits can't lose buoyancy they don't have to begin with).... the issue will probably be the ability to remain on the suface.

But what if you substitute a heavier LP steel tank and backplate on a thin diver with a thin wetsuit?? Again, I think it comes down to the ability of the diver to aviod drowning at the surface if they cannot inflate their BC. You need to figure out how negative you are going to be by calculating the buoyancy of your rig, your exposure suit, and you.

I began diving in the pre-BC era, and dove steel 72's with the equivalent of 5mm "beaver tail" 2-piece wetsuits. We did have to be pretty careful with weighting.... but properly weighted, it really was not that big a deal.

My wife dives without ditchable weight. I have more "bioprene", so even with a 3mm wetsuit, I have 8 lbs on a weightbelt, 10 lbs in a heavy SS backplate and STA... I could have all of it attached to my rig without a problem (I only use a "squirt" of air in my wing for floating on the surface, and it stays empty until I pass 50' depth)... but I'm more comfortable keeping 8 lbs ditchable, especially for solo.

Best wishes.

The ditch-able weight discussion definitely is relative to some degree. Some people don't need weight to get down, others need some. Typically when I dive I am in a 5mm or 7mm full suit, so in the event of a bladder failure I believe I would be able to swim up my rig and once at the surface the neoprene should provide some buoyancy to keep me at the surface long enough to at least inflate an SMB for additional buoyancy (assuming a Steel 95 which is ~8 lbs negative full along with the 3 lbs of my AL backplate and STA). The other thing to consider is if I breathe the tank down to 700 PSI then I am dealing with ~2 lbs negative as opposed to 8 for the tank. So I need to confirm if I can swim up a rig that weighs ~11 lbs.

As far as solo-diving goes and how this relates to the discussion of needing to remove BC due to entanglement; I would be able to take it off and put it back on without floating away from it as long as I was deeper than ~20 feet, otherwise I would have to fight the buoyancy of the wetsuit. I have tried this in a 5mm fullsuit in an 8ft pool and have managed it, but as mentioned had to fight wetsuit buoyancy.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject, and it seems that the main reasons
would wear a weight belt while solo would be if you have to take off your rig at depth or if you would like to have ditchable weight. But then again other than severe entanglement, when or why would you need to remove your harness? Or if you are in a properly balanced rig, when would you need to drop your weights?

There is a lot to read on releasable weight for solo divers?

I think you need to edit your op, or make another post; narrowing the parameters of the question.

Personally, I think for divers who should be diving solo, the need to be perfectly weighted and/or have a balanced rig is highly overrated. For a deep dive with a good mooring line, I could easily dive my most buoyant configuration with no weight and still HOLD my safety stop.

Warning; another long winded post from Hawaii, and this one most probably more than superfluous; but the solo forum could use a little more than superfluous every now and then.

Since the VAST majority of divers in the world are using vest BC's and AL80's in warm water I am of the opinion the VAST majority of solo divers are just using that normal gear and diving without a buddy. I have been wearing weight belts, for scuba and breath hold, since '67; why "fix" something that's not broke?

My slate is permanently attached to my work BC, so if I end up using that BC for a solo dive I could draw pictures for the dolphins.

When solo I like the option to be able to suck the tank dry in shallow water taking pictures, so even with an 8 lb negative when empty steel tank and 6 lbs in the trim pockets (2x3), I still have 4 lbs on a belt (2x2).

My other belt is 16 lbs, so in my buoyant wet suit, an AL80 and my vest BC with no trim pockets, I might struggle to stay down until 150 psi. With my Asahi 120, less buoyant wet suit and trim weight BC I will have to add air at 10 fsw below 150 psi.

As a guide I make dives regularly with 6 lbs extra weight (3x2), and on occasion I have had to give up 10 lbs to keep tourists down (wore an 8 lb belt when he needed 18?). Luckily when I guide I'm usually using the 120 and end with over 1000 psi.

My only solo dive with pony was made with an AL100, AL40, 3 mm long sleeve shorty and 3 mm john; never dove that configuration before, never dove that configuration since, never did a weight check, just figured my 16 lb belt was "about" right. It was a scooter dive so if I ended up light I would have just "drove" myself at SS depth.

​

Here in Hawaii, working as guide/instructor since '01, I have seen exactly one lost weight belt during a dive. That was a crazy Irish lady who I "corrected" when she donned it left hand release. She said "but I'm left handed." Ever since I ASK "is that how were you trained &/or dive regularly?"

AFAIS the bottom is littered with integrated weight pockets. :shocked2:

I really do not understand the question; If you need weight to dive your rig, wouldn't you wear the weight the same way, whether solo or buddy diving?

 

[drdaddy]

The ditch-able weight discussion definitely is relative to some degree. Some people don't need weight to get down, others need some. Typically when I dive I am in a 5mm or 7mm full suit, so in the event of a bladder failure I believe I would be able to swim up my rig and once at the surface the neoprene should provide some buoyancy to keep me at the surface long enough to at least inflate an SMB for additional buoyancy (assuming a Steel 95 which is ~8 lbs negative full along with the 3 lbs of my AL backplate and STA). The other thing to consider is if I breathe the tank down to 700 PSI then I am dealing with ~2 lbs negative as opposed to 8 for the tank. So I need to confirm if I can swim up a rig that weighs ~11 lbs.

As far as solo-diving goes and how this relates to the discussion of needing to remove BC due to entanglement; I would be able to take it off and put it back on without floating away from it as long as I was deeper than ~20 feet, otherwise I would have to fight the buoyancy of the wetsuit. I have tried this in a 5mm fullsuit in an 8ft pool and have managed it, but as mentioned had to fight wetsuit buoyancy.

I want to warn you. You may think that you could kick to the surface and then orally inflate your SMB - but I would encourage you to actually try it and practice it.

There was a time a few years back when I had to kick my way to the surface, with the plan to orally inflate my BCD. With a bit of chop and a load of crabs (hard to ditch because of the way they were clipped to my BCD) I was forced to ditch some lead. It's so easy to think - "I'd do such and such", but I would really encourage you to practice it - see how practical it is.

That said, I'm a bit concerned about tomorrow. I'm going on a crab dive tomorrow and plan to wear a different suit than I usually do. It is a full one piece back zip 7mm. Usually I wear a 2 piece farmer john 7mm. I'm wondering how much lead I should remove. Because it is a long climb down to the dive spot, I don't have any place to stash lead, and while I'd rather be slightly overweighted, I don't like to be overweighted at all when I'm (hopefully) going to be carrying up a bunch of crabs. Well, I think I'll try with 4 less pounds of lead and find a stump or something in the driftwood to stash the some extra lead. For all I know, this newer 1 piece wetsuit may be more buoyant than my old farmer john - though I doubt it.

(Anyone have a practical experience/estimate about the probable difference in weight needed between two XXL wetsuits - one being a one piece back zip 7mm and the other being a 2 piece farmer john 7mm?)

But I will still have 20 pounds of dumpable weight on my integrated system (and my tank is a HP steel 100 as well as a redudant/pony system)- I think that I will pull that out and stick it on the bank and see how well I float without them and then stick them back in my bcd.

I am not trying to hijack this thread. I'm just giving some practical thoughts to the decision about what kind and how "dumpable" are weights, and what variables (10 BIG dungeness crabs) like tides and wind/waves (and kelp/entanglements, etc.) may add to the decision making.