Using a weight belt with a BP/W

[MB NZ]

When I started freediving (long after SCUBA), I realised just how buoyant humans plus a little neoprene are! Even at depth, when correctly weighted, a push off the bottom plus a couple of kicks sends you rocketing towards the surface. It's quite fun after many years of controlled SCUBA ascents! I cannot image a situation where I would want to dump my lead underwater on SCUBA. Obviously, this doesn't apply if one is seriously over-weighted or does something stupid.

 

[Litefoot]

The weightbelt alone is not enough to sink me.
I also use a 5 lb steel backplate and a steel tank. My OVERALL weighting is such that I can actually float on the surface fully rigged with a full tank. I have to tip forward headfirst and swim down to descend. I use a 7mm wetsuit with hood gloves booties.
My weighting is adjusted so that at the end of the dive with 300-500 psi left I can sit at 15’ perfectly neutral with no air in my wing and hold a stop with breath control alone. This 15’ end of dive neutrality is actually what determines all my overall weighting. All the other features like being able to float on the surface etc. are incidental and secondary.
One thing I am not is an elevator diver. I came from a free diving/ skindiving background so that type of mechanical gear dependent diving is very foreign to me.

Okay, that makes total sense. Thank you!

 

[ehudco]

Mako rubber freediving belt UNDER the crotch strap. Because I used to dive cold water, I put pockets on it. 2 in the back and 2 towards the front. The ones toward the front were mounted upside down.
The number of times I dropped weight from them, outside of demoing the setup for a class? 0 (none, nada, zilch) because I also dived properly weighted. The ditching option was just in case I needed to drop some to assist someone else at the surface and wanted as much lift as possible.
There is no need to wear the belt over the harness or crotch strap.
Try it sometime in a pool or where you know you will find the belt. Use pockets and put soft weights in them if it's a pool.
Get to the surface, pop your waist belt and let the crotch strap fall away as you pop the buckle on the belt.
Takes less than a few seconds and the belt is gone.
Putting it over the harness is a good way to greatly increase the chance of it dropping when you don't want it to.

Thanks, I've ordered and received a Mako one, will try later this week.

 

[jellycatsdad]

Mako rubber freediving belt UNDER the crotch strap. Because I used to dive cold water, I put pockets on it. 2 in the back and 2 towards the front. The ones toward the front were mounted upside down.
The number of times I dropped weight from them, outside of demoing the setup for a class? 0 (none, nada, zilch) because I also dived properly weighted. The ditching option was just in case I needed to drop some to assist someone else at the surface and wanted as much lift as possible.
There is no need to wear the belt over the harness or crotch strap.
Try it sometime in a pool or where you know you will find the belt. Use pockets and put soft weights in them if it's a pool.
Get to the surface, pop your waist belt and let the crotch strap fall away as you pop the buckle on the belt.
Takes less than a few seconds and the belt is gone.
Putting it over the harness is a good way to greatly increase the chance of it dropping when you don't want it to.

I have that same weight belt - I thread on 14-20lbs of weight(there’s 4-6lbs on my cam bands) onto my weight belt, but I have mine over my crotch strap. That way, if someone or I need to drop weights, it won’t get stuck with a strap.

I’m going to tweak this and maybe get a new BPW with a bigger wing(35-40lb vs 27lb) down the road and hopefully drop down to 12lb of lead wet with an HP100/LP95.