Weight belt 'ditching' incident

[fgriffith]

IMO, some divers need to be more creative with their weighting... In this case, a five pound weight on a tank band would not only have reduced the amount of weight lost when the belt came loose, but would have put the diver in a horizontal position which, most likely, would have prevented the mishap in the first place.

 

[ExtremeScuba]

k

 

[RiverRat]

Weight belts scare the c@#$ out of me, can't believe how they can still let people use these objects of death. The only time you may want to ditch your weights is at the surface.......... Oneday we will all be diving BP/W's.

I hear that! Most of my diving has been warmer waters, 3mm shortie, heavy backplate as possible, little weight on belt as possible (3-4#) just for "fine tuning".

I've been recently diving in RI in a 7mm O'Neill wetsuit. Even with my steel tank and 9# backplate I'm amazed at how buoyant the 7mm is. I still need 10-11# on my belt. Even when I'm properly weighted when I get down to around only 20fsw the suit compression is significant. I'm finding I still have to use quite a bit of air in my BC to compensate for suit compression. It's impossible to dive this suit like I do my 3mm in the tropics. I'm thinking drysuit now In fact I may even start using my 10# P-weight on my FredT plate. As soon as I start my dives in the 7mm I have to tighten my weight belt, it loosens up pretty good. I could not imagine losing that belt in my 7mm. Even properly weighted it's too damn buoyant.

 

[NOVIZWHIZ]

Funny story and nobody died - Buddy and I found an old anchor right off the beach about 30' of water- We come up and discuss recovery - he suggests lift bag. Next day at dive shop borrowing lift bag...he holds it up and I say "Ain't big enough!" - he says it is and off we go. Clowns that hang around dive shop decide to follow us and watch recovery op. We go down hook onto anchor, fill bag with air and anchor stands up, but won't come off bottom. We go up to re-evaluate technical aspects -of course I say "I TOLD YOU SO!". he says we should go down grab it, inflate both BC's and extra lift will bring it up...stupid me I say ok. We go down both wrap arms and legs aroung shank, inflate both vests and up we go...very slowly. get to surface, lift bag lies over and deflates...down we go again....or at least down I go. Buddy let go of his end...so many bubbles and viz so bad I don't realize this. Sink back down to bottom alone. Get to bottom, realize buddy not there...typical reaction is to put hands on hip and say "DAM!".....in doing so, let go of anchor, BC still full. Guys on beach (after they get done rolling around and shrieking with laughter) say I cleared the water enough that they could see the tips of my fins. Missed my partner on the way up, but I got him on the way back down....

 

[DandyDon]

Funny story and nobody died - Buddy and I found an old anchor right off the beach about 30' of water- We come up and discuss recovery - he suggests lift bag. Next day at dive shop borrowing lift bag...he holds it up and I say "Ain't big enough!" - he says it is and off we go. Clowns that hang around dive shop decide to follow us and watch recovery op. We go down hook onto anchor, fill bag with air and anchor stands up, but won't come off bottom. We go up to re-evaluate technical aspects -of course I say "I TOLD YOU SO!". he says we should go down grab it, inflate both BC's and extra lift will bring it up...stupid me I say ok. We go down both wrap arms and legs aroung shank, inflate both vests and up we go...very slowly. get to surface, lift bag lies over and deflates...down we go again....or at least down I go. Buddy let go of his end...so many bubbles and viz so bad I don't realize this. Sink back down to bottom alone. Get to bottom, realize buddy not there...typical reaction is to put hands on hip and say "DAM!".....in doing so, let go of anchor, BC still full. Guys on beach (after they get done rolling around and shrieking with laughter) say I cleared the water enough that they could see the tips of my fins. Missed my partner on the way up, but I got him on the way back down....

:lol: :lol2: :lol3:

 

[jbd]

Weight belts scare the c@#$ out of me, can't believe how they can still let people use these objects of death. The only time you may want to ditch your weights is at the surface.......... Oneday we will all be diving BP/W's.

Weight belts are like guns---they don't kill anything. People kill people. Even with BP/wings many people still need extra weight which is often on a belt.

The problem in this case was that the diver was most likely not properly weighted and for some reason lost his horizontal position in the water. The belt was probably not adjusted once he was UW.

 

[pasley]

Funny story and nobody died - Buddy and I found an old anchor right off ... Missed my partner on the way up, but I got him on the way back down....

Now thats funny! LOL

 

[Dave in PA]

Hold on....can't breath......side hurts.......where.....is......vid..eo?

 

[pickens_46929]

6. Not all of my weight is ditchable. 8 pounds in each pocket and 2 pounds non-ditchable in each back pocket for a total of 4. I have lost a pouch before and it was just a minor thing. I started to rise a bit, vented, and checked my air, and said early for a weight shift, then looked down and spotted my weight pouch and recovered it.

Hmmmm, maybe Jim has a point. Peerhaps I should reconfigure my weights to 6#x2 ditchable and 4#x2 non-ditchable or 7#x2 and 3#x2. With the latter if I lost a pouch it would only be 35% but in a deliberate ditch I oculd still lose 70% of my wieghts. Hmmmm, need to evaluate that one.

I also try to spread my weight around pretty evenly... 1/3 left pouch 1/3 right pouch 1/3 (or up to 5#) in a tank pouch (non-ditchable)... this isn't perfect but does give me control over ditching. I've even put little 1# weights in my front pockets that I can pullout if I have to.

Don't want to sink like a rock or rise like a Polaris missle either.

Just saw a BC from either Oceanic or Mares that has 4 ditchable weight pouches and 2 non-ditchable trim pockets... (plus 3 pockets in the front if you really wanted to).

Dave

 

[scubafool]

You wont get me into one of those damn things ! Wing maybe, SS backplate/harness no.

I also HATE the idea of having your weight attached to your tank, if you need to dekit underwater i dont want to be doing a polaris impression. Best solution is still a weight harness.

But then you must answer the question of what circumstances would require that you remove your gear U/W?
I've done it, but never because I had to, and it was in 5 feet of water.