Weight belt on top of or under crotch strap?

[DevonDiver]

. The stress of an emergency caused narrowing and they were unable to release the ballast, the results were not good.

I concur. What 'kills' divers, who drown with weights in place, is panic, not the efficiency or technique required to jettison the weights themselves.

Whatever the release method - belt over/under, integrated system, explosive bolt... it's counts for nothing if the diver doesn't have an ingrained response to get rid of the weights during an ascent, or immediately upon surfacing.

 

[DaleC]

I wear my belt both above and below the crotch strap, depending on the circumstance and rig I am using. As some have said, the most important feature being the ability of the diver to remember how to dump it in a crisis.

While I do own a set of weight pockets that came with my first BCD I find them to be an expensive solution - $100 compared to $10 - which may cause some to hesitate when needing to dump weight. We also recover many weight pockets up here so the notion that losing them never happens rings hollow to me.

I know some people have no hips and struggle to keep a weight belt on and ditchable pockets make sense to me then. I dislike the weight pockets on the rig though as it make loading them harder and the rig cumbersome. I made a harness for my pockets and that worked well.

Of course, there is also the Cousteau solution of connecting the crotch strap directly to the weight belt. This can be done by either using a purpose built buckle or making a loop in the crotch strap with a quick release option. The rig being worn usually has shoulder straps but does not have a waist belt.

 

[SeaCobra]

Having recovered a 28# weightbelt from 95 fsw once ... and knowing what happened to the guy who dropped it there ... I don't find it laughable at all.

I guess some people think it's funny to see a diver emulate Free Willy after an unplanned buoyant ascent ... but I'm not one of those people.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I certainly do not find anyone's injury or misfortune humorous in the least. But there is a flaw in the logic. I recommend that people take the time to work on their gear configs, spend a little time in the water and make adjustments that make sense and keep safety in mind.

Releasing a weightbelt that is under a crotch strap is more problematic than meets the eye, especially for the novice diver. I know all of the uber-experienced studs here would never have this problem, but the common response is to ditch the weightbelt. It then gets hung up on the crotch strap and we have to release that. What kind of release does the crotch strap have? A fastek buckle that is now pulled taught and made more difficult to release because of the weight now on it? Or do we have to release the waist buckle to allow the crotch strap to slide free and thus introducing more issues as the wing will now try to float away from the diver's back.

IMHO - crotch straps and weighbelts should not coexist. If you need extra ballast use a weight system for the rig you are wearing or use a harness system like the DUI weight and trim.

Also, and I cannot stress this enough, dive properly weighted!

 

[prettyfish]

Thank you for all the wonderful advice. This is the third time I've dived with this wing and the first time I've had equipment that is mine so I'm trying to work out the best set up for all of my gear. I have not used the crotch strap yet and do not know how it will help my buoyancy or if it will at all. If not, it seems best to leave it off if it is not needed. I am more interested in safety than in looking pretty in the water at the moment.

 

[Splitlip]

If you've no need for the crotch strap, answered. See Awap's post.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Thank you for all the wonderful advice. This is the third time I've dived with this wing and the first time I've had equipment that is mine so I'm trying to work out the best set up for all of my gear. I have not used the crotch strap yet and do not know how it will help my buoyancy or if it will at all. If not, it seems best to leave it off if it is not needed. I am more interested in safety than in looking pretty in the water at the moment.

With a Transpac you can probably dive just fine without it due to the way the harness is built.

But the concept you should be coming away with is that there are differing opinions ... due to the trade-offs between the risk of accidentally losing your weights vs the risk of not being able to ditch them easily if it should be required. Generally speaking, you don't want to ditch weights underwater unless it's a true life or death emergency ... but you do want to be able to ditch them easily on the surface if you're in a position where you want to remain buoyant enough to stay there.

Whatever weighting system you choose, and however you choose to use it, you should practice ditching weights until you are confident that in a stressful situation ... where your mind's on a few other things ... you would (a) think to do it, and (b) do it without difficulty. I recommend you do this on the surface ... in shallow water so that your weights can be easily retrieved.

With sufficient practice, the over vs under issue becomes academic ... and boils down to whatever's more comfortable for you ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[buddhasummer]

Under for me too.

 

[RJP]

I am more interested in safety than in looking pretty in the water at the moment.

There's a few nice things that fall in between "safety" and "looking pretty" such as proper trim, etc. Crotch strap helps keep your rig properly positioned, both underwater and on the surface. Many folks find that w/out the crotch strap the rig can ride up on them, or that they have to wear the shoulder and waist straps too tight to make up for it, or at the surface the rig floats higher than they do, rising up over their head. Heck, I guess it's possible that with a weight belt and no crotch strap that you could actually slip out of your rig... though I've never heard of that happening.

 

[bj139]

I just came back from Bermuda and brought a SS BP/W. In freshwater with drysuit I need 12 lbs with an AL80(I strap a 4 lb directly to tank with other 8 lbs in pockets). I figured in salt water with a 3mm fullsuit I would need 6 lbs. The dive shop operator suggested 18 lbs. I thought they knew best and I was right. I had 2 weight pockets on the BP/W so a 4 lb weight went in each pocket. The weight belt they provided had two 5 lb weights. The crotch strap interfered with the security of the weight belt at the back so I quickly removed the crotch strap and the weight belt fit fine under the BP at the back. While diving, I did not notice the crotch strap was gone.
The only time I ever noticed the difference between crotch strap or no crotch strap was at the surface during training when the BC would ride up around my neck without a crotch strap. During training, the instructors had us inflate to the max, something I don't do now since it would push my face into the water with the back inflate BP/W. I just inflate enough to get my head above water. Now I am thinking "is the crotch strap just another useless strap to get in the way?" I know it would be helpful when trying to pull an unconscious diver from the water but otherwise I don't know. Maybe scooter users are the only divers who really need it.

Bill

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Best way to answer your own question would be to do a dive without it, and then another one with it, and compare the results.

For me, a crotch strap makes a tangible difference in how stable the rig feels.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)