Weight belt or BCD

[Jim Lapenta]

There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Together they make the optimum system if you need alot of weight. I own a Zeagle bc and love it. However as an instructor I think that the ripcord system can be one of the worst options if you need to carry a lot of weight. If you would happen to lose the ability to inflate the bc for some reason and are carrying more than say 10-12 lbs it will be very difficult to control your ascent should you decide to dump the weight.

Another consideration is that most new divers do not know what the concept of a balanced rig is. Lazy instructors overweight them to keep em planted on the bottom. Properly weighted you should be able to swim your rig up with out air in the bc and still maintain control of the ascent. THIS IS NOT HARD TO DO EVEN IN AN OW CLASS. It takes time at each session to do good weight checks and at the end of class when tanks are low to repeat them. Quickie courses don't offer this time and are a grave injustice to the student.

The most I wear in a belt with a single tank is 8 lbs. No matter what suit, If dry I'm in a steel 95 with 8lbs of plates bolted to the BPW. Wet I use less than that unless doing OW checkouts. This gives me the option of removing a few pounds to give to a student who may be nervous and is not breathing as relaxed as they should and may be more buoyant than when they were in the pool.

It is also a bad idea to put all the weights in or on one system when using say more than 10 lbs. If you dump a pocket you lost 1/2 your ballast. A belt with 2-4 lbs will give you enough positive buoyancy in most any situation to start an ascent and maintain control. I have individual pockets that I could if necessary remove as little as 2lbs which would be enough.

As to not allowing you to use your system that is a bad idea and again shows some laziness on the part of the instructor. It could have been a valuable learning experience for everyone in the class. That chance is now lost. And those students who did not see it may have to aid a diver some day that is using it. Would have been much better to work it in the pool. I would have had each student work the rip cord on the surface. And at depth I would have had you do it while also in a belt to demonstrate what the ramifications are in it;s use for you if you mess up.

 

[fisheater]

A couple of thoughts. I used to use a weight integrated Zeagle. (I've since gone to a BP/W.)

You can hand up the yellow Zeagle weight pockets to a deck hand just fine. If you dive cold water, fully integrated weight makes your scuba uni darned heavy. I evolved to wearing half my weight on a belt. Also, it was dangerous to doff and don at depth with my suit trying to take me to the surface and my BCD trying to take my air to the depths.

Weight belts aren't evil. Take your class. Have fun. Go diving lots!

 

[herman]

I much prefer some form of intergrated weights. The reason your instructor made you use a weight belt (I am assuming PADI) is because it is a performance requirement. Kinda hard to do a weight belt remove and replace if you don't have one.

 

[diverrex]

Seems to me it would be reasonable to teach everyone in class a common system like the weight belt and then also review for everyone in class anyone wearing a BC with integrated weights. It isn't just the one wearing it that needs to know how to dump weights off the BC, it's good for all divers to know just in case they need to help someone. How much extra would that really take? Class shouldn't just be about learning only one way, that doesn't really prepare you for the all the options that exist in the real world.

 

[Wayne at DiveSeekers]

Our teaching progression is weight belts in the pool (experience in case person is renting gear) and then weight integrated for "Open Water" dives (this is more comfortable and gives the students more control as well as the instructor). Our weight integrated BC's also have non-dump-able trim pockets (better wight distribution). With this kind of progression, when our students test dive their bc before buying it, our divers end up with BP&W weight integrated BC's.
For students that have their own gear, I believe in getting them comfortable in it, so if you have weight integration then use it and understand how it works (dumping & loading).

 

[SolarStorm]

Another consideration is that most new divers do not know what the concept of a balanced rig is. Lazy instructors overweight them to keep em planted on the bottom. Properly weighted you should be able to swim your rig up with out air in the bc and still maintain control of the ascent. THIS IS NOT HARD TO DO EVEN IN AN OW CLASS. It takes time at each session to do good weight checks and at the end of class when tanks are low to repeat them. Quickie courses don't offer this time and are a grave injustice to the student.

I have to give credit to the DM's/instructors in Mexico at Dressel, they were more than helpful in doing this. We spent time trying different weight combinations "trimming" where to put the weight. For me it was easy to distribute 22# for my daughter, she carries 4# with a 3mm wet suit, it didnt seem to make much difference as the most we could move around was 2#. The instructor said she had to leave at least 50% of her weight as dumpable.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Depends on what you call dumpable. I usually dive doubles when not teaching and none of my weight is dumpable in the tradtional sense. With singles the weigthbelt is worn under the crotch strap. But it is good that you actually did experiment with trimming. Moving weight by as little as a few inches can make big differences. I did a refresher a couple weeks ago where the diver had all new gear. The bc he bought was integrated and did fit well for the most part. However he had a long torso and the weight pockets were too high on it when the bc was cinched up correctly for him. We added a belt around the hips with 8lbs ( he was in a 7 mil) and the difference in trim was dramatic. It took about a half hour total to adjust the weights and postion them but it was well worth it.

I spend a good amount of time in sessions 5-7 with distributing weight and working on breath control for buoyancy adjustments. Increases student comfort and confidence tremendously.

 

[MiamiMike]

That would be probably the reason for him forcing me to use the weight belt since it's required by Padi for an checkout dive. Wearing that weight belt with 22# felt like a tight girdle. I'm going for my Advanced OW in a couple weeks, so I'm definitely going to get familiar with my integrated BCD. Thanks was the input everybody.

 

[spectrum]

Can anybody tell me the pros and cons, from using the BCD versus weight belt? I've haven't been able to try it myself and don't want to complicate things on my next dive.

My preference is that only the weight needed to attain trim belongs on the BC. the rest goes on a belt or harness as is appropriate for the body build and exposure protection.

The critical logic being the ease of getting out of the rig should you become entangled as an example. With no weight on your person you will want to float up and away form your rig. This is most critical when suits get thick and buoyant. If a diver gets snagged in limited visibility buddy separation is very likely and the same risk is there if solo. There are ways of hanging on or capturing the BC but they add to the task load there is a constant risk of separation.

The second reason is that a fully loaded BC is a beast to handle or hand-up to a boat crew.

Being in FL YMMV to some extent but the logic holds.

Pete

 

[rcolsen]

I have a Latitude XLT BC with intergrated weight system. While doing my OW, I carried all my weight in it. This past week-end I've worked on splitting my weight between my belt and the bc. This way if I had to take my bc off while down I would still have the weight need on me, If need to dump some wieght I could do a controlled ascent and with trim. I'm stil learning of course, just a newbie.