Weight belt or BCD
- Thread starter MiamiMike
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With PADI, the requirement is to remove and replace the weights. In the confined water portion of the training we do this both on the bottom and on the surface, In the open water portion we just do this on the surface. Early in confined water we just take off/out the weights and hand them off/up.
Some Zeagles have a rip cord system that makes these skills quite a bit harder, if not impossible. I have conducted these skills with divers in other brand weight integration BC's, with the slip in/out weight pockets, and the performance requirements are not quite so problematic as with the rip cord system.
mictrik
Contributor
For what ever it's worth these my opinion is to stay with a weight belt. Perhaps if you are only using a few pounds to achieve slight negative then weight integration is fine.
Weight Belt Pro's:
Places weight on the hips which place the least stress on the body and is also the bodies heaviest area.
Keeps the BC tank lighter for lifting on and off.
Allows the diver to ditch or remove his BC underwater. For wreck divers I believe this is a must.
Provides a standard method of release that all divers (buddies) know and can easily conduct.
For me there are few pro's to weight integration. Perhaps it reduces your kit allowing you to forgo a weight belt...But again i would only do it if using a few or under 10 pounds.
A diver should be only slightly negative and more ideally neutral at the surface. To find this point a diver should "weight out" with each wet-suit, BC, dry suit Etc... This was a very important skill before the wide spread acceptance of BCD's and if "weighted out" correctly with a BC a diver should hardly ever add air to it. I usually only inflate mine when waiting for some reason on the surface for this reason (among others) i prefer the stabilizing jacket. Now if one is bringing allot of heavy equipment with him/her on a dive then a BP wings would be another good choice.
Wear as little weight as possible and wear it on your waist! Your a diver not a steel submarine with ballast tanks. If the weight belt slides on you as your suit compresses then use or make a "jet belt"; This is what I use and it solves the problem.
Weight Belt Pro's:
Places weight on the hips which place the least stress on the body and is also the bodies heaviest area.
Keeps the BC tank lighter for lifting on and off.
Allows the diver to ditch or remove his BC underwater. For wreck divers I believe this is a must.
Provides a standard method of release that all divers (buddies) know and can easily conduct.
For me there are few pro's to weight integration. Perhaps it reduces your kit allowing you to forgo a weight belt...But again i would only do it if using a few or under 10 pounds.
A diver should be only slightly negative and more ideally neutral at the surface. To find this point a diver should "weight out" with each wet-suit, BC, dry suit Etc... This was a very important skill before the wide spread acceptance of BCD's and if "weighted out" correctly with a BC a diver should hardly ever add air to it. I usually only inflate mine when waiting for some reason on the surface for this reason (among others) i prefer the stabilizing jacket. Now if one is bringing allot of heavy equipment with him/her on a dive then a BP wings would be another good choice.
Wear as little weight as possible and wear it on your waist! Your a diver not a steel submarine with ballast tanks. If the weight belt slides on you as your suit compresses then use or make a "jet belt"; This is what I use and it solves the problem.
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