Weight Belts and Frustrations

[spectrum]

First to the OP, remember the OP....
It's a skill to master but it can come at you fast while bouncing through class and with assorted pieces of shop gear. I consider it highly unlikely that you will ever ditch and don your belt in a dive situation. But you must be prepared to:
*Ditch it in an emergency situation, this is highly unlikely unless you are Mike Nelson and this was beat to death in a thread back around Christmas as I recall.
*Tighten you weight belt in a horizontal position when on the surface and at depth.
*Remove the belt and hand it off to a boat or dock person for certain exits.

As for the weight integrated VS weight belt. IMO an exclusively or even predominantly weight integrated set-up is bad news if the diver isn't well practiced at hanging on to the rig at depth should they need to get out of it such as in the case of an entanglement and buddy separation. The more buoyant the exposure protection the more dramatic the risk.

Pete

 

[namabiru]

Thanks guys, for the replies. I always appreciate feedback!

Yeah, for the purposes of my Padi course, I had to use an actual weight belt. But I definitely think that going integrated BCD is where it's at. Then again, I need to dive a little more and do a little more research before I'm 100% sure.

And as far as
1. Taking off my weight belt and handing it up to the boat guy;
2. In the water and adjusting--in fact, on my last Open Water dive, I was a bit loose at so I just stopped, loosened and tightened without no major problems. It wasn't a drill, but I did it myself. I didn't even go completely horizontal--I just bent over slightly, loosened, kept firm hand on the right loose end, pulled, then closed.
3. The drill where you take off and hold away in preparation to ditch. We were in the pool, so I didn't drop of course. I then handed up to an assistant, and my instructor had me tread water for a coupla minutes, so I could understand how my buoyancy would change if I had no weight belt.

No problems. All of these things, no problems.

However, taking off, bringing out in front of me, then trying to put back on, with a BCD and tank on, was impossible. And I will say that that was the only skill I couldn't even relatively come close to getting good at. Mask clearing... yeah, I was scared. But I practiced and got better. (Ironically enough, with that, I found it easier to clear when I took off then put back on than letting in water)

Where I kept having problems was that I couldn't keep control of my right hand, get the weights around to my left side without having them drift off and throw me hither and yon, then deal with working under the tank to get around yada yada.

Gah. I get slightly tired just thinking about it again.

But I think that since I could do the 3 essentials that spectrum mentioned with no major problems, my instructor didn't make an issue out of the fact that taking off and replacing while in the water was a failure point.

I still felt kind of bad about it though, because when I do something, I want to do a good job and leave nothing unfinished. So not mastering that skill kind of bothered me.

Ah well. There's always another dive to look forward to, yes?

 

[Thalassamania]

You should see your diffuculty with the skill as a failure of your instructor not a failure of yourself. There's an old saw that applies to this sort of situation: "Have I taught if they've not learned?"

 

[Zeeman]

Could someone PLEASE explain the fascination of these things to me?

I never need more than 8lbs of weight, my BC puts the weight where I DO want it, and it works

It's all personal pref

Z...

 

[Bubble Junky]

You can use either a belt or integrated in the PADI OW course. Personally I prefer a belt, but as Zeeman says - "It's all personal pref"
The key to doing this skill is body positioning. When you take it off and bring it to the front, you need to hold it close to your chest and lean back so the belt keeps you down. As soon as you bring it back around the back, you need to lean forward - even lying down on your front - so, again, the belt keeps pushing you down.

 

[namabiru]

Naw, it's not my habit to blame others for personal failings. My instructor was great. Very calm, easy to follow, semse of humor. Just was a more difficult skill. Perhaps it was the timing--it came at the end of a 1.5 hour or so pool session, maybe I was a bit tired and more ready to get out of the pool than to fuss with my weight belt, I dunno. Might really have been tired too. I had just wrestled with taking off/redonning my BCD at the surface--and you know how it is the first time, when you're genuinely trying to sit on the tank and it keeps wanting to shoot out from under you, and you can't sit too far up or you won't get your arms into your BCD da da da--, so perhaps moving right along to the weight belt wasn't the best scheduling. But hey, no worries!

Bubble junky, your advice sounds really good! I can visualize what you mean, and will think through the process a little more, and maybe even give it another shot!

Another idea would be maybe to start with buckle end, not the free end. That way if your hands start sliding (which was also happening), you hold below the buckle, and you maybe have a bit more strength if you're holding from the buckle. Then roll right side into the water, so you're working with your right hand (which is my strong hand). My instructor wanted me to do the opposite. I vaguely thought of this at the time, but I was so tired by then I couldn't do much more.

Or could you grab from the middle, roll over, place the middle on your back, then set yourself to fixing the ends? To me, it seems like it would be easier to get the weight belt first below your tank and then across your back, so that you're somewhat stablized and not rolling around, then worry about the ends. Obviously you'd always have at least 1 hand on your weights, but if you can get them across your back first, then grab the ends together, then you're not fumbling around for the loose end while trying to feed it through your back and tank and meanwhile rolling all over hell and back...
The only downside I can see is if you got tangled. But at least if you can get the belt back around your body and stablized by buckling, then you can (maybe rest for a second first) untangle while buckled, lie face-down again, unbuckle and fix fairly quickly.

I understand there's a procedure, and why the procedure is there. But I'm just trying to think of an easier way to overcome the obstacle.

 

[Bubble Junky]

You have to be bareful of weight slipping off if you don't hold the buckle end.
Release it, then one end in each hand, pass the buckle into your right behind back, then round to front and lean back, with both ends in right hand, and a loop below. Then put left hand as far round your back as you can reach, bring the right hand down to meet your left, and pass over ther buckle, lean forward with one end in each hand and lean forward and fasten it.

 

[PerroneFord]

You have to be bareful of weight slipping off if you don't hold the buckle end.

???

How would the weight slide off?

 

[underwaterangel]

I love my intigrated BC since I have a short torso & every BC I tried covered my belt & occasionally popped it. If you have the weight stops on, they won't slide off. Even if you just twist the belt as you thread it on, they should stay in place. When doing my drills (before getting my intigrated BC) I found if I held the buckle against my stomach and rolled while horizontal, the belt would wrap around me and end up with both ends in front. you may need to slide it to make sure it is under your tank & where you want it, but if you stay facing down the weight remains above and is not as tiring.

Just $0.02 from a pretty new dive gal herself.

Happy diving.

 

[PerroneFord]

Diving vertically creates all kinds of problems.