Why weight integrated bc's?

[divinginn]

has anybody ever lost a integrated pocket at depth? thats something that would worry me,would be a fast ride up with a thick wetsuit.

 

[Thalassamania]

I heard of some cases like this in the early days, but not in the last ten years or so. Designs have evolved.

 

[Damselfish]

has anybody ever lost a integrated pocket at depth? thats something that would worry me,would be a fast ride up with a thick wetsuit.

I'd guess that chances of losing a pocket from a new design are less than accidentally dropping a standard weightbelt. Some older designs that were all velcro were too easy to lose, I've recovered a couple for people including a buddy at least once.

It's better to lose one pocket than a whole belt, anyway.

 

[ThatsSomeBadHatHarry]

ditching weight is easier with a weight integrated i think. just pull instead of un....uhh..unweave? i don my bc with tank connected without pockets in and when i am ready they just slip in wicked easy. it is also less of a task to adjust the weight in certain situations. I have used both, but i also suffer from a congenital lack of a backside.

 

[runamonk]

Sounds like your pool sessions have you well prepared.

Not really, our instructor was an idiot, but that's a totally different topic. We ended up learning alot more on our AOW class. I have a feeling our original instructor will be having his certification revoked.

 

[runamonk]

I know I'm giving away my bone-headedness here. But I actually did remove my weight integrated BC at 40' to re-secure my tank strap. (My buddy was a newbie and couldn't quite get it.) I didn't think ahead of time about the "floating up" part.

Anyway, I wrassled my rig and grabbed the tank with my legs, fixed the problem, and put the rig back on. But it wasn't pretty.

I vowed that if there was a next time, one of the weight pouches was going down the front of my dive skin (front zipper kind).

I just find weight integrated BC more comfortable.

hehe this is the same thing I bring up to a buddy here at the office (who is also a fairly new diver) and he insists on putting all weight in his BC. Which is fine but scares me because if you do need to do this type of procedure it's a little more difficult hehe.

 

[runamonk]

has anybody ever lost a integrated pocket at depth? thats something that would worry me,would be a fast ride up with a thick wetsuit.

Not necessarily. A friend of mine about two weeks ago while we were all on a dive lost her weight pouch and was lop sided of course but she didn't float up or rocket to the top or anything like that. We never did find that stupid pouch LOL.

We've got a weight pouch down at Cove 3!! ;-)

 

[Loneranger]

I was tried of finishing my dive and noticing the belt had spun around so the buckle was in the middle of my back.

 

[TSandM]

Boy, I read all this stuff about weight belts and it amazes me.

I LIKE my weight belt. I haven't had a slippage or loss problem since I replaced the plastic buckle it came with. It doesn't twist around, and the weights don't hurt (of course, I have a LOT of padding with the drysuit and undergarments. But I do carry a lot of weight on my belt). I find it so much easier to deal with than the integrated weight pockets in my old BC. If I put them in before I put the rig on, it fell on its nose, and was hard to pick up and move around. On the other hand, putting the weight pockets in when I was wearing the BC pretty much required help from someone else. And hanging all the weight off my shoulders hurt my neck. I'm really happier with the weight distributed.

On the other hand, my husband loves his weight-integrated system because he has trouble keeping a weight belt up. I guess maybe it's an anatomy thing . . .

 

[herman]

i'm still wondering why in the world did i get a weight integrated system. Granted,the front pockets are easy to ditch but the back pockets are sewn onto the system and is not removable. I would like a B/P rig with ditchable pockets.oh well...thats in the future.

There seens to be a flaw in your plan, just how are you going to ditch the 6lb backplate? It's weight you know. If you need more rear weight with the BP you are going to have to either add rear pockets or strap a weight to your tank/BP some how and if you need less, it's time to buy another an aluminum BP. At least the weights on your current BC are removable.

Just a thought from the tried a BP, liked my old BC better crowd.