Zeagle Ripcord - I'm not convinced

[Townsend]

A buddy of mine who just got certified (he's a gear nut and has to have the full monty for any of his hobbies) bought the Zeagle with the ripcord weight release for himself and one for his wife.

I'm a rescue diver with 300+ dives and I'm not convinced that I would want, especially a NEW diver, to be dumping all of their weight in one shot. Even for an experienced diver I don't think that this is a great idea.

What are your thoughts and moreso, what is the report from the field in emergency situations using the Zeagle and a "full dump"?

 

[pants!]

Isn't that what the vast majority of OW divers do?


You know.. wear a weight belt?

 

[Townsend]

Outstanding point! Although it seems to me that the old-school weight belt has been improved not only with more comfort but safety with the addition of integrated weights.

Your post did indeed make me think (duh - I forgot the good ol' days)...

I'm still not convinced - just cuz that's the way we did it doesn't make it the best ...

Isn't that what the vast majority of OW divers do?


You know.. wear a weight belt?

 

[RedCash02]

I don't have a problem with the weights being dumped at once, because the only time I would ever do it would be a life or death situation, where it was either drown down here or risk dying because of the ascent. That's why I'd prefer a single pull of the ripcord or the release of a buckle.

 

[TCB]

Another plus of the ripcord system - although it doesn't really speak to your original concern - is that losing one of the yellow weight pocket inserts won't preclude you from diving with integrated weights, which would be the case if you lost a specialized clip-in pocket designed for a certain BC.

 

[caveseeker7]

I still have a Zeagle Ranger in my dive locker though I don't use it much anymore.
Best weight intregrated BCD I ever used. With a bp/w I use DUI's harness, which
has a like system though with cords to be pulled, one on each side.

Unless it's a serious emergency there is no need to release the weights via ripcord.
Getting an unconcious diver out of the water comes to mind, or jumping off the boat
with an empty tank, grossly overweight in open ocean ... :11:
The latter two obviously can be easily avoided with a pre-dive check.

It's easy enough to remove weights through the zippers for anything else.
Just make sure your buddy does it a couple of times for practice.

The reason I prefer the corded weight system is that so far I never lost a weight,
unlike the usual velcro closed pockets. That, in my opinion, makes them safer.
I've seen more people loose weights than people needing to shed them in a hurry.

 

[Townsend]

All good thoughts and points. Let me extend the conversation...

Key assumption: Recreational dive conditions. No caves, no hard core wreck penetration. Think diving in the keys, Belize, and the like...

I personally don't see a huge risk profile, in these conditions, for people getting themselves into serious trouble where the need to dump all of their weights (dump or drown argument). My experience is that people are most likely to have a "personal" issue such as shallow water blackout, panic, faint, seizure, or the like (what did I miss? especially in the dump or drown scenario?).

This gets me to more of an assisted rescue situation instead of a self-rescue situation. Most of us try to dive with as little excess weight as possible. If I'm forced to rescue someone else who's maybe paniced and dropped all of their weight I'm going to have a real hard time slowing their ascent. If they fainted, yes, I want to get them to the surface as quickly as possible but I also want to do this safely and controlled. During my rescue diver training it was quite easy to adjust to positive bouyancy with my BC with a "victim" in tow. But this was with a person who still had air in their lungs. Maybe if the situation was a "drowned" (ok, how about over geared, XXL person who just outweighs me by a ton) person and my BC doesn't have enough lift. Dropping their weight all at once may still cause too much lift and carry us both to the surface too quickly...

 

[jetfixer]

..

 

[RedCash02]

u could open the top zipper and pull them out individually, just like u could with a velcro pocket style.

 

[DallasNewbie]

My wife's Zeagle BC has the ripcord system for the ditchable weights, but it also has integrated non-ditchable pockets. So, possibly, the answer to your concern is not to put all of the weight in the ditchable pockets.