undrwater
Contributor
Weight harness?
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I wear an ostomy appliance. Thats kind of the end of the story for weight belts.
2) Most BOW students are over weighted, often by a *lot*
Id have to see how they interact with my abdomen. My appliance is on my lower left abdomen. I dont mind things brushing it, but I want to keep pressure off of it, and minimize contact. Anyone have a picture that could help me understand the configuration?
I'm surprised no one picked up on my mistake. That should have said add, not subtract. With a full tank, do the weight check for neutral buoyancy at 15 feet. Then add 3.5 to 4 pounds to the belt (or integrated pockets) and you should display about that same buoyancy when your tank is empty at the end of the dive.Note - you can do the weight check with a full tank as well and then subtract the weight of the air from your weight belt. It's about 4 pounds for an Al-80, so about 3.5 pounds for a St-72 will get you in the ballpark.
Something like this site - linky.
A lot of whether a system will work depends on exactly where your stoma site actually sits. Bear in mind that the waist of the harness does not have to be totally constricting unlike with a jacket type (where the whole thing relies on friction and tightness to hold it in place).
Reading your description that sounds like it could be worth pursuing.You may want to consider trying a rubber weight belt. Weight belts should be worn low on the hips, but a lot of people tend to wear them up higher on the more narrow abdomen (for some people) where the weight can rest on the hips. This is common with inflexible nylon type belts, like you probably used in your cert class.
A rubber belt can be easily worn low on the hips where it belongs and doesn't interfere with the waist strap of the tank harness. Worn low like this, basically across your butt and pelvis, like the pant's line of a gangsta, maybe it would not be in interference with your stoma.