dropping weights could save life

[MikeFerrara]

Can't disagree with you on this, however these are most likely the same people who insist on diving in a horizontal attitude. I have yet to have an unbuckled weight belt fall off when I'm horizontal. Yes I have been in situations where the belt was unbuckled both intentionally and unintentionally. IMHO weights should be easily ditchable---at least some portion.

I agree that this dive should have never happened.

I always wear my weight belt under my crotch strap. I don't have any trouble getting the weight belt off either. There is no extra step because I don't need to undo the crotch strap in order to get the belt off.

In fact this is the way I demo it for students both at the surface and at depth so not only can I do it but I can do it very quickly and easily. I can get it on the same way.

 

[cdiver2]

Mike over the other side of the pond ( cold water diving ) I wore 22lb most other divers were in that area what we would call a heavy belt.
Weight pouches, well if you dont zip it up they will come out.

 

[ShakaZulu]

STOP, BREATH THINK AND ACT. Twenty pounds over weight, geeezuz.............

 

[MikeFerrara]

Got in one, Rick.

How can it be argued that there will never be a situation where weights are best ditched? There will always be scenarios where dropping weights gives the diver ways to better manage a problem and shutting off the diver's options by the use of arbitrary rules doesn't make much sense. The example quoted above is perhaps the obvious one but there will be others, I'm sure.

.

I hate arbitrary rules. My arguement isn't that there is never a time but rather that if you're correctly weighted that it both reduces the chances of needing to drop weights, the consequenses of not being able to and the concequenses of losing them at depth if you do ditch or drop them.

I've seen a bunch of people have trouble in the water but I've never seen an instance where weights needed to be dropped. I've seen divers panic at the surface and not inflate thjeir bc until they were told or until some one did it for them and I've seen divers lose weight at depth and do the rocket man thing though. I've also see overweighted divers all the time with a very few underweighted divers thrown in for good measure.

 

[jbd]

I always wear my weight belt under my crotch strap. I don't have any trouble getting the weight belt off either. There is no extra step because I don't need to undo the crotch strap in order to get the belt off.

In fact this is the way I demo it for students both at the surface and at depth so not only can I do it but I can do it very quickly and easily. I can get it on the same way.

This goes back to my earlier point about something not being done properly. Even with a weight belt being under the crotch strap it should still be able to be easily removed, as you are saying. Its all about the training and the practice of that training.

 

[String]

was BSAC trained 1971 and was taught that the belt must be over all other straps, has this changed within the BSAC ?.

Nope, its still taught that way.

n over 30 years of diving I have never had or seen a weight belt come of accidentally.

I saw 5 last year alone and far more with the belt around someones thighs on exiting the water.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Mike over the other side of the pond ( cold water diving ) I wore 22lb most other divers were in that area what we would call a heavy belt.
Weight pouches, well if you dont zip it up they will come out.

In a thick wet suit 22 pounds total doesn't sound like too much for some people and some suits. This guy was in doubles (don't know what flavor) and he was unable to hault his descent. Even in my double 104's filled to 3500 psi (275 cu ft), a couple of full stages/deco bottles and other gear including a light that's 6 pounds negative I'm not so heavy that I can't hold myself up with my fins.

When I dive a wet suit and a single tank I have 4 pounds on a belt. My back plate is 6 pounds, I have 4 on the cam bands and a little extra in the h-valve and 2 regs. If it was all on a belt it's be pushing 18 pounds or so.

But...

At the beginning of the dive I'm only heavy by the weight of the gas I carry at most...6 pounds or so. I have 4 that's ditchable so with a full tank dumping it would make me pretty neutral and posative with an empty tank. At the same time if I did lose my weight belt at depth with gas in my tank (otherwise I wouldn't be at depth) I could still do a fair job of managing my ascent because I wouldn't be light until I got near the surface and then it wouldn't be by that much.

You need to be able to establish pos buoyancy at the surface but you don't need to float out of the water to your belly button.

 

[String]

20-26lbs or so seems common here for thick undersuit/drysuited diver diving a single tank. Obviously anyone on twinsets has far more weight on their back and consequently far less on their weight belt.

20lbs AND a twinset however sounds like enourmous overweighting.

 

[ArcticDiver]

I cannot think of any reason, even this one to drop weights or have a weight system that can be dropped.

In this case, the divers were way over weighted to start and if it was truely a life or death situation the diver should have ditched his whole rig or maybe just uncliped that $3 crotch strap buckle that was holding the weight belt on.

Desposable weight systems have no place in the diving industry, they make no sence and are dangerous to have on your kit.

Sorry, but this is my professional opinion.

After you are in a Deep in a strong down current, with a fully inflated BC, finning as strongly as you can, unable to navigate out of the current, and still going down you will see why ditchable weight is a must.

Plus, any statement that is labled "professional" is suspect when it goes counter to the standards of accepted certifying agencies like NAUI, SSI and PADI.

Hopefully, folks reading this thread will stick with the standards they were taught and continue safe, fun diving.

 

[grazie42]

20 pounds / 10 kgs is more than I tend to use with my Drysuit...
Diving doubles (which I haven´t tried yet but will soon...) would, like those with more experience have said, almost eliminate the need for extra weight. So, they were overweighted, most everyone agrees.

Regardless diver P*** would have at least made it to the surface if he´d been able to ditch his weights. Because he couldn´t he/she stayed in the water till they recovered the body. Now, there were obviously a lot of things wrong with the dive (maybe they shouldn´t even have been diving). And as some have said, he might have reached the surface lifeless BUT to my mind, making it to the surface is always better then not, I don´t think many would disagree.

We can all say that being in a situation where dropping weights is your "only" option is a very bad thing that shouldn´t happen but when it does I WILL drop them and not being able to then, would be a VERY bad thing.

Does anyone really disagree?