Is it a bad idea to dive with NO ditchable weights?

[scuba_moron]

My husband has a SeaQuest Balance which uses a positive lock system, and he's lost a weight pocket during a dive.

Same thing happened to me with my Balance BC. I got tangled in the kelp and lost my right pouch. It was only 4lbs., and I didn't even notice it until I got back on to the boat.

 

[ArcticDiver]

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Does anyone have any firsthand information of a weight ditching incident in which that was the only viable option?

Here we are again discussing one of those perennial topics. Anyway, yes I had an incident, about which I posted a couple years ago, where I was caught in a downwelling. I tried to swim out of it with no success. I tried to fully inflate my wing again with no success. I was still being carried down despite both of these. At that point I decided to dump my weights and take my chances on what certainly would have been a DCI, since I was at 150'. Fortunately, at the moment the downwelling ceased and I was able to deflate my wing and begin a controlled ascent to the surface.

Agreed that most of the time the purpose of shedding weights is to stay on the surface once the diver has swam there. TS&M and I had a discussion about that one time that resulted in us agreeing that the decision about disposable weights had more to do with money than anything else. I wasn't willing to throw away the cost of my rig to stay on the surface; she was. I've since changed my mind and often dive with no readily ditchable weight.

In any case, I believe the circumstances where dumping weight at depth is even more rare than the incidence of DCI. If, like in my case, a person is in that circumstance dumping weight is likely to result in some kind of a DCI that may be fatal in its' own right.

 

[Charlie99]

TS&M and I had a discussion about that one time that resulted in us agreeing that the decision about disposable weights had more to do with money than anything else. I wasn't willing to throw away the cost of my rig to stay on the surface; she was. I've since changed my mind and often dive with no readily ditchable weight.

There have been many incidents where weights that should have been ditched on the surface were not ditched. In a lot of those cases, the person died sometime after reaching the surface, and we will never know the reason for not ditching.

Likely reasons for not ditching weight/gear when appropriate including mind-numbing panic, irrational reluctance to ditch gear, and difficulty in performing the ditching due to other problems such as water inhalation or AGE or DCS or a medical condition such as a cardiac arrest.

Whether you are ditching a whole rig or just some lead (and pocket or weightbelt) doesn't make any difference if panic prevents a diver from doing anything, but in the other cases having some conveniently ditachable weight would increase the likelyhood of distressed diver staying on the surface.

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Diving, just like the rest of life is a balancing of different risks and rewards. Inadvertent ditching of weight at depth can be a problem. Not being able to maintain positive buoyancy at the surface can be a problem. My way of balancing those two risks for my open water diving is to have around 6 to 8 pounds of ditchable weight, with the rest of the lead, if any, as non-ditchable.

Ditching 6 or 8 pounds will make me positively buoyant on the surface, even with a full tank at the beginning of a dive.

 

[scuba_moron]

Ditching 6 or 8 pounds will make me positively buoyant on the surface, even with a full tank at the beginning of a dive.

Will 4lbs. make any difference if I coverted it to ditchable? My other opinion is to switch to a lighter plate.

 

[Gombessa]

I've accidentally lost my weight belt twice (webbing + metal buckle) in the last 15 dives :/ Both were while deploying the tucked portion of the hose during an S-drill. Of course, that totally speaks to my level of skill and training, but it also makes me a pretty firm believer that dangerous accidents can and do happen!

 

[bleeb]

Ditching 6 or 8 pounds will make me positively buoyant on the surface, even with a full tank at the beginning of a dive.

Will 4lbs. make any difference if I coverted it to ditchable? My other opinion is to switch to a lighter plate.

IMHO, yes. However, you may also want to consider the buoyancy change of your tank(s) as they empty, which I think scuba_moron was implying. For example, an AL80 changes by about 4.5 lbs between 3000 and 500 psi. Depending how you've weighted yourself, dropping 4 lbs may still leave you a bit negative at the beginning of a dive. On the possible plus side, there'd be less force pushing you to the surface if you accidentally lost your weights at depth. I think it's up to you to decide what you're comfortable with this.

 

[Boxcar Overkill]

Hmmmm ... 14,000 plus dives. Zero accidental ditches. Odds of accidentally dropping my weights = 0.0000. Why? Wire buckles on rubber belts.

For reference, how many times have you had to ditch your weight belt?

Beyond that, thank you for the informative discussion. I think you may have changed my mind on this.

 

[Thalassamania]

I've accidentally lost my weight belt twice (webbing + metal buckle) in the last 15 dives :/ Both were while deploying the tucked portion of the hose during an S-drill. Of course, that totally speaks to my level of skill and training, but it also makes me a pretty firm believer that dangerous accidents can and do happen!

Get rid of that friggin' belt design, they're deadly. Get a wire buckle and rubber belt or a SeaQuest style buckle.

For reference, how many times have you had to ditch your weight belt?

Beyond that, thank you for the informative discussion. I think you may have changed my mind on this.

Without doing a snake killing search I can remember two, both at the surface when I was effecting the rescue of another diver.

 

[Boxcar Overkill]

Without doing a snake killing search I can remember two, both at the surface when I was effecting the rescue of another diver.

You know, that's a really good answer.

In fact, I'm now convinced you're right. I'm going back to weight belts.

 

[Thalassamania]

You know, that's a really good answer.

In fact, I'm now convinced you're right. I'm going back to weight belts.

Just to screw up my own argument: in one of those cases I also ditched my entire rig - took us almost two days to find it.