No Ditchable Weights on my rig - Advice please.

[SailNaked]

I think to answer the question you first have to answer under what circumstances you will be needing to ditch weights. and then decide if you need it or not.

Situations I can think of:

1. you are unconsious and your buddy would like to keep you on the surface. in this one if he knows where your weight pockets are, he can dump them.
2. failed BC, and leg cramp, and you forgot to change tanks and run out of air, and it is a wednesday, and your buddy is more than 20 ft away.
3. I know there is more but I need more coffee to remember

 

[scubastingray]

As long as you can swim your rig up in the event of your wing not holding gas, why bother. I don't have any ditch able weight in a single, but I can swim my rig up.

Ditching weights is something you can do if you are in the process of blacking out or don't think you could physically swim to the surface. A BCD failure tied with cramps or loss of consciousness would be fatal.

For peace of mind I'd try to add weights.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Frankly, I'm a bit confused. I rarely have to put air into my bc unless I'm getting pretty deep. In any event, always completely dump whatever's in the bc at around 30' upon ascent. Then breathe my way up to SS. Can't imagine adding air to hold my stop. Quite often forget to add air upon reaching the surface. OK I'm not diving a wing, its a backinflate but I'm still amazed at this situation. Better ensure you can swim up your gear and then have some buoyancy redundancy available. Can your buddy swim you up?

I dive what I think you guys call a HP 120 filled to 3500psi (15l Steel at 232bar). At the surface on the way down I'm weighted to require a deep exhale to start the descent - the first 3m need a bit of finning down sometimes, at around 10m a bit of air goes in the wing and then at 20m and 30m (hard to remember exactly as most is automatic. Like you at the end of the dive there is generally nothing in the wing ( the exception was the summer as I was running a SS backplate which was a touch too heavy - but it is only a touch) from my SS I too swim up and like you sometimes forget to add air at the surface.

To clarify I carry an SMB and a Lift bag at all times but not yet tried to swim up from 30m with no assistance on an empty wing and full cylinder on purpose although if I think about it if we're diving a wreck I swim up the line remaining slightly negative so I can hold deep stops on my lungs- so perhaps I've done this without thinking....

 

[chillyinCanada]

I don't swim up from my safety stop either. I breathe up from there too. My ascent from my safety stop is planned to be the slowest of any part of my ascent.

I'm still concerned about your situation but guess I'd best leave it to others that dive your configuration.

 

[Crass3000]

Get some dumpable weight so that you can at least tread if kicking hard on the surface for a while. I saved a lady this year who was overly proud of needing no extra weight while diving big steel doubles. Somehow all her air was shut off (husband tried to remedy and shut the last tank off). They buddy breathed and then he ditched her because he was having a heart episode. To make a long story short, she wasn't bright enough to ditch her geared and was seconds away from not making it to the top the next time. Ironically the arrogant as hell couple (long story but they were "better than us" divers) were lecturing us on safety etc. If I had not been there they both would have died August this year. FIND DITCHABLE WEIGHT. Even though they both lived it was stressful. Don't be an idiot and start off without ditchable weight unless you are flexible and practiced enough to turn your own air on.

Ideally you should have a secondary source of buoyancy.

 

[TSandM]

Well, don't add weight just so you can ditch it -- that makes no sense at all. You'll still be just where you are now.

With your thin suits, you can't get very negative. You should be able to swim up from the bottom, even in the event of a total wing failure. But I'd probably carry an SMB or lift bag for buoyancy on the surface, although if you are using steel tanks, you can always ditch the entire rig and your suit will make you positive.

When you get to the thicker suit, you have more of a problem, but then again, you need to carry more weight, too. According to the figures I was given in Fundies, a new 7 mm wetsuit can be up to 23 pounds positive (which is right along with what we see in our OW students). That's a LOT of buoyancy you can lose at depth. For that suit, I'd make sure I had some weight to drop. Personally, I prefer to dive dry in cold water. Not only am I warmer, but I have redundant buoyancy, too.

 

[CT-Rich]

I like belt and suspenders... I have half the weight on my belt and half in pockets and bit of trim in the back pockets. From a psychological standpoint, I would readily drop the belt and never worry about seeing it again. The pockets would probably only drop if I had a long, life threatening surface swim. The idea of switching to an AL back plate sounds pretty good. A belt or pocket that could be ditched is far preferable than ditching your entire rig to stay on the surface. I guess it is one of those bridges you only get to cross or not cross once.

I have not heard of many bodies being recovered without there weights. So either they die on the bottom and stay there, or they ditch them and don't die. Others here are better schooled in the statistics of accidents than I, so I defer to their expertise. Speaking for myself, once on the surface after a dive, lacking a fresh tank, I don't want to expend a lot of effort to stay there.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Well, don't add weight just so you can ditch it -- that makes no sense at all. You'll still be just where you are now.

With your thin suits, you can't get very negative. You should be able to swim up from the bottom, even in the event of a total wing failure. But I'd probably carry an SMB or lift bag for buoyancy on the surface, although if you are using steel tanks, you can always ditch the entire rig and your suit will make you positive.

When you get to the thicker suit, you have more of a problem, but then again, you need to carry more weight, too. According to the figures I was given in Fundies, a new 7 mm wetsuit can be up to 23 pounds positive (which is right along with what we see in our OW students). That's a LOT of buoyancy you can lose at depth. For that suit, I'd make sure I had some weight to drop. Personally, I prefer to dive dry in cold water. Not only am I warmer, but I have redundant buoyancy, too.

Thanks for the reply Lynne, I was hoping for your input. Without upsetting anyone I'm not certain some people got what I meant from in the original post....

Decided to add 2 weight pockets to my waist belt that can between them hold 10lbs - given that my 5/7mm which is a year old and has around 40 dives only requires 4lbs extra weight. That should I think cover it and give me something to ditch in case the worst happens

I almost brought a dry suit - indeed some people here do dive dry in our "winter" - although your idea of cold and mine (70F) are probably miles apart...