Weighted STA vs. V-POUCH vs. CAM BAND weight pouches

[RJP]

You can also use a lift-bag for redundant buoyancy until you get a drysuit.

Just make sure it's the kind with the release valve on the TOP so you can vent it as you ascend. Beyond the air in the bag expanding, once you ascend to a depth where your wetsuit uncompresses you'll start to regain your suit's buoyancy as well. (Of course you can always shoot it all the way up, and ascend on a line, but in some environments that may not be the best approach.)

 

[Agility]

You can use a lift bag and a spool as a means of redundant lift as long as you dive in a wetsuit. Make sure the line is long enough though.
With a wet suit a small amount of weight should definitelx be ditchable, you coulld thread trimpockets onto your harness, they hold up to 2kg (4pounds) each and you can reach and empty them under water.

I see RJP was faster typing.

 

[C Dub]

I've dove all the options the original poster listed extensively. I settled on the weighted STA with my steel backplate, and usually used a steel HP100 tank. Any additional weight needed was in dump-able pouches on the BP/W waist strap. I used the XS Scuba Velcro pouches. This worked well, and also addressed all of the issues posted above about a heavy rig, wetsuit, and needing to be able to swim it up.

 

[Doc Harry]

I put 6 pounds on the upper cam strap (3# on each side of the tank), which keeps me slightly head down (great for photography and keeps my feet away from the reed).

I put another 8 pounds on my weight belt, which I can ditch (obviously).

My rig is balanced overall (weight-wise).

I have a weighted STA but I don't use it anymore (less weight in my suitcase).

 

[Yoyoguy]

You can also use a lift-bag for redundant buoyancy until you get a drysuit.

Just make sure it's the kind with the release valve on the TOP so you can vent it as you ascend. Beyond the air in the bag expanding, once you ascend to a depth where your wetsuit uncompresses you'll start to regain your suit's buoyancy as well. (Of course you can always shoot it all the way up, and ascend on a line, but in some environments that may not be the best approach.)

You can use a lift bag and a spool as a means of redundant lift as long as you dive in a wetsuit. Make sure the line is long enough though.
With a wet suit a small amount of weight should definitelx be ditchable, you coulld thread trimpockets onto your harness, they hold up to 2kg (4pounds) each and you can reach and empty them under water.

I see RJP was faster typing.

thanks both of you. I have read about using lift bags and most state it can be done but if possible "get a dry suit" haha. Since I will likely not have a dry suit for another 2 years, I intend on buying a lift bag for backup buoyancy. I intend on training on it quite extensively getting comfortable with it for both use of lifting things AND as backup inflation. I think everything learned should become second nature or else you will likely not be able to do it in an emergency. This will make me a bit more comfortable diving to 70-100 feet with a thick wetsuit requiring a lot of weight. Where I dive, things can get quite boring so this will simply give me another thing to do and learn.

 

[archer1960]

I put 6 pounds on the upper cam strap (3# on each side of the tank), which keeps me slightly head down (great for photography and keeps my feet away from the reed).

I put another 8 pounds on my weight belt, which I can ditch (obviously).

My rig is balanced overall (weight-wise).

I have a weighted STA but I don't use it anymore (less weight in my suitcase).

With that kind of weight distribution, I'd think that if you had to dump your waist weights, you'd have some trouble staying upright if you stopped moving.

 

[Patoux01]

With that kind of weight distribution, I'd think that if you had to dump your waist weights, you'd have some trouble staying upright if you stopped moving.

Who cares?

 

[Doc Harry]

With that kind of weight distribution, I'd think that if you had to dump your waist weights, you'd have some trouble staying upright if you stopped moving.

Nah. It's all manageable. We're only talking 14 pounds total, and 6# on the cam bands.

 

[geoff w]

I'll offer up a couple of other thoughts to consider. If I understand correctly, you're diving a 7mm full neoprene suit, backplate/wing and Al80 tank normally, and sometimes dive to 100 ft, and want to make sure you have enough weight to get down. First, you should be weighting yourself to be neutrally buoyant with no air in your wing at your 15 ft safety stop, with a minimum amount of air in your tank, nominally 500 psi. So that means you need about 6 pounds more weight at the end of your dive than you need at the start. I've tried a lot of different ways to get my weighting right, and what I found personally works well is to just take off 6 lbs at the surface with a full tank and completely empty wing, see if I can descent, and if so, keep taking off lead until I can no longer descend, then add 6 more lbs for an 80 cu ft tank. Or descend to a 15 ft bottom, start taking off weight a pound at a time until I start feeling too light, then add the 6 pounds back, plus the 1 that made me slightly too light

If you're diving with a wing, proper technique to get all the air out of the wing to descend also makes a difference. Try leaning back to start your descent from the surface so the wing is below your body and hold the exhaust open until no more air comes out, then descend in your normal position. That way you essentially squeeze all the air out of your wing

For weights, another option to consider is ditchable weight pockets that slide on your 2" waist strap. I have the Dive Rite ones that mount either horizontally or vertically and each side holds 8 pounds. Unless you're way too feet heavy, which is sometimes an indication of being over weighted. The weight pockets are easily removable before swapping tanks, which is easier than having a weighted STA or cam band weight pockets or weighted pouch down the middle of your backplate. If you are at 100 ft and have a catastrophic wing failure, you can still ditch 16 pounds (or just 8 pounds on one side) and safely swim up, instead of an all or none approach.

I've heard the DUI weight and trim system is very comfortable and gives a lot of options for weight placement, but haven't tried one

If you're diving Al80s, two other options are to wrap an ankle weight around the neck of the tank, or get a cam band with a weight pocket and add a few pounds lower on the tank to counteract the way the tank gets bottom buoyant as it gets lower on air

 

[TSandM]

I like cambands weight pockets, because I don't find them difficult when swapping tanks, but I can easily remove the weight to put the rig in the car, or lift it onto benches. One of the things I hated about integrated weight BCs was having all the weight in the rig -- I can move myself around with a weight belt on, and I can move the rig better if a significant part of the weight has been removed from it.