As someone who's been teaching dinghy sailing courses for a long time, it's not tipping over that's hard, it's not getting the boat back up that's hard, it's getting back in over a foot and a half transom that's hard. The number of students who ended up needing my help to get back in after 10-15mins of desperate struggle opened my eyes. And we're not talking alone either, think two adults (admittedly not athletes) working together.
If you're tired (say, just capsized your boat, or had to rescue tow an unresponsive diver) getting back into a small boat is going to take everything you've got.
Just last year there was an older guy fishing in a neighboring lake, he stood up for whatever reason and fell out of the boat (typical aluminum 15ft boat), but couldn't get back in, and he was fishing alone. The only reason he survived is that an hour or so later the fisheries patrol came by to check if he was over limit.
As for the weight integration, I dive in a virtually identical setup to jjhill, in a very similar sounding lake, only I use 26 lbs. I admittedly don't have a lot of scuba under my belt, but this is the best solution I've experienced, and it's a million times easier to wear under the water than a 20lb belt. Never had a particular concern with my particular systems releases, though I wouldn't dive them if I thought there was a chance of them releasing without my say-so.
If you're tired (say, just capsized your boat, or had to rescue tow an unresponsive diver) getting back into a small boat is going to take everything you've got.
Just last year there was an older guy fishing in a neighboring lake, he stood up for whatever reason and fell out of the boat (typical aluminum 15ft boat), but couldn't get back in, and he was fishing alone. The only reason he survived is that an hour or so later the fisheries patrol came by to check if he was over limit.
As for the weight integration, I dive in a virtually identical setup to jjhill, in a very similar sounding lake, only I use 26 lbs. I admittedly don't have a lot of scuba under my belt, but this is the best solution I've experienced, and it's a million times easier to wear under the water than a 20lb belt. Never had a particular concern with my particular systems releases, though I wouldn't dive them if I thought there was a chance of them releasing without my say-so.