New Respect For The Weight Belt

I know I checked the darned thing, but now I have a new respect for how important the buckle and belt material are on the lowly weight belt.

On the second dive of a recent trip to the Carib for some nice warm water dives, I lost my weight belt. Don't know how but I can tell you that I'm a lot more picky about the belt I select from a dive shops pile. We'd been down for 16+ minutes at around 60' swimming along in a group of a DM + five other divers. I found myself 10' above the rest and tried to rejoin them but unaccountalby kept going up. Purged my BCD and even that didn't seem to help. Only then did I reach for my weight belt and the mystery was solved, but nothing I could think of at the time (swimming back down didn't work against 11 lbs of lost weight), so I paddled along above the group for a while. Another DM picked up the belt and my DM/guide showed up a couple minutes later, scared spitless since I'd disappeared.

Back to the boat, where I sat quietly and sucked O2 for 3 hours while the group finished their 1st dive and did their 2nd dive and returned to the shop. I continued to insist that I had no symptoms and felt fine while talking to the senior instructors. It was decided that a trip to the chamber was unnecessary and I agreed. I was told not to exert myself, stay hydrated and watch for ANY unusual symptoms. Dived the next day and several days after with no ill effects.

So, I'm watching my equipement a lot more closely, even that simple little weight belt.
=Terry=-)

glad to hear that you were ok, any ideas as to what happened to cause you to loose your belt? did something slip or break?

terrydarc,


Buying high quailty webbing that is stiff and thick will help.

One thing that I have found to help greatly, is using 2 METAL buckles on the weightbelt. Cheap plastic buckles will often fail, while the metal ones are bulletproof. The odds of having 2 buckles come undone is very unlikely.

Another solution is to distribute the weight so that even if you do lose the weightbelt, it will not have disasterous consequences.

Next time take YOUR OWN weight belt and use their weights. With your own gear you KNOW what you have. Deeper water could have caused you serious trouble. Glad to hear you're o.k.

MATT

I think that was the cause that it simply slipped off. I did examine the belt afterwards and notice that with the plastic buckle in the "locked" position, you could slide the belt out without too much effort.

I changed my selection at that point to use a) metal buckle and b) nice rough fabric on the belt for maximum hold.

Someone please remind me why it's necessary to have such a quick release on the belt? Seems like the odds are better that the belt can come off inadvertently and cause more damage (what would have happened at 110' where I was a couple days later?) than the need for quick release...
=Terry