Ditchable weight

Ianstephenzs · Mar 7, 2011

I have been reading about GUE and the DIR configuration and I haven't found much on ditchable weight.
Do you have ditchable weight when you are do a open water dive within recerational dive table limits with a single tank and whats your reasoning if you do or don't?

Thanks Ian

vjanelle · Mar 7, 2011

Ditchable as in a weight belt, or pockets?

Gareth · Mar 7, 2011

We teach a concept called the balanced rig. This means balancing the ability to hold a stop with near empty cylinders at the end of of a dive with the ability to swim up your rig if the wing fails at the start of the dive.

If you cannot swim up your rig because it is too heavy at the start of the dive, then you need to offset this with ditchable weight. In the good old days this consisted of basically your weight belt and your canister light but with modern canister lights it makes little difference so you are talking about weight on a weight belt.

The best way to figure this out is to get in the water for a training dive and try it out.

AndyNZ · Mar 7, 2011

What Gareth said!

Ianstephenzs:
Do you have ditchable weight when you are do a open water dive within recerational dive table limits with a single tank and whats your reasoning if you do or don't?

Personally, I don't have ditchable weight. Well, I kind of do - I have a weightbelt with 2kg on it, but it's worn under my harness so in practice would take a bit more jiggling to ditch.

The reasons I'm not too concerned about ditchable weight:

1. I have a balanced rig, so I can swim it up from depth
2. I use a drysuit which provides some degree of redundant buoyancy

kanonfodr · Mar 7, 2011

On single-tank recreational dives I prefer not to dive with ditchable weight, but I try to keep the rig weight under 10 lbs negative bouyancy maximum. It's relatively easy in tropical water, but in colder water where you will be using a thicker wetsuit it's possible to find yourself very overweighted on the bottom so I would prefer (and probably require) extra lead that I could ditch in an emergency.

The best test to see if your rig is balanced or not? Take it for a swim with full tanks. If you can't make it to the surface without inflating the wing, you may need to adjust your configuration.

Peace,
Greg

tincan715 · Mar 7, 2011

kanonfodr:
It's relatively easy in tropical water, but in colder water where you will be using a thicker wetsuit it's possible to find yourself very overweighted on the bottom so I would prefer (and probably require) extra lead that I could ditch in an emergency.

What's a good setup for thick wetsuit situations? Is a pocket-type weight belt worn under the harness adequate, on the assumption that I (or my buddy) can open the pockets to ditch the weight? Or is that crazy talk?

My experience so far is with a BCD with integrated weights but I'll be doing my first dive with BP/W soon. I haven't figured out yet what to do about weights other than that some will be in pockets on the cam bands.

AndyNZ · Mar 7, 2011

tincan715:
What's a good setup for thick wetsuit situations? Is a pocket-type weight belt worn under the harness adequate, on the assumption that I (or my buddy) can open the pockets to ditch the weight? Or is that crazy talk?

Provided your body shape doesn't prevent it, you can always where the weightbelt over the harness.

It may or may not be comfortable - my wife, for example, is very short and find the plate and the weightbelt interfere with each other. A "short" plate (e.g. DSS) may help, though it was easier for her to get the Halcyon ACB pockets for her harness.

kanonfodr · Mar 7, 2011

tincan715:
What's a good setup for thick wetsuit situations? Is a pocket-type weight belt worn under the harness adequate, on the assumption that I (or my buddy) can open the pockets to ditch the weight? Or is that crazy talk?

My experience so far is with a BCD with integrated weights but I'll be doing my first dive with BP/W soon. I haven't figured out yet what to do about weights other than that some will be in pockets on the cam bands.

I prefer a regular weight belt and solid weights: no pockets or shot bags. I've had shot pouches fall out of velcro pockets so I prefer the security of hard weights I thread the weight belt through.

Peace,
Greg

johnkendall · Mar 8, 2011

tincan715:
What's a good setup for thick wetsuit situations? Is a pocket-type weight belt worn under the harness adequate, on the assumption that I (or my buddy) can open the pockets to ditch the weight? Or is that crazy talk?

My experience so far is with a BCD with integrated weights but I'll be doing my first dive with BP/W soon. I haven't figured out yet what to do about weights other than that some will be in pockets on the cam bands.

The best way to deal with it in cold waters is a drysuit. It is not possible to sensibly balance a rig based around a thick wetsuit. You can have ditchable lead (whereever you put it) but this will generally mean that in the event of a wing failure you're going to be coming rapidly to the surface after dropping lead. Afterall the only reason you're carrying the lead is to keep you down when you're near the surface.

For me, I only dive wet when I can do so in a 3mm shortie. Any colder than that and it's a drysuit.

HTH
John

Ianstephenzs · Mar 9, 2011

I am not asking about a balanced rig I have read all about that. There is tones of articles on balanced rigs and how to get a balanced rig witch i have

what I am trying to find about is ditichable lead.

Thanks ian

Ditchable weight

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