What if you lose your weight belt?

Does somebody know if there is a recommended procedure if you should lose your weight belt during a dive, especially a deep one?

Is there a way to slow your ascent rate down enough to safely surface in this situation? It seems this would be rather difficult if not impossible to do as you ascend shallower than 40 feet, especially w/ a 3mm wet suit on and a half empty tank.

craigz once bubbled...
Does somebody know if there is a recommended procedure if you should lose your weight belt during a dive, especially a deep one?

Is there a way to slow your ascent rate down enough to safely surface in this situation? It seems this would be rather difficult if not impossible to do as you ascend shallower than 40 feet, especially w/ a 3mm wet suit on and a half empty tank.

Click to expand...

pray to the gods and look for an ascent line.

The reccommended procedure for an emergency buoyant ascent is to make yourself as large as possible, face up arms and legs out to create drag.

Realistically good equipment checks are the way to avoid such a scenario, as if it happens you're not able to control ascent rate.

Rocks, lots of rocks and some good size pockets or one good sized rock with a built in handle.

technically speaking... I believe it is true that as long as you are diving within the NDL and your ascent isn't too rapid and you try and slow your ascent you should be OK, keep breathing, etc... you should be OK but not dive for 24 hours.

I once lost a weight out of my integrated BCD. Luckly I was in the caribbean and was diving with only a 1.5 mil wetsuit - so I only noticed a balance problem and a slight loss of bouyancy control.

On the OTHER hand - I was only wearing 1.5 mils of wetsuit... if I were wearing more that could have been bad. The worst part about it was the fact that I never really considered that something like this would actually happen (I thought it unlikely) and I never had any training to recognize it (I didn't see the pouch fall out) so it took me like a minute or two to figure out that my bouyancy problems were not due to air being stuck in my BCD.

The training companies spend a lot of time teaching you how to intentionally doff/don your equipment intentionally without spending any time discussing about what happens if it's unintentional.

craigz once bubbled...
Does somebody know if there is a recommended procedure if you should lose your weight belt during a dive, especially a deep one?

Is there a way to slow your ascent rate down enough to safely surface in this situation? It seems this would be rather difficult if not impossible to do as you ascend shallower than 40 feet, especially w/ a 3mm wet suit on and a half empty tank.

Click to expand...

Dump your BCD empty asap. If you're close to the bottom try finning down and grabbing on to whatever you can and make your way over to where your weightbelt is. You might not be able to sign to your buddy but try screaming through your reg to get his attention and hopefully he'll help you by bringing your weights to you.

If you can't grab something then you're going up. In that case, flair out as much as you can and/or try finning down the whole time during the ascent to slow it as much as you can. Breathe out and make an AAHHHHHHH sound to make sure your airway is open. REmain calm and don't get embarassed when you hit the surface if other divers holler "THAR SHE BLOWS!". Depending on your ascent rate and your saturation status there might not be a problem but be alert for signs of DCS. Hitting the O2 as a precaution can't hurt if your ascent was really fast and be prepared to sit out the rest of the day.

R..

Have some non-ditchable weight (tank weights, backplate, trim pockets, etc) in addition to your ditchable weight. Distribute your ditchable weight around to a weight belt, integrated weight pockets, etc. That way, when you lose your weight belt, you're not suddenly 20+ pounds buoyant, but more like 5 or 10 pounds. This will give you a better chance to fin down, dump air, and/or grab some rocks.

When you hit the surface, take it easy for a bit before you move to shore. Exertion post-dive enhances the formation of bubbles. Call it quits diving for the day and think about breathing some oxygen if it's available and you're close to the NDL or the dive was deep.

Jonnythan makes a good point. I am a cold water diver which requires a fair amount of weight. I wear a 8lb weight belt while the rest of the weight is absorbed by a steel BP and channel weight. A 8lb weight belt is a pleasure to wear at least compared to divers who are wearing 30lb weight belts. A 8lb belt is less likely to slip or come undone compared to a 30lb weight belt.

Yes having less ditchable is a good thing and that's one reason I didn't think of, ditchable weight of 2-3 lbs is going to be enough to get you going up in an emergency (assuming your weighted correctly). It's ok to take some of that weight off the weightbelt/integrated pockets, and it's sooo much more comfortable.

One of the reasons I use the weight harness.
You don't lose your weights with this system, unless you want
to, which is not likely.

Easy to change soft weights, or leave 3LB off left side, when I
use my 19CF pony.


http://www.dui-online.com/newsite/bc_wt.htm

TRIG