Trim - On rental gear, how to place weights more to the front

I have short of 100 dives and I find myself to be quite ok when it comes to buoyancy, being able to avoid obstacles and hover at a few cm of things even when still, just by controlling my breathing. But when it comes to trim, I usually see on photos that I am not that great...

The main issue I see is that I am a tall guy with long legs and big lungs . That tends to put me in a upward trim, even with legs folded at knees' length. I usually dive with just enough weight to keep a safety stop at 50 bar with the BCD fully deflated, so I think over weighting is not an issue.

The problem is that I am always renting gear and having the weight on my weight belt. People that rent will tell you that 80% of the time the velcro holding your tank does lock anymore and as such placing a kilo or two by the tank is not always feasible. When possible I place 1 or 2 kilos on each BCD pocket, but then once again that is not always ok cause some dive shops don't allow it by stating that you may be damaging their BCDs...

So my question is, if you are renting gear and the tank belt velcro doesn't hold and you are not allowed to put weights on the BCD pockets, how can you shift your center of gravity towards your head? Does anyone have a cool idea on how to not carry all that weight (4 to 6kg) on your belt?

You could wrap an ankle weight around the neck of the tank.

I have little pockets that slide onto my top cam-band that allow me to put weight in them, but this might not work for you.

rafamart:

...and the tank belt velcro doesn't hold...

Click to expand...

Not how you attach the weight...

try these: XS-Scuba Quick-Attach Single Weight Pocket at LeisurePro

that way, the cam buckle is stabilizing the pouch. If it can't handle that, it shouldn't be in service...

I ran into a similar situation recently when diving with a friend. He is a newer diver and is having trouble with trim, leg heavy. I suggested putting weights in his trim pockets, looked at the BC and it is one of the new AL's with the trim pouches basicly on top of the weight pouches, low cam bands with the metal buckle so that he could not move weight up high on the BC to move his center of gravity up. Ended hanging a 1 or 2# weight on the tank valve and moving the tank up. Seemed to help a lot.
After thinking about it I thought that maybe the a good solution would be to get another cheap cam band and a couple of XS Scuba quick attach weight pockets to put trim weights in. You could get them up high if there isn't a high cam band or an ify cam band. The same setup could be used on the bottom of the tank if you are leg light.

claymore:

After thinking about it I thought that maybe the a good solution would be to get another cheap cam band and a couple of XS Scuba quick attach weight pockets to put trim weights in. You could get them up high if there isn't a high cam band or an ify cam band. The same setup could be used on the bottom of the tank if you are leg light.

Click to expand...

This method works well for those BC's without an upper cam band ie: new Aqua Lung BC's
Our store rental BC's have trim pockets but for those students that have purchased their own gear, I have made up a couple of these for their use during courses.

If you use this method on your own gear, make sure you tell the boat DM's about them. You'll either loose them overboard, break a DM's toe or damage a boat deck if they release the cam band, remove the cylinder with the BC still on your back.

another option if there isn't the needed cam band: SeaSoft Adjustable Tank Weight Pocket Only at LeisurePro

00wabbit:

You could wrap an ankle weight around the neck of the tank.

Click to expand...

This works really well. It doesn't take much weight up on the valve to bring your head down.

You can also put a couple of regular hard weights on a regular weight belt and put the weight belt on the tank. Put it as high or low as you wish on the tank.

Moving just a fourth of your waist weight up onto the tank will have a noticeable effect.

I assume renting due to travel? I would consider getting an AL backplate and wing that I can travel with and then threading some weights through the shoulder straps or sticking them on with bungie and tie wraps. There's a recent thread on here about horizontal trim that shows how to do it.

As a tall guy myself (6'3") I've found this is really what I need to do to get trimmed out.

eponym:

You can also put a couple of regular hard weights on a regular weight belt and put the weight belt on the tank. Put it as high or low as you wish on the tank.

Moving just a fourth of your waist weight up onto the tank will have a noticeable effect.

Click to expand...

But locking the weight belt is not the same as locking the camband; the former tends to loosen up a bit when u lock it, whereas the latter gets tighter. How do you make the weight belt keep its place once u lock it around the tank?

As to everyone suggesting ankle weights and the XS-Scuba Quick-Attach Weight Pocket, I'll definitely look at those options next time I dive.