Weights with sidemount?

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00wabbit

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I've got a hollis sms100d

i don't have a waist really so a conventional weight belt slides down and is a pain. I tried in my sidemount class and it was ok but not practical. I tried last weekend with my weight harness but found that the bulk of the weight harness got in the way of the tanks.

I've got a weight plate on order.

What do you do for ditchable weight? I normally dive dry and have the dual bladders for the few times I would dive wet but I still like the idea of some amount of ditchable weight.
 
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As you probably already know, ditchable weight only needs to equal the weight of the breathable gas in your tanks. (Ditching more than that prevents you from being able to do deco/safety stops.) For twin 80s, this works out to around 10 pounds.

6 pounds of my ditchable is in the lowest trim pouches attached to the inside of my trim device. This is out of the way and keeps the waist clean, but still reachable in an emergency. An additional 4lbs of weight is very easily ditchable from my shoulder pouches.

Inside the trim device on my lumbar is my favorite place for the non ditchable weight. 10 pounds lives there on my rig.

Having lots of trim pouch locations on your rig should allow you to get rid of a separate weight belt or harness. The Hollis weight plate should help with some of this, but I'm not sure how reachable it is for self-ditching.

You can get away with less ditchable if you know exactly how much weight (negative buoyancy) you are able swim up with from depth. This is hard to test/verify though, so do this at your own risk.
 
Accessories

will any of these work for you ??
 
I could ditch one of my steel tanks to become 4lb buoyant slightly before running out of gas. I am about neutral with 10+10 bar.
 
I do think that configuring ditchable weight is a common dilemma for sidemount divers.

I'm guessing that a lot of us probably carry less ditchable than we should for optimum safety, so I look forward to seeing other people's solutions.
 
Diving wet with my LP 75.5's I don't need any additional weight. So the ditchable weight is one of the tanks. In a conventional rig any ditchable weight is the rig itself for me most of the time. Sidemount I also use a rubber weight belt that compensates for depth as my suit compresses. On it are individual pockets I can move and position wherever I need them. Easy to take a couple pounds out if needed. I am getting a HOG SM rig shortly when they come in. Plan is to work on getting weight as optimal as possible so ditchable weight is an optional item but not a required one. Worst case I'll fabricate a couple pockets to fit where I need them that can be accessed to drop weights.
 
I could ditch one of my steel tanks to become 4lb buoyant slightly before running out of gas. I am about neutral with 10+10 bar.

Diving wet with my LP 75.5's I don't need any additional weight. So the ditchable weight is one of the tanks.

Hmmm. I personally would find it a bit scary to consider part my life support system as "ditchable" weight. Is this really taught or endorsed by anyone, or is it simply one of those things we say to convince ourselves we are safe to carry no other form of ditchable weight?

Remember the most critical failure scenario for this: losing all your trim buoyancy early in a dive at max depth, then ditching enough to be able to swim up to your deco stop(s) and hold them. Is this really when you'd want to ditch a (mostly full) tank?

I'm as guilty as anyone not carrying enough ditchable on certain dives, but I don't kid myself about the safety margin when I do so.
 
If I need to ditch weight the dive is over and if I drop one tank I still have a complete "life support" system on my other side. That is the point of redundant gas supplies and regs.
And between my drysuit (if diving dry), smb's, and lift bag I have more than enough redundant buoyancy. I'm guessing you have not yet taken an Intro to Tech course where using your SMB or lift bag is required to simulate the scenario you just asked about?
Most of the time I don't carry ditchable weight in any configuration. At least not stuff I could drop at depth. And frankly would not want to have to drop more than a couple pounds at depth under any circumstance. If I do need to the dive was planned wrong and so was my gear configuration.

---------- Post added March 2nd, 2014 at 03:55 PM ----------

Just noticed this in your question as well. Dropping one tank is not going to affect my deco as I will or should have an additional deco cylinder.
 
If I need to ditch weight the dive is over and if I drop one tank I still have a complete "life support" system on my other side. That is the point of redundant gas supplies and regs. And between my drysuit (if diving dry), smb's, and lift bag I have more than enough redundant buoyancy. I'm guessing you have not yet taken an Intro to Tech course where using your SMB or lift bag is required to simulate the scenario you just asked about?

You're right, I am in the middle of tech training after years of recreational diving. And I'm starting to see a number of differences between the theory I'm currently being taught and actual practice. Ditchable weight seems to be an area where those differences occur.

I consider a drysuit to be redundancy enough to minimize the safety risk of no ditchable weight. However, you mentioned diving a wetsuit, steels, and no ditchable. Personally I have my doubts about using an SMB for buoyancy control in a real emergency, but I haven't done this drill yet, so I can't comment from experience.

Most of the time I don't carry ditchable weight in any configuration. At least not stuff I could drop at depth. And frankly would not want to have to drop more than a couple pounds at depth under any circumstance. If I do need to the dive was planned wrong and so was my gear configuration.

Again, seems a difference between classroom/theory and actual practice? It doesn't seem like common practice to teach "no ditchable", but rather to teach the ditchable weight calculation right alongside redundant buoyancy.

It's also beginning to dawn on me that the further you go into tech, the fewer "absolute rules" there are, and the more the team is expected to use their knowledge and experience to discuss and agree upon risks, safety margins, and so on.

Sidemount is becoming a "gateway to tech" for many divers these days (including me), so this seems an important issue to observe, discuss and understand, both as student and instructor.
 
Interesting concepts. I will put some weight under the back pad. If I am diving warm water with my steel tanks I only need about 10-12 pounds so I could easily fit that on the harness in places.

I am a bit of a safety nut in diving so I have a dual bladder bc and a drysuit (most dives) and I also carry a lift bag. For those few dives I dive wet with my steel tanks I will still have the dual bladder and lift bag so as long as I know how to handle them in an emergency that should work for me.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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