How did quick release belts become a safety standard?

[ballastbelly]

In free/skin diving I can understand why you would want a belt that you could flick open with one finger in an instant, but how did the importance of quick release get into *scuba* agency manuals?

Apart from the not insignificant chance of catching the latch on something yourself & opening it with possibly fatal results,
Would you really want your well intended but inexperienced rescuer buddy to take your belt off that easily, and rocket you to the surface?

B

 

[agilis]

Quick release belts were in use for many years before the first BCDs made their appearance. Their purpose not not to counterbalance a partially inflated BCD, an unfortunately common situation these days. Weights were needed primarily to counter the buoyancy of a neoprene wet suit, and with the weight of the air tank not very much lead was needed in most cases, especially with those early thin rubber suits.

Dropping a weightbelt does not necessarily mean rocketing to the surface. It really should not. Wearing a 3mm wetsuit I have a moderate and controllabe positive buoyancy without my weightbelt, which I still prefer to integrated weights. This is assuming my BCD has very little or no air in it, which is almost always the case except when I'm at the surface.

 

[rhwestfall]

.... and with the weight of the air tank not very much lead was needed in most cases, especially with those early thin rubber suits.

unless you were diving those "Z" aluminum 72 tanks (a.k.a. - "cork bottles")......

 

[Wookie]

Rocketing? I don't even rocket in a drysuit. If you do, you need to adjust your weight and trim so that releasing a weightbelt makes you no more than a couple of lbs positive. I don't believe in 14 lbs of lead on a belt, as I have no butt, so it would tend to fall off anyway. I have only 4 lbs of ditchable weight, which gives me a nice slow rise, slower than my fastest bubbles if I lost it. Or if someone ditched it.

 

[lowviz]

...//... Would you really want your well intended but inexperienced rescuer buddy to take your belt off that easily ...//...

Either you or your buddy should be able to remove your W/B easily. I like to weight myself properly (endless threads on how to do this) and then put the weight of my full gas load minus two pounds on a weight belt. -and I hate weight belts...

So if something horrid (like splashing with your gas off and you can't reach the valves) happens, just drop the belt and swim up the two pounds.

Rocketing? ...//... Or if someone ditched it.

If someone ditches YOUR weight belt I want to be there to see exactly who it is that ends up rocketing to the surface...

 

[Akimbo]

I have never been a fan of the cam-style quick release buckles that dominate the recreational weight belt market. They are too easy to accidently release. The good part is they are inexpensive to manufacture and require very little training to use or adjust. As stated by rhwestfall and Wookie, losing a belt isn’t a recipe for an embolism.

It is very apparent that the majority of training today does not emphasize or practice dropping their weight. Divers that actually have experience dropping their belt know they have reasonable control over ascent after dumping 20-25 Lbs of lead. You may be ascending a little fast and can’t hold a safety stop, but that is far from dangerous. The US Navy ascent rate was 60'/minute most of my life and safety stops hadn’t been invented. Besides, drowning is faster and harder to treat than getting bent.

I have always been an ardent supporter of dropping weight for self-rescue and have not seen an intelligent argument against it in over 50 years of diving — unless you want to count instructors being too lazy or rushed for time. However, accidently losing a belt is problematic when you are committed to decompression… OK, the rant is over and the children can come out from hiding.

The reason that quick release became a standard from the beginning is for safety. There were no BCs so dropping weight was important to freedivers and divers in SCUBA (open circuit and Oxygen rebreathers). The standard was probably established by the world’s navies long before Cousteau learned how to make a snorkel.

The earliest weightbelt buckles in the US were double D-rings and war surplus buckles like this one.

View attachment 190283

The wire and cam-action buckles came to market about a decade later. Commercial divers have always used much more secure buckles because they were doing a lot of decompression diving and the belts were often significantly heavier to make working on the bottom easier.

View attachment 190284 View attachment 190285

The Marseille-style buckle and rubber belt has started to dominate the freediving market, which is basically a typical man’s belt buckle on steroids. Myself and several friends are also using them on Scuba. They are very comfortable, secure, easy to drop intentionally, and stay in place even when worn just above crotch level.

View attachment 190286 View attachment 190287

[video=youtube;XwA8DL6-Ya0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwA8DL6-Ya0[/video]

Edit: Not sure why these images aren't displaying, but you can click on them.

 

[rx7diver]

Would you really want your well intended but inexperienced rescuer buddy to take your belt off that easily, and rocket you to the surface?

ballastbelly,

One of the required skills during my open water practicum was the "Weight Belt Recovery," where a diver, properly weighted in full gear (including a full 0.25" farmer John with hood and gloves, Scubapro Stab Jacket BC, and 72 or 80 cu ft cylinder), intentionally dropped his/her weight belt at a depth of 20-30 ffw. (Hard bottom of 20-30 ffw.) Then the diver immediately recovered and replaced his weight belt. The skill was intended to demonstrate that a diver really does not automatically "rocket to the surface" if he should lose his weight belt at depth--if he is diving wet and properly configured.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

P.S. IMPORTANT: To prevent accidents, the diver actually free-dived down from the surface to the hard bottom, with NO regulator in his mouth, and then dropped his weight belt, and then returned to the surface without using his regulator after replacing his weight belt. That is, the diver did NOT breathe compressed air either before or during the skill!

 

[boulderjohn]

It is very apparent that the majority of training today does not emphasize or practice dropping their weight. Divers that actually have experience dropping their belt know they have reasonable control over ascent after dumping 20-25 Lbs of lead. You may be ascending a little fast and can’t hold a safety stop, but that is far from dangerous. The US Navy ascent rate was 60'/minute most of my life and safety stops hadn’t been invented. Besides, drowning is faster and harder to treat than getting bent.

I don't know the standards of all agencies by any means, but I don't know any that are currently having students actually ditch weights and ascend from depth during training, at least at the OW level. It has not been taught that way in my agency as long as I have been diving, which is not as long as you. I am quite sure the reason is a concern for student safety. The methods for teaching the CESA (controlled Emergency Buoyancy Ascent) were dramatically changed a couple decades ago after research indicated it was by far the number one cause of instruction-related accidents. The procedures for CESA for PADI, both in the pool and in the open water, are the only instructor procedures for any skill that are spelled out clearly step by step, and it is clearly for reasons of safety. To my knowledge, the instructors in Belgium are the only ones that did not adopt these new procedures, and they still have that same high incidence of accidents with CESA. They evidently do not have very aggressive attorneys in that nation.

The buoyant ascent with the dropped weight belt would be a step more risky than the old CESA procedures, so I am sure that is why it is not practiced. It is taught in the classroom, but it is not practiced in the class.

In its new standards, PADI does require that students practice ditching weights on the surface to achieve positive buoyancy.

 

[Akimbo]

John,

That is probably true but the reason for the training accidents is the downgrading and shortening of training. CESA is less labor intensive to teach. Training accidents were extraordinarily rare before the rush to dumb-down classes to compete with resort courses in the 1970s.

Dive Training Today A Perspective, Diver Magazine

The problem is it may be safer during training, but divers are ill-equipped for self-rescue and drowning has become a common cause of death.

…In its new standards, PADI does require that students practice ditching weights on the surface to achieve positive buoyancy.

Maybe, but obviously not enough to make it reflexive or memorable.

One of my closest friends has been a dive boat skipper in Monterey for years. I lost track of all the stories where he and the dive master were yelling “Drop your weight!” when a diver was on the surface and getting panicky or in real trouble. I have heard the exact same stories from day-boat and liveaboard captains in several oceans.

Apparently it is far from the first thing that the great majority of divers think of when they are struggling to breathe on the surface. This is the most dangerous form of lead poisoning in diving.

 

[TSandM]

If you read accident reports, you will see a fair number of incidents where a diver made it to the surface, and subsequently sank again and was lost. One of the most important skills in the Rescue class is pulling a disabled or panicked diver's weights, to render them permanently buoyant and to aid with rescue. For this purpose, you want the easiest release that is compatible with a secure belt when closed. I agree with Akimbo that the current compression buckles are not that. Plastic ones are downright scary, but even good quality metal ones can let go. I also use the Mako belt that Akimbo shows above. It is easily released but really cannot come open on its own.

You should not rocket to the surface when you have lost a weight belt at depth, if you are diving wet. If you think about it, even thick neoprene, requiring a heavy belt, will have lost significant lift at depth, and therefore you will have a fair amount of air in your BC that can be dumped. It isn't until you get closer to the surface, where the neoprene has rebounded, that you will begin to accelerate. But I think most people can swim down 10 lbs or so; I know I can swim UP that much, and I'm not particularly powerful with my fins. So you may not be able to stop, but you should be able to slow your rise.

It's more of a problem with dry suits, because you don't lose lift in a dry suit as you descend. My dry suit is about 26 pounds positive, and 20 lbs of that resides on my waist. That is why I use my belt under my harness. I CAN jettison it if I need to (although I have redundant buoyancy, so that's unlikely), but if it were to fall off, it would catch on my crotch strap (and it did, the one time I lost a belt) so I become awkward rather than ballistic.

Most diving practices are designed for people diving in relatively warm water, using thin exposure protection and little weight. Most gear is designed for that, too.