sambolino44
Contributor
I'm considering a harness to replace my weight belt. The belt has just been a never-ending source of unhappiness for various reasons: uncomfortable, hard to get on right, doesn't fit under my BP/W harness. I was considering adding weight pockets to my BP/W harness, but I think I'd rather be able to be at least somewhat close to neutral if I take my BC off at depth.
I hope I can avoid a discussion of "why do you want to take your BC off at depth?" for the time being. If you want to talk about that, start another thread, please.
I'm hoping that I can comfortably wear the weight harness under my BP/W harness, and be able to leave the weights out until the last minute when I'm gearing up. I wonder if I'll be able to hang the weights low enough so they don't interfere with my BC and not have them kwonk my trim all out of whack. I also wonder how this system would work on long shore hikes.
I usually have 12 lbs on my belt, but recently, with rented AL80 cylinders and extra fleece, I was carrying 20 lbs on the belt, in addition to 4 lbs on my ankles and a steel plate with weight plates. That seemed like a lot, but with a cylinder at 500 PSI, and a totally squeezed suit, I could just stay down at 15 ft, but at 10 ft I was floating up.
As far as weight pockets go, of all ones I've seen, I like the release mechanism on the Apeks WTX system the best. I don't think they make a stand-alone weight harness with those pockets, do they? Probably wouldn't be too hard to make one, though.
Never mind, the SeaSoft pockets have a similar release mechanism. One concern I read about recently was a buckle like that jamming with sand and not opening up. Well, maybe it wasn't exactly the same kind, probably more like a regular Fastex buckle like on Scubapro and most other systems, but both the Apeks and the SeaSoft have elements that have to squeeze together to release, so possibly susceptible to jamming.
I've seen other systems like the DUI, where they use a "ripcord", but I've never been able to figure out why they don't make it like a real parachute ripcord, with short pins along the length, so you don't have to pull the whole thing out to release, just the length of a pin. Granted, you probably won't be re-threading those things very often, but that system just looks like trouble waiting to happen, to me. Not to mention that you can't just pop the weights in and out after you've put the harness on.
Now I've just discovered Best Divers, but I can't get a very good idea of how it works from the pictures on their website.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions?
I hope I can avoid a discussion of "why do you want to take your BC off at depth?" for the time being. If you want to talk about that, start another thread, please.
I'm hoping that I can comfortably wear the weight harness under my BP/W harness, and be able to leave the weights out until the last minute when I'm gearing up. I wonder if I'll be able to hang the weights low enough so they don't interfere with my BC and not have them kwonk my trim all out of whack. I also wonder how this system would work on long shore hikes.
I usually have 12 lbs on my belt, but recently, with rented AL80 cylinders and extra fleece, I was carrying 20 lbs on the belt, in addition to 4 lbs on my ankles and a steel plate with weight plates. That seemed like a lot, but with a cylinder at 500 PSI, and a totally squeezed suit, I could just stay down at 15 ft, but at 10 ft I was floating up.
As far as weight pockets go, of all ones I've seen, I like the release mechanism on the Apeks WTX system the best. I don't think they make a stand-alone weight harness with those pockets, do they? Probably wouldn't be too hard to make one, though.
Never mind, the SeaSoft pockets have a similar release mechanism. One concern I read about recently was a buckle like that jamming with sand and not opening up. Well, maybe it wasn't exactly the same kind, probably more like a regular Fastex buckle like on Scubapro and most other systems, but both the Apeks and the SeaSoft have elements that have to squeeze together to release, so possibly susceptible to jamming.
I've seen other systems like the DUI, where they use a "ripcord", but I've never been able to figure out why they don't make it like a real parachute ripcord, with short pins along the length, so you don't have to pull the whole thing out to release, just the length of a pin. Granted, you probably won't be re-threading those things very often, but that system just looks like trouble waiting to happen, to me. Not to mention that you can't just pop the weights in and out after you've put the harness on.
Now I've just discovered Best Divers, but I can't get a very good idea of how it works from the pictures on their website.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions?
