Weighting

[katepnatl]

I dive in the tropics and don't need a lot of weight. I only use a 3mm wetsuit, an aluminum BP that's 2lbs, an STA that is about 1lbs and have 2 cam band weight pouches that hold 1lbs each that are positioned on the top cam strap (they were originally in the bottom strap, but I was feet heavy, so I moved it to the top and it stabled my trim out) and am perfectly weighted with just that. But, when I use a weight belt I end up being overly weighted and it ruins my trim. If I do remove my weight pouches on the cam band and just use a weight belt I end up being feet heavy and ruin my trim again. How to I comply with DIR without ruining my trim? Is diving without a weigh belt DIR compliant?

Don't remove weight pouches to put a weight belt on and f up your trim, if you are squared away with weight pockets, leave your config as-is. I am no expert on DIR-compliance but I know enough to be able to state that if you do not need a weight belt, don't use one!

(and btw, your setup mirrors mine for the tropics except i have no weights in my camband weigh pockets - I don't need a weightbelt or weights when diving a 3MM, so a weightbelt would be superfluous!)

[lamont]

Yeah, you can swim it up and float on the surface so there's little need to ditch a weight belt.

The one thing I'd suggest is to make sure that you understand rock bottom or minimum gas rules so that you don't find yourself also out of gas, and you might practice orally inflating your BC at the surface in case that you ever do find yourself out of gas.

You don't actually need a weight belt, but you should consider the larger implications of that choice, since that isn't how you get trained in typical OW courses.

[TSandM]

The nice thing about thin wetsuits is that there isn't much buoyancy that you are going to lose at depth. If you can swim your rig up from 10 feet with an empty wing, you have what's termed a "balanced rig". What this means is that a catastrophic failure of your wing (and it takes quite a bit to render a wing unable to hold any air at all) will not trap you on the bottom.

So, if you have a balanced rig, you do not require ditchable weight, and going without a weight belt is fine. You should be aware, however, that just because you can GET to the surface with a wing failure doesn't mean you can easily STAY there; if you are diving wet, it's not at all a bad idea to be carrying some kind of auxiliary flotation, should you need to remain on the surface for a while. Of course, if you are diving DIR, you also have a teammate who can assist with this, but auxiliary flotation (SMB, lift bag) is not a bad idea.

[diversean1983]

Thank you all for your input. I can and have practiced swimming my gear up after completing my safety stop and also carry a SMB on my backplate storage pack. Thank you again for all your input.

[PfcAJ]

For clarification, there are two conditions to having a balanced rig. 1 being able to swim it up with FULL tanks and an empty wing, the 2nd being able hold a stop at 10ft with an empty wing and empty tanks.

If you can't swim it up, you need either lighter tanks or a drysuit (using an SMB as "redundant buoyancy" is baloney, and surface floatation is questionable at best). If you can't hold the stop, you need more ballast. If the required ballast offsets condition 1, then it needs to be ditchable so condition 1 is attainable rather quickly.

[LiteHedded]

Condition three: tank flops around

[kathydee]

Hi Blue-Faced,

Welcome to the DIR forum.

Just noticed that you live in So Ca. You are fortunate that there are many helpful DIR diver and instructors in your area. When I first hopped on this training path I found it much easier to just meet up with local divers to help sort my equipment out in person rather than trying to piece my rig together from advice on the forums.

If you'd like a contact just let me know, or perhaps someone can volunteer on this thread?


The same may be true for you Diversean, depends where you live.