Weighting strategy

[PhatD1ver]

So, after some trial and error, wife and I have zeroed in on our weighting (went to an aquarium about 60miles from here and dove on Saturday)....

Here's the thing (sorry, going to use metric)...

We both have quick dump set ups, mine is basically my BCD pocket that pulls open from the bottom, dumping everything in the pocket not tied down..(not what I really like, but the rest of the BCDs functions are worth the poor design.

My wife has an Aqualung, with the two slide in and lock quick dump pouches.

So here is the question. For the sake of trimming out easier, and to get weight off my weight belt, I'm thinking that we should split what we carry between our quick dump pockets and our weight belts. That said, I'm not sure what the 'ratio' is that would be most useful.

The meaning there is in the event you need to dump weights, it seems that if you dump even 30-40% of total weights that you are headed toward the surface in an emergency... obviously the BCD quick releases are TWO pulls in an emergency rather than one flick of the waist belt, but my experience thus far is that even if you've done a good buddy check, finding the buckle isn't always easy where two hands, two pull handles works.

Or in an emergency would you really just dump ALL the weights?

So, I'm looking for a wise strategy for weighting, with my weight right now, I am planning on getting a pocket belt for my waist anyway, and having shoulder straps attached (much like the DUI trim and weight set up).

 

[doctormike]

If you are properly weighted, there are very few situations where you would need to dump weights at all. They include:

1) Some sort of emergency on the surface where the diver can't maintain positive buoyancy (wing failure, panicking diver, medical problem).

2) If you are wearing a very heavy wetsuit that loses a lot of buoyancy at depth, then you might be relatively overweighted on the bottom just to have enough to get you to sink from the surface (where your buoyancy is greater). If you are in that situation, and THEN you have a wing (or BC bladder) failure, you might not be able to swim your rig up from depth without dropping some weight. This would be a very unusual situation, and in that situation you should try to drop weight in as small increments as possible, to avoid an uncontrolled ascent. Unless you ALSO had a problem with gas supply (wow, that would be a bad day, huh?), you would probably have time to remove individual weights from your weight belt or integrated pockets - definitely not a situation where you would want to immediately ditch all of your ballast. Ideally, a good balanced rig will not put you in this situation, and well distributed weight would allow you to just ditch a small percentage of your total ballast.

3) A situation where a diver had an extreme medical emergency and needed to be blown to the surface quickly (seizure, unresponsive at depth, etc..). In that case, the rescuing diver wouldn't risk a quick ascent, and it would basically be a choice between certain death (staying in the water) and near certain death (sending the diver to the surface). Even if the diver's BC was working, you would probably release the weights to give him the best chance of staying on the surface until help arrived.


I don't know how much weight you are carrying, but if you can fit it all into a single BC pocket, then it doesn't sound like much. What kind of exposure suit? Distributing ballast (including a steel backplate, steel tank or trim weights) makes it less likely that an intended or inadvertent ditch will send you into an uncontrolled ascent. You would only ever really need to ditch enough to make yourself buoyant enough so that you can swim your rig up off the bottom, which shouldn't be that much.

 

[industrious95]

You can try putting a few pounds into a tank weight pouch. It won't be ditchable. I have 4lbs back there.

I have the DUI weight & trim harness and love it.

In an emergency, I would do whatever my training has taught me to do in order to protect myself. I have both a bp/w and drysuit, so I have two options to provide buoyancy if necessary. On the other hand, if I thought my life depended on it, I'd ditch my weights in a second. With the DUI harness, you have a separate ditch mechanism for both left and right sides.

The problem with lots of little pockets with small amounts of weight is what do you do in an emergency - which do you grab, and if you only have seconds to decide, will you do the right thing? I think there's a real benefit to keeping it simple. I wouldn't recommend playing games with different pockets on your belt so you can save a buck in an emergency. In a critical situation, you don't want to be fooling around trying to remember "which pocket do I dump?"

I seem to remember reading that when they recover divers who have drowned, the majority of them have their weight belts on.

 

[doctormike]

The problem with lots of little pockets with small amounts of weight is what do you do in an emergency - which do you grab, and if you only have seconds to decide, will you do the right thing? I think there's a real benefit to keeping it simple. I wouldn't recommend playing games with different pockets on your belt so you can save a buck in an emergency.

Do you mean on the surface or at depth? Can you describe the situation in which the best option would be to dump all of your weight from depth within seconds?


BTW, the concept of weight distribution doesn't have anything to do with saving money.

 

[Tony387]

A balanced rig is the only way to go, IMO.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[PhatD1ver]

If you are properly weighted, there are very few situations where you would need to dump weights at all. They include:

1) Some sort of emergency on the surface where the diver can't maintain positive buoyancy (wing failure, panicking diver, medical problem).

2) If you are wearing a very heavy wetsuit that loses a lot of buoyancy at depth, then you might be relatively overweighted on the bottom just to have enough to get you to sink from the surface (where your buoyancy is greater). If you are in that situation, and THEN you have a wing (or BC bladder) failure, you might not be able to swim your rig up from depth without dropping some weight. This would be a very unusual situation, and in that situation you should try to drop weight in as small increments as possible, to avoid an uncontrolled ascent. Unless you ALSO had a problem with gas supply (wow, that would be a bad day, huh?), you would probably have time to remove individual weights from your weight belt or integrated pockets - definitely not a situation where you would want to immediately ditch all of your ballast. Ideally, a good balanced rig will not put you in this situation, and well distributed weight would allow you to just ditch a small percentage of your total ballast.

3) A situation where a diver had an extreme medical emergency and needed to be blown to the surface quickly (seizure, unresponsive at depth, etc..). In that case, the rescuing diver wouldn't risk a quick ascent, and it would basically be a choice between certain death (staying in the water) and near certain death (sending the diver to the surface). Even if the diver's BC was working, you would probably release the weights to give him the best chance of staying on the surface until help arrived.


I don't know how much weight you are carrying, but if you can fit it all into a single BC pocket, then it doesn't sound like much. What kind of exposure suit? Distributing ballast (including a steel backplate, steel tank or trim weights) makes it less likely that an intended or inadvertent ditch will send you into an uncontrolled ascent. You would only ever really need to ditch enough to make yourself buoyant enough so that you can swim your rig up off the bottom, which shouldn't be that much.

In my drysuit, it's 11.5 kg, I have been putting 7kg on my belt, then 1.5kg in each pocket and 1.5kg on my tank - similar for when I'm diving wet, usually in a shorty.

She's putting it all in her pockets right now.

---------- Post added August 25th, 2014 at 11:39 AM ----------

You can try putting a few pounds into a tank weight pouch. It won't be ditchable. I have 4lbs back there.

The problem with lots of little pockets with small amounts of weight is what do you do in an emergency - which do you grab, and if you only have seconds to decide, will you do the right thing? I think there's a real benefit to keeping it simple. I wouldn't recommend playing games with different pockets on your belt so you can save a buck in an emergency. In a critical situation, you don't want to be fooling around trying to remember "which pocket do I dump?".

And thus the question... the pockets are on a weight belt. instead of weaving the weights, they just slip into a pocket with a velco seal...

You have touched on the main part of my question... I read very often about dumping the weight belt in assisting a diver to the surface... since my wife and I are diving together, to me the easiest and fastest would be the pull handles on the BCD to drop about 40% of the weight .. now the flip side is that if they pop you out of your BCD on the surface and forget to drop the weight belt first thinking your weights were dropped from the BCD dump, then you are on your way back to the bottom. Not ideal.

But I can shoulder or carry around my waist a lot of weight more comfortably than trying to heft a tank and a BCD that's loaded with 11kg of weight..

 

[TatianaSilva]

is there any problem to only use a belt ? i guess if i carry some in BCD pockets , in an emergency i could drop the belt but still make some kind of controlled ascend? as i still have weights on BCD. Is this correct?

 

[g1138]

is there any problem to only use a belt ? i guess if i carry some in BCD pockets , in an emergency i could drop the belt but still make some kind of controlled ascend? as i still have weights on BCD. Is this correct?

If you drop your belt and lose all your weight you're going up no matter what. You can flare and slow the ascent but by definition it is an uncontrolled ascent.

If you have it split you can dump weight based on your situation and make a slower uncontrolled ascent.
In a rescue if the person is too negative for you to swim up, you can dump partial weight and make for a more controlled rescue ascent. This is advantageous for a rescue, and in a self-help situation, a little prevention and training can make this weight placement ideal too.
Prevent at all cost getting yourself in a situation where you feel the need to dump weight.
- Don't overweight yourself
- Don't approach or surpass your BC lift capacity
- Dive within your limits to prevent situations of panic
- Also dive within your buddy's limit to prevent situations needing rescue intervention

However if you find you need to dump weight, you can dump a belt and still have some pocketed weight to slow your ascent. Or dump a pocket, or two if you feel the need to.

Ultimately splitting your weight should primarily be for giving you a balanced rig, one that doesn't scoot your center of gravity too far to one extremity. It allows you to keep horizontal more naturally, rather than feet down or head down when you're relaxed and hovering.

 

[spectrum]

DoctorMike outlines the 3 major triggers to dump weights. In the case of #2 the ability to dump a fraction of your lead is an advantage.

A weight belt is often to a quick flick of the wrist deployment. They can still need some manipulating to free them from tank boots and whatnot even if donned correctly. Likewise for your ripcord pockets, you need to get the opening on the bottom or not much will happen. The only positive mentioned are her yank and toss pockets. Make sure she practices with them. All geared up she may lack the strength to pull them since the position relative to arm strength is often awkward. That being said nothing here is a slam dunk.

Getting to your strategy question..... I like to see the belt do the heady work. You do not want your BC to be a miserably heavy pig of the thing. That's hard on everyone. I suggest using the BC only to carry weight needed that high on your person to achieve trim. Let the belt do the rest. This can be read as a contradiction to my first paragraph and as is almost always the case in diving there is no single perfect answer.

Configure to dive effectively and have the option of dumping weights as needed. It's a vital life saving skill that gets forgotten with tragic results but the frequency with which it is the right thing to do is extremely low.

Pete

 

[doctormike]

I'm repeating this because it is an often misunderstood point.

There is virtually NEVER a reason to dump weights at depth, if you are properly weighted. I think that a lot of new divers (especially those that are taught the sloppy technique of overweighting and BC compensation) have the idea that the weight release is like an ejector seat in an aircraft - something that you will need to deploy instantly to escape from a sudden emergency. That simply isn't the case.

It is a very rare situation where weighting is such that you would actually need to ditch ballast to be able to make an ascent. In tech training, we are taught options for redundant buoyancy in case of drysuit or wing failure, but even then that's only an issue if for some reason you are carrying a lot of negatively buoyant gear. AND, in that situation, it is very important NOT to ditch a significant amount weight since an uncontrolled ascent with a deco obligation is even more dangerous (beyond the scope of this discussion). A properly weighed recreational diver that isn't carrying heavy stage bottles, canister batteries, etc... shouldn't find themselves in a situation where they just can't swim their rig off the bottom (maybe a deep dive with a LOT of neoprene, see #2 above).

However, you should be able to ditch weights on the surface. Lots of stories of people who made it to the surface after some sort of emergency but then sank again and were found with their weights in place.