Solo with a weight belt

[nielsent]

Just curious how many solo divers use a weight belt or harness?

I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject, and it seems that the main reasons
would wear a weight belt while solo would be if you have to take off your rig at depth or if you would like to have ditchable weight. But then again other than severe entanglement, when or why would you need to remove your harness? Or if you are in a properly balanced rig, when would you need to drop your weights?

Thanks everyone for your input in advance.

 

[spectrum]

Regardless of the buddy/solo status I subscribe to having the weight, except as need for trim be on the diver. This also limits the BC/harness weight.

How likely is an entanglement or other situation? Nobody can say but it has happened on buddy dives so I'm not willing to call it remote.

Balanced rig? Well that's a nice notion but depending on the extent of exposure protection, depth and on board air supply at the time it's not always a viable concept. If you distribute the weight right at least things are not individually positive.

The most common time to drop weights may be on the surface. If things get ugly and you want to be very positive or you are in real distress it can be handy.

Pete

 

[Doc Harry]

I solo with doubles and don't use a weight belt. If I need weight I use a V-weight. The very real risk of accidentally losing a weight belt far outweighs its benefit in the extremely rare circumstance that I need to remove my kit underwater. In my opinion. Weight belts make me nervous.

I could see the benefit of dropping my weight if I was lost at sea for a prolonged period. I have a drysuit and two SMBs for redundant bouyancy, so in most cases I don't ever anticipate the need to ditch a lot of weight.

 

[Bob DBF]

I dive with 10 to 15# in my weight belt depending on the configuration I'm diving. The rest is in the backpack and tank, with trim weights on the tank straps. I'd have to be deep to take off the pack and not zoom to the surface. For any doff and don I have to be very carefull to maintain possession of the BP/W.

I use weight pockets on my belt so I can ditch weight retail instead of wholesale as well as changing weight for tank changes, trim, etc.

The only time I ever dropped a weight belt was freediving and it broke the entanglement. Thank God I have to dive in a 7mm farmer john and need a ton of weight to get neutral.

Bob
--------------------------------
I may be old but I’m not dead yet.

 

[redacted]

. But then again other than severe entanglement, when or why would you need to remove your harness? .

I have come out of my rig a few times during a solo dive. One was to inspect a leak I could hear from my valve. (The leak was a valve handle o-ring and I continued the dive.) The other - well let's just say it was a pressing matter that had to be dealt with immediately.

 

[*dave*]

But then again other than severe entanglement, when or why would you need to remove your harness?

I practice it, but it's mainly a task loading, BC and SA exercise for me and I've never had to doff my rig for any real world reason. I don't do tight restrictions solo, so the only possible reason I'd contemplate this outside of a drill situation would be entanglement.

Or if you are in a properly balanced rig, when would you need to drop your weights?

Complete failure of an air cell, combined with a flooded DS unable to hold gas at the start of a dive would leave you very negative in a set of double 100s. Pretty remote possibility imo. Other than that, I can't really think of a good reason to drop weight at depth if you're properly configured.

 

[b1gcountry]

I solo with doubles and don't use a weight belt. If I need weight I use a V-weight. The very real risk of accidentally losing a weight belt far outweighs its benefit in the extremely rare circumstance that I need to remove my kit underwater. In my opinion. Weight belts make me nervous.

I could see the benefit of dropping my weight if I was lost at sea for a prolonged period. I have a drysuit and two SMBs for redundant bouyancy, so in most cases I don't ever anticipate the need to ditch a lot of weight.

I use a weight belt in doubles when I'm diving my 400gr thinsulate. I need about 10lbs extra. It lays just above my waist band. The buckle is just above my waistband buckle, and the belt is trapped by the weight of my doubles on my back. There is no way to get the belt off (or on) without taking off the doubles.

My biggest concern is forgetting to put on the weight belt. I'd be able to start the dive just fine, but if I ever had to dip into my reserve gas, I wouldn't be able to hold my deco stops.

Tom

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

I still really like to have the ability to ditch relatively cheap lead on the surface. My logic is the surface in full gear is the most likely place for me to get distressed. Stupid things can happen and get out of control.

Ditching your entire rig is very expensive and I would probably hesitate to do so except in the most dire circumstances. Ditching 20-30lbs of lead is more reasonable approach and I would not hesitate to do so before the situation deteriorates.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

I don't use ditchable weight on any of my rigs. The only instance where it might be necessary would be a lost at sea situation. For that I have a lift bag to give me some extra lift. I suppose you could always purge your tank and gain a few extra pounds of buoyancy, but I think if I was lost at sea I would have bigger problems - like sharks in the move Open Water... LOL

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I wear a weightbelt when using a singles rig, no ditchable weights when using doubles ... so the answer for me is "it depends on the dive".

I've never had to take my rig off underwater, but I have had a couple of entanglements that would've required me to if I'd been diving solo at the time.

Would've been much less fun in the doubles rig ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)