Have you ever had to dump your weights?

[ChuckP]

In this case, I don't supposed you have any more weight to ditch to begin with. Right?

I dunno - I never have dove a steel tank - - I wear 10# with an aluminum80. I have very little air in my BC at depth and could not see not being able to swim up - from my experience which is only 1 and 3mm....

I could see ditching weight at the surface but not at depth, my comments were more geared toward ditching at the surface

 

[Kharon]

I never had any experience that would cause me to drop weight - at depth or at surface. I have had weights drop out on me twice at the beginning of a dive. Since then I have made changes that insure weight stays where I put it till I remove it. The configuration has all weight in reach - 2 at shoulders, 2 at waist - allows trim head to toe and side to side.

 

[Storker]

Since this is the Basic Discussions forum, let's assume we're in a wetsuit, not a drysuit.

Just FTR, in some parts of the world (like mine), drysuits are basic. Heck, up here almost everyone takes their OW cert in a drysuit. You'd be hard pressed to find a dive center which offers wetsuits for their OW students.

 

[ofg-1]

I have ditched weights, speargun, stringer, tank, and finally removed a horsecollar bc (which has a lot of drag) on the same dive. The anchor on the boat pulled loose, and when I came up, all I could see was my 17' Thunderbird bobbing up and down drifting north faster than I could swim. Finally had to swim to shore. I was about 2 miles off north beach in Ft. Pierce.

 

[Wookie]

I have ditched weights, speargun, stringer, tank, and finally removed a horsecollar bc (which has a lot of drag) on the same dive. The anchor on the boat pulled loose, and when I came up, all I could see was my 17' Thunderbird bobbing up and down drifting north faster than I could swim. Finally had to swim to shore. I was about 2 miles off north beach in Ft. Pierce.

Did you find any of it?

 

[ofg-1]

Did you find any of it?

Found the boat.

 

[Snoweman]

OK, so after the snarky half butted answer I gave yesterday, here is my only weight ditching story.

I used to have a 2 piece farmer john semi dry. It fit real good when I got it, but sadly it shrunk. It got me through many dives in Maine, and a few in Texas, but the food from a good woman etc.... Anyway, it was early in the year, water temps at the Flower Gardens was in the upper 60s, and I had moorings to set. I jumped in in my 2 piece and realized I looked like Gumby except he was more flexible. I got to the front of the boat, started down the old mooring, and just couldn't get enough gas. and then I realized I couldn't get to my inflator in the vertical position. I could reach my weight belt, and proceeded to send it to the bottom by itself. I bobbed like a cork and actually had to be hauled onboard like a gutted fish. It was not funny then and it isn't funny now, although those who know me might think it is so. I came close to full panic that day and had to be rescued like a weenie.

Why am I getting the illusion of the "A Christmas Story" little brother, but in the ocean?

 

[kelemvor]

My instructor said there is basically no good reason to ever dump your weights. Nonetheless, every BC comes with dumpable weight pouches, so clearly the manufacturers feel this is an important feature. I'm curious about all the possible situations in which dumping your weights is actually a sensible thing to do. Here is all I could think of:

1 - A (novice) diver jumps off the boat with so much excess weight that they cannot maintain neutral or positive bouyancy on the surface, even with a fully inflated BC. They start sinking uncontrollably and must dump the weights before ever beginning their dive.

2 - A (novice) diver is significantly over-weighted, but doesn't realize it at the surface because their BC is able to keep them afloat. Later on during their dive, their BC malfunctions or springs a leak, and they are so negatively bouyant that they find it impossible to ascend by regulating their breathing, or without holding their breath for an unsafe period of time, so they need to dump some weights in order to be able to ascend.

3 - The diver loses a large source of bouyancy while on their dive -- for example an extra cylinder that they were planning to ascend with -- and hence need to drop some weight to counteract the unexpected loss of bouyancy.

4 - The diver finds something heavy on the seafloor that they want to bring up with them (e.g., a small treasure chest)

Have you ever encountered a situation where you or someone you know had to dump their weights? If so I'd be curious to hear the story.

Never had to do it, other than in a pool during OW certification. I've only been diving 5 years though (a short time compared to many scubaboarders).

 

[WetSEAL]

I think I've finally realized a more practical situation in which ditching the lead makes sense, other than my previous example of when someone accidentally jumps in over-weighted to begin with:

Suppose I have an HP100 tank and a 7mm wetsuit, so I still need to carry considerable lead to be neutrally bouyant after the tank runs empty. At the beginning of the dive, I'll therefore be about 9 lbs heavy. If a diver was wearing 2x HP tanks, they might be close to 18 lbs heavy at the start of their dive. Now suppose that the BC inflator isn't working, or isn't inflating fast enough, or you can't get to it for some reason, and start sinking like a stone, but you're still at (or close to) the surface...In this case, it seems like ditching the removable weights (and aborting the dive) would be a reasonable move.

 

[rsingler]

I think I've finally realized a more practical situation in which ditching the lead makes sense, other than my previous example of when someone accidentally jumps in over-weighted to begin with:

Suppose I have an HP100 tank and a 7mm wetsuit, so I still need to carry considerable lead to be neutrally bouyant after the tank runs empty. At the beginning of the dive, I'll therefore be about 9 lbs heavy. If a diver was wearing 2x HP tanks, they might be close to 18 lbs heavy at the start of their dive. Now suppose that the BC inflator isn't working, or isn't inflating fast enough, or you can't get to it for some reason, and start sinking like a stone, but you're still at (or close to) the surface...In this case, it seems like ditching the removable weights (and aborting the dive) would be a reasonable move.

Your enthusiasm for this debate is really great to see! I'm glad you're thinking hard about this. You'll make a great diver! You have the right attitude. Just don't get too caught up in finding a way to make this come out the way you think it ought to. I say that gently.

Your conclusion is ABSOLUTELY correct: there is nothing wrong, and everything right, with dumping weight at or close to the surface (depending upon what that means). If YOU make that decision, don't let anyone second guess you. Positive buoyancy at the surface is the key to staying alive.

But here's where you're boxing yourself into a corner (and Scubaboard can be a little vicious if you are seen to be working too hard to make your point): you are pitching a scenario that is emphasizing your inexperience.
First, my 3500psi HP100's are only 0.6 lb negative at 500 psi, so they're no different from a pair of aluminum tanks for which I'm wearing lead to counteract their positive buoyancy when empty. So the extra weight penalty of those tanks is negligible, because the extra weight of the doubles manifold means less need for lead. As in post #17, if you're neutrally buoyant, the only issue is the weight of the air you carry. That math is (3500-500)*100*2tanks*0.08lb/CuFt_air, or 13.7 lb heavy. In fins, you can keep yourself afloat with that burden, at least for a bit. Yes, there are kits that cannot be made neutrally buoyant without additional flotation, but those divers plan with redundant buoyancy. (Please don't come back and say, "but if I lost my fins, too...")
Next, you don't jump in the water without adding air to your bcd, and confirming your bcd integrity should have occurred as you put your kit together. So inflator efficiency is an imaginary horrible.
But, your conclusion was correct. If you didn't check and discovered that your bcd integrity was not there when you hit the water, dump your weights. So good on you! But you already were getting the right answer from several posters, and didn't have to come up with a doubtful scenario:
1) ditching weight at the surface is always okay, if you think it's necessary
2) ditching weight at depth is generally VERY inadvisable with a few isolated exceptions that should have been planned for anyway. But open water instruction still mentions an emergency buoyant ascent, and if you've got nothing else, then it's still okay to ditch weight and ascend as fast as you have to, to survive. Then off you go to the chamber, instead of the morgue.
But in every other case where you start neutrally buoyant (before you filled your tanks) and then ditch more weight than the weight of the air you're carrying, you'll arrive at the surface positively buoyant, which can mean a runaway ascent as you near the surface.

Keep posting, and have a thick skin!
Safe diving.