Do you need ditchable weight?

[happy-diver]

Here's a guy drowning



You choose


Thanks John C. Ratliffe, Lucky!

 

[Wibble]

When I first started, I had a traditional waist belt and ditched it twice due to dumb new diver errors. One time my buckle caught on the anchor line during deco and I lost my belt. I had to wrap my leg around the line to stay in place during the rest of the deco. Now, my weights are fixed and I can't ditch them, however, I typically dive on deeper sites (100-200') with a drysuit. So even if my BC failed, I could use my drysuit as positive buoyancy.

I always wondered about ditching my rig or taking it off until I lost a friend that tried it. He was a hell of good and strong diver diving solo at 130'. No one knows exactly what happened, but it's believed his tank or rig got caught on some line (he was recovering lost anchors) and he took off his rig. His BC and tanks got away from him. His tanks were found on the surface and he was found on the bottom with his weight belt still on.

Thank you for posting that.

 

[lowwall]

I always wondered about ditching my rig or taking it off until I lost a friend that tried it. He was a hell of good and strong diver diving solo at 130'. No one knows exactly what happened, but it's believed his tank or rig got caught on some line (he was recovering lost anchors) and he took off his rig. His BC and tanks got away from him. His tanks were found on the surface and he was found on the bottom with his weight belt still on.

That's sad.

It does point out why the mantra should be "Don't just do something. Stand there." when faced with a problem. If you have breathable gas, you have time to fully think through the ramifications to your first solution. You see the failure to do this all the time in general aviation accident reports, where something like a door opening or one engine failing on a twin turns a nuisance into a fatality.

 

[happy-diver]

or just dive a few minutes ahead of yourself