I hated weight belts when I used to dive with alot of weight on the belt. Now when diving a single al80 with a 2 piece 1/4 inch suit I only have 4 pounds on the belt. However, I have another 4 on the cam bands. If I hand my rig up to someone they have half my weight anyway. Why would I do that again? I just climb the ladder.
Weight Integrated or Not?
- Thread starter scubaredneck
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My BC is WI and I love it. I have no problem sliding my weight pouches in or out as needed on land or Sea. It only takes a min to adjust or change my weight and if need be I can Adjust the position of weight Fwd or to the Rear.
Geek
Geek
Liveordive
Guest
I have used both and there are advantages to both, or not as the case may be.
One thing to keep in mind is how the weight will be handled before and after diving. I have a pouch system (Scuba Pro Knighthawk) with a positive clip, no accidental dump but the quick release is not orange (bad Scuba pro!) and not intuitive. I explain it to my dive buds and make sure they know what's up. Fortunately I have very experienced partners and am very comfortable with them. I am also confident of the system and my comfort with it. I do use my weight belt on occasion.
Have friends who use integrated systems that are not easily removed like mine. A major pain in the ass to lift over the gunnel in rough water. Also a pain in the ass to get to the beach over rocks.
Weight belts work great but I have no butt to keep one up! Also have a friend whose weighs 50#! That's no minor feat to get out of the water either!
In any case, comfortable, easy to use and dependable is what you need.
One thing to keep in mind is how the weight will be handled before and after diving. I have a pouch system (Scuba Pro Knighthawk) with a positive clip, no accidental dump but the quick release is not orange (bad Scuba pro!) and not intuitive. I explain it to my dive buds and make sure they know what's up. Fortunately I have very experienced partners and am very comfortable with them. I am also confident of the system and my comfort with it. I do use my weight belt on occasion.
Have friends who use integrated systems that are not easily removed like mine. A major pain in the ass to lift over the gunnel in rough water. Also a pain in the ass to get to the beach over rocks.
Weight belts work great but I have no butt to keep one up! Also have a friend whose weighs 50#! That's no minor feat to get out of the water either!
In any case, comfortable, easy to use and dependable is what you need.
Fly N Dive
Contributor
if you get a bc thats WI you can decide to use it or not, i like it for diving around here, but im going to use a belt if i go anywhere far. so for diffrent people diffrent things are better.
Crispy
Contributor
I prefer WI for one main reason. I typicaly dive with at least a .5mm dive skin which adds to my overall positive buoyancy. At the surface wearing a WI BC I tend to "float into it" because the weight is weighing against the positive buoyancy of the BC. When I wear a weight belt I tend to feel like I'm sinking out of it as the BC is floating up. Although the straps would prevent actually falling out, It just feels more secure.
But as the devils advocate in me would suggest, It really sucks when you try doffing and doning your WI BCD at the bottom of the training pool. You better hold on to it or up, up, and away you go.
-Crispy
But as the devils advocate in me would suggest, It really sucks when you try doffing and doning your WI BCD at the bottom of the training pool. You better hold on to it or up, up, and away you go.
-Crispy
I own a dive rite transpac II with rec wings and I'm thinking of buying the pockets for the WI system wich I didn't buy at the time because I had no more money (the problem of being a student ). Any one has tried this bc with and without WI? How is it? What do you recomend?
Thanks.
Hugo
). Any one has tried this bc with and without WI? How is it? What do you recomend?Thanks.
Hugo
Crispy once bubbled...
But as the devils advocate in me would suggest, It really sucks when you try doffing and doning your WI BCD at the bottom of the training pool. You better hold on to it or up, up, and away you go.
-Crispy
Yes but this doesn't have much to do with real diving. If the weight is on you then you may still need to hold on. OTOH, outside of your class when will you ever remove your bc at depth?
Hi Redshift,
I to own a transpac II and i have the wieght pockets and think they are very good.I have positioned them as far back as possible so they are just about under the wing, so keeping streamlined.They have a zip on top so you do not weaken the velcro by keep taking the weights out.They have inserts for block or lose shot which can be handed up to boat and also a internal d-ring to attach inserts if alot of wieght is used.Saying that i only have a max of 2 kg in each as i also have wieght on my tank and some on my belt i have a lot better trim and comfort by spreading it out this way.I had a scare during my dry suit course with the weight belt i was wearing came undone (lds gear) and i new if i dropped it i would have taken off like a polaris missile.So now i spread it about, as i could never see me needing to drop that much wieght . By having WI it gives you the added option of where to put/spread out the wieght for comfort and trim IMHO. This week i dived with out my drysuit for the first time in many months and just had a shorty and only 2kg on the belt and it felt soooooo good.
Regards,
MAL..
I to own a transpac II and i have the wieght pockets and think they are very good.I have positioned them as far back as possible so they are just about under the wing, so keeping streamlined.They have a zip on top so you do not weaken the velcro by keep taking the weights out.They have inserts for block or lose shot which can be handed up to boat and also a internal d-ring to attach inserts if alot of wieght is used.Saying that i only have a max of 2 kg in each as i also have wieght on my tank and some on my belt i have a lot better trim and comfort by spreading it out this way.I had a scare during my dry suit course with the weight belt i was wearing came undone (lds gear) and i new if i dropped it i would have taken off like a polaris missile.So now i spread it about, as i could never see me needing to drop that much wieght . By having WI it gives you the added option of where to put/spread out the wieght for comfort and trim IMHO. This week i dived with out my drysuit for the first time in many months and just had a shorty and only 2kg on the belt and it felt soooooo good.
Regards,
MAL..
I use a weight belt. When I wearing minimal thermal protection (.5mm skin or 2.5 mm shorty) I am negative to neutral so I really don't require that much weight so I found no need for weight integration. I also work with students and I think that if they have to wear a weight belt I should to. But I cheat and use the scubapro soft belt
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