+1 weight belt so some, 5-10 lb., stays on me. I use a belt with pockets so any weights can be used or swapped. Though a rubber belt has been an interest. A belt/harness also means you are setup to be moderately buoyant skin diver should you need/want to be.
Trim with a weigh belt requires more planning. It may mean no weight goes in the integrated, but only further up (BP/W, trim pockets, shoulders). Which means you need more options for lead higher, which is lacking in some gear.
The sale/instruction chain gets a bit convoluted:
- Here's your integrated BC; but it works best with extra gear.
- You likely need some tank trim pockets, as the BC ones aren't high enough.
- You likely need a belt/harness, for the R/R confined water drill or if you ever need to.
- Now you likely
really need options of weight higher on the BC.
- So those integrated pockets are just for the lead left near your mid point.
Not wrong. But convoluted. And a BC with no pockets significantly higher than the hips gets hard to explain. Absent the no bioprene, no wetsuit, 2-4 lb. total ballast for the AL80 scenario.
Trim in the BP/W realm with a weight belt on the body may require an
aluminum or thin/cut plate and lead attached to the plate or strap near the shoulders to balance out the belt. Diving a heavy SS plate and throwing up your hands that you have no ballast to spare is to miss a key bit of the facts.
I'm not pushing BP/W. But you need to distribute weight and some on you has advantages, or may even be crucial to pass confined water. How you do that with BC X is an exercise for the reader or 'novice diver completely new to all of this'.
ETA: the freedivers have crotch straps on some of their weight belts to prevent them going to their chest as they descend. Could be an option for those with more curve to the hips, maybe.
https://www.makospearguns.com/Weight-Belt-Crotch-Strap-p/mwbcs.htm