I don’t understand the hatred towards weightbelts.
Maybe I’m old school, but I’ve always been a believer in using a weightbelt to split up my weights between the rig and my body. It allows me to use a smaller wing on my rig for better streamlining, it allows me to remove my rig underwater if the need ever arises, it gives me an option to ditch some lead in the event that I need to bail out of a situation.
When I saw the first BC’s coming out with integrated weight pockets I thought it was a bad idea. Even during my tech diving days we wore weightbelts with two buckles. Phil Sammet was always a big advocate of weightbelts.
Now with this new craze to have all weights non ditchable is mind boggling to me, I honestly don’t get the rationale. I think it’s bad enough that industry has made it where you are supposed to stuff all your weight onto/into a BC rig, but to not have anything ditchable just seems like insanity to me.
I can see putting some weight on the rig to relieve the need for a giant weightbelt, but still having some weight to ditch just seems like a great idea and provides a margin of safety.
What’s wrong with using rubber freediving belts?
They are comfortable, they don’t slip, they’re great.
Please help me understand when and how this new trend started and how long it’s supposed to last.
I have a vested interest in this phenomenon, otherwise I could care less what people do.