weights: hard/soft--belt/pouches

[mossym]

silly question guys, i'm just moving to a bp/w from a standard bc, do you close the weight belt over or under the crotch strap, or does it make any difference? if you're removing one weight at a time then the belt doesn't need to drop away, right?

 

[Atticus]

silly question guys, i'm just moving to a bp/w from a standard bc, do you close the weight belt over or under the crotch strap, or does it make any difference? if you're removing one weight at a time then the belt doesn't need to drop away, right?

What I do is put the weight belt on like normal then put the bp/w on. This means the weight belt is fully trapped under the crotch strap of the bp/w. For me to dump my weight belt I would have to undo my waist buckle on my bp/w, undo the weight belt buckle, pull the weight belt free, then drop it. I like it that way.

 

[mossym]

makes sense...i like the idea of not losing it without wanting to...thanks!!

 

[Diver0001]

What do you guys use for weights (when needed), a standard weight belt with hard weights or weight belt with pouches and soft weights. Is it okay to slide hard weights (2 lbs per side) to your backplate harness waist belt?
Thanks for any insight guys (and gals),

Jason

There are two relevant things to say about this:

First: Part of the Hogarthian ideal is to eliminate problems without creating new ones. I would suggest that any kind of integrated weight system creates all kinds of problems without solving any. If, for any reason, you need to remove you kit under water then you don't want integrated weights. End of discussion. There really isn't any good reason (aside from my next point) to do this.

Secondly: The comfort issue. If, for some.....incredible.....reason, you really need integrated weights then comfort has a slightly higher priority (in my mind) than being able to remove your kit at any point under water.

Reality is a balancing act between point 1 and point 2.

R..

 

[Stirling]

silly question guys, i'm just moving to a bp/w from a standard bc, do you close the weight belt over or under the crotch strap, or does it make any difference? if you're removing one weight at a time then the belt doesn't need to drop away, right?

I have a Henderson belt with pouches, and soft weights.

I don't like the idea of wearing the weight belt under the crotch strap (or any other harness strap), maybe just because I was trained not to do it that way. I can understand wearing a harness or crotch strap over the weight belt in circumstances where losing a weight belt could be catastrophic (i.e., being pinned to the ceiling of a cave), but otherwise I think being able to drop the weights immediately when you really want to (or if somebody else needs to drop them for you) is more important than protecting against the risk of accidentally losing your weight belt when you don't want to (which has never happened to me).

 

[scubafool]

It HAS happened to me, I have also been present when it happened to two other divers. At the time I was overweighted, but felt it slip & grabbed it in time. The other two times, luckily the divers in question were not overweighted, , so they weren't carrying a lot of weight.

When diving single Al tanks in fresh water, I wear 3 lbs on my belt. I wear my belt UNDER the crotch strap. If I or someone were to need to dump my weights, our hand would already be on the quick release buckle to unlatch it, so just how much more time would it take to pull the belt off of me?

BTW, I would say that getting pinned against the ceiling of a cave would be better than doing an uncontrolled ascent in OW from depth, so I would be even more worried about there.

 

[Atticus]

...I don't like the idea of wearing the weight belt under the crotch strap (or any other harness strap), maybe just because I was trained not to do it that way. I can understand wearing a harness or crotch strap over the weight belt in circumstances where losing a weight belt could be catastrophic (i.e., being pinned to the ceiling of a cave), but otherwise I think being able to drop the weights immediately when you really want to (or if somebody else needs to drop them for you) is more important than protecting against the risk of accidentally losing your weight belt when you don't want to (which has never happened to me).

For any sort of decompression diving the risk of losing the belt is worse than the risk of not being able to ditch it. Also, ditching a belt from under a crotch strap doesn't take *that* much more time.

For shallow NDL diving where a rapid ascent is less likely to cause permanent damage the reverse is true. It depends on the type of diving you do.

 

[Mandy3206]

I'm not hogartian, but here is what I do:

I use to wear a SP pocket weight belt with 12# of soft weight when I dived a jacket style BC.

Now with the BP/W setup I went integrated with only 3# in each pocket.

 

[JWU42]

If diving wet put the weight belt on last (after the harness) so it can be ditched.

If diving dry, the weight belt goes on first and if it comes unbuckled the crotch strap catches it.

...As per the DIR tapes (2 and 3) from GI3

 

[Rick Inman]

My DUI weight system goes under the crotch strap, but has both pockets for individual weight removal, and quick pulls to drop one side or the other or both. Weight placement is movable for trim adjustments. Weights are supported by my shoulders rather than my hips, which really helps my back on shore.