Ditchable weight or not?

[kyfriedchipper]

OK - I have read a ton of BP/W posts about trim/weight/streamlining, etc. I have seen many people post comments of how don't have ditchable weight anymore becuz they bought SS 6# plate and/or add bolt-on weights to the BP, etc, etc . Obviously their are a lot of variables (tropical 3mm or no protection diving vs. cold/drysuit diving, etc) but I would ASSume that no matter what environment, true DIR philosophy would recommend some type of ditchable weight configuration w/ your rig???

[somewhereinla]

Technical diving, including DIR requires everyone to standerdize their gear, so that in effect, everyone in the team is geared the pretty much the exact same way. Since tech. diver usually use double tank configuaration, they don't need extra weights.

[Scubastud16]

Most people dive w/o ditchable weight. Personally, that bothers me, especially diving with newbie divers who are trained to ditch weight of someone in trouble at the surface.

Swimming your rig up yourself is a different story though.

[datamunk]

id say it depends on your type of diving... if youre doin recreational diving, wear ditchable. itd be silly not to, since your probably going to have to add it (unless you dive steel doubles to 50' reefs, which people DO do) so... the way i rig it is some on my harness etc, then i wear a weightbelt with 6# as well

[No Misses]

When I wore ditchable weight, I never had a problem keeping the pouches locked in place. I have seen several people lose a weight pouch or belt while diving. This could be a problem if you loose too much ballast at depth and are unable to maintain safety/deco stops. IMHO

I dive a SS BP/w, AL80, 3mil full suit. I carry an additional 4 lbs of ballast on my waist belt in a non-ditchable configuration. I can swim my rig to the surface in a true emergency, or I can deploy my lift bag for added buoyancy if needed. This setup works for me. I am not advocationg it for anybody else. YOU have to decide what is right for YOU.

Happy diving ;-)

[subsur]

if you do cave diving then having ditchable weights won't serve much purpose if anything if can result in a head trauma. for recreational diving having some ditchable weights is a good thing. i wear 4-6 lbs of it in my pockets, the rest is in ss bp and sta. ultimately, it is up to you as a diver to decide what your set-up is and if your buddy is ok with it and you've discussed various scenarios (e.g. emergency ascents), then i don't see any problems.

[kobalap]

Originally Posted by kyfriedchipper

OK - I have read a ton of BP/W posts about trim/weight/streamlining, etc. I have seen many people post comments of how don't have ditchable weight anymore becuz they bought SS 6# plate and/or add bolt-on weights to the BP, etc, etc . Obviously their are a lot of variables (tropical 3mm or no protection diving vs. cold/drysuit diving, etc) but I would ASSume that no matter what environment, true DIR philosophy would recommend some type of ditchable weight configuration w/ your rig???

But ask yourself, what is the purpose of ditchable weight? Do you need it just so you can say you have ditchable weight?

GUE teaches the idea of a balanced rig. With a balanced rig, you are meant to be able to swim the entire rig to the surface in the event of a wing failure - even when the tanks are completely full. This is irrespective of whether you are diving singles or doubles. In order to meet the objective of a balanced rig, GUE divers will use the appropriate combination of exposure suit, tanks, ballast and gas. With all this in mind, some divers find that they need ditchable weight, others do not.

Compare that with the average open water diver who dives grossly overweighted. In my case, I was able to shed 12lbs of ballast simply by doing the weight check the way GUE teaches it. If you are grossly overweighted, of course you need to have a bunch of ditchable weight. If you are weighted properly, (i.e. just enough weight to keep you neutral with 500psi in your tanks), you will need less ditchable weight, if any at all.

Also, the techniques used by GUE divers to put adequate ballast are different than the methods I see typical divers use. For example, GUE divers can use any combination of v-weights, weights on weight belts, slide weights on waist straps and canister lights. Most of these items are "ditchable" in the event of an emergency.

[cummings66]

How does GUE teach you to do the weight check. I'm guessing it's not the method taught to most divers, please share.

[Scubastud16]

I would also like to hear how GUE teaches weight checks.

[rhlee]

It's nothing magical. The basic idea is that proper weighting is "balanced" meaning that it is neither too heavy on the heavy-end, nor too light on the light end.

Most people only check the light end, so let's do that first. The lightest point of the dive is at the very end with (nearly) empty tanks. Suppose further, that you are diving a wetsuit (variable compression/buoyancy with depth). You want to be able to hold a 10' stop at the end of the dive with empty tanks. Any more weight than that is unnecessary.

At the heavy end, the heaviest point of the dive is at the beginning of the dive, with full tanks, and at the deepest point (again, if diving a wetsuit that has variable buoyancy). Here, you want to be able to swim up your rig in the event of a wing failure. If the rig is too negative when full of gas and with your wetsuit compressed, you'll need some ditchable weight to make things work. However, it's not that simple, because as you ascend (again, assuming a wetsuit), your wetsuit will expand and give you more buoyancy, so you can't ditch too much weight at depth such that you won't be able to hold your 10' stop. I think you'll find this is why most DIR folk shy away from the combination of wetsuits with steel doubles because the math just doesn't work out well for balancing the rig. The empircal test for this is pretty easy; go out at the beginning of the dive to the deepest point and dump your wing. Then see if you can swim it up from depth.