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Anthony Appleyard wrote, on Mon, 11 Aug 1997 16:41:36:- >I have just dived with an old-type rebreather. Handily, it is a sort that I >can wear together with a diver's lifejacket. Else, what happens when a diver >with an old-type rebreather runs out of oxygen, and his set (e.g. UBA, Mark IV >Amphibian, SCBA, CDBA) covers all his chest so he can't wear a lifejacket with >it? Even with the bag full, he is only neutrally buoyant. With the bag empty, >he sinks like a stone and must drop his expensive weights. If he is a naval >diver, OK, everybody's taxes go up a bit to pay for all these lost diver's >weights. But a civilian diver may be reluctant to write off all that expensive >lead. Please please PLEASE where can I get a diver's <BALLAST BAG> that I can >wear instead of a weight belt, and on site fill it for free with sand or >stones that I can jettison without finance-induced reluctance?!? Anthony, Designed with the recreational scuba market in mind (rather than rebreather divers who elect to rely on the counterlung alone to provide positive buoyancy - and then empty it!), the 'Weigh-to-Go', travelling weight system may be just what you're looking for. I apologise in advance for the commercial nature of the following description - copied from the company catalogue - but it is intended to be informative rather than a low, underhanded attempt to sell the system to subscribers to the tech forum. >I wore 23lb lead on a belt, and 6lb (a pair of lead-shot anklets) inside my >wetsuit chest. You'll also find these weights far more comfortable when worn inside the wet-suit than any lumps of rock you may previously have considered suitable as lead substitutes. Regards David 'Weigh-2-Go' For The Travelling Diver For those divers who, when travelling, prefer the convenience of using their own equipment, Zymurgy Inc., have developed a range of portable weights that won't put your airline baggage allowance over the top! The brain-child of Zymurgy Inc.'s Senior Design Engineer, Richard Nicholls, the 'Weigh-2-Go' series features 1, 2, 3 and 4 kg weights in a variety of mix-'n'-match hues for complete colour co-ordination with the rest of your diving equipment. Constructed from sturdy polypropylene the 'weights' are hollow containers marginally larger than the 'normal' lead variety and contoured to mould themselves comfortably to the body. Each canister features two low profile, screw-top, filling caps, one allowing ingress of water while the other permits the escape of residual air. Threaded onto a conventional webbing belt the whole unit is lightweight and easy to carry until required for use. Once at the dive site the user simply fills the containers with the water into which they will dive, either salt- or fresh. "The beauty of the Zymurgy Inc., 'Weigh-2-Go' weighting system," said David Strike, International Marketing Director for the consortium of Diving Technologists who constitute the Board of this dynamic R&D company, "is its ability to quickly adapt to any density of water without the need to add or subtract weights from the main component." "It must be remembered, however,", adds Director, Richard Nicholls, "that a 'filled' unit is only completely valid in water conditions approximating, or identical, to that within the container. As an example, fresh water - weighing approximately 3.00 Kpa - is considerably lighter than ocean water that weighs about 3.07 Kpa. Diving with fresh-water filled 'Weigh-2-Go' units in the ocean will give a normally perfectly weighted diver positive buoyancy. Whereas a diver using salt-water filled 'Weigh-2-Go' weights in a fresh-water environment will be negatively buoyant." A minor consideration when viewed against the advantages of carrying your own perfectly weighted system with you whenever you travel. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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