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I dive with no weightbelt because I use steels and I am dense (come on, have 
a go !). 

There are a couple of isses:
1. Bouyancy in an emergency
You can't dump a back mounted weight. For recreational diving this is bad 
kama. For techdiving with a deco ceiling, the last thing you want to do is 
be buoyant at your deco depth so you usually don't _plan_ to dump your 
weight (unless you have to trade getting drowned for getting bent). This 
means that if your BC fails you need an alternate source of bouyancy. A dry 
suit will suffice if you use one, or if you dive with a wet suit you can use 
a dual bladded BC, as a last resort a lift bag can be used - this is risky 
but beats drowning. Remember, if you are heavily negative on the bottom you 
need a solid plan to deal with loss of primary bouyancy.

2. Balance
If you have a lot of weight on your back, or higher up than your waist, you 
may find yourself spiraling out of control from time to time, or at least 
spending a lot of effort (and gas) maintaining balance. This may be an issue 
to watch.

Guy


> I'm just starting to get into "tech" diving and recently bought a wing
>  type BC with a stainless backplate. My question is, since the stainless
>  back plate weighs about 6lbs, I now only need another 14 lbs to get down
>  using a wetsuit. Would it be ok to eliminate the weight belt and attach
>  lead directly to the backplate, such as the P-weight? I've been told yes
>  by some and no by some. Any opininions?
>                               Thanx,
>                              Jeff
> 


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 ,-_|\   Guy Wittig                
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