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From memory (not very reliable I'm afraid) I can only think of two occasions when people I have been diving with have had to ditch weight belts (both on the surface). One was a relative newby who had a faulty dump valve (I helped remove the belt and held onto it) and the other was an advanced student on a drift dive (we (eight of us) had been lost by our boat and ended up getting picked up by the air-sea rescue, it's a long story). I can think of two occasions also when people I've been diving with have lost weight belts underwater. One was a DM (well after a fashion, but that's yet another story) at the end of a dive (I wasn't around when it happened but I recovered the belt). The other was a relative newby on a safety stop (luckily he had the good sense to invert himself and start swimming down, I grabbed him and the belt and reunited them). I have recovered lots of weight belts that have been accidentally dropped on the surface though (competing for space in my garage with the anchors [GRIN]). I can see the argument for not wanting to loose a belt on a deco dive and puting the crotch strap over the belt is obviously a lot more convenient (particularly so for me gearing up in the water). When dealing with newbys or students though it is nice to be able to easily and quickly remove their belt on the surface if the need arises (particularly dealing with a paniced diver, typically in such an instance we are taught to grab the diver from behind pump air into the BC and dump the belt in one fluid motion). For myself I find it hard to get past the dogma of "don't foul your weight belt". If you keep the amount of weight on the belt down to say 6 pounds and weigh yourself properly then loosing this amount of weight underwater may not be such a problem anyway, invert and swim down to retrieve it (if close to the bottom, or just swim yourself slowly up to the surface if not or grab the nearest rock or anchor line). I have deliberately removed my belt in the past or free dived in the same wetsuit and gear I use for SCUBA, I have never had any problems staying down in shallow water (but then I don't usually have to carry much weight anyway). Simon Simon L Hartley RSM Unit Web Administrator\First Year Course Coordinator Associate Lecturer School of Resource Science and Management Southern Cross University P.O. Box 157 Lismore NSW, Australia 2480 Ph: (02) 66203251 or (61 66) 203 251 Fax:(02) 66212669 E-mail: shartley@sc*.ed*.au* http://www.scu.edu.au/staff_pages/shartley/index.html -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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