[miles]

WEIGHTBELTS

A weight belt is needed to counter-act the buoyancy of your wetsuit. Since everyone has a different body shape each ones weighting will be different. Depending on the depth of water that you’re diving in, a spearo should always try to be positively buoyant until -6m. This is to ensure that he will float up to the surface should he suffer from shallow water black-out. Care should be taken NOT TO OVERWEIGHT yourself, as this might make you go down quicker, the extra time gained on the bottom is offset against the additional time it takes to swim back up as well as the additional time it’ll take to recover. It’s much easier to swim down against the buoyancy of your wetsuit, than to swim up, against gravity. Much safer as well. Remember, when you’re laying on the surface, when you EXHALE, you must still be positively buoyant.

Most spearo’s use the Marseilles rubber weight belt with a quick release buckle. This stretches and doesn’t turn whilst you’re diving, unlike the normal webbing belts. This accounts for the compressing of your wetsuit as you go deeper. This way, your quick release buckle will always be in the same position. When surfacing from a deep dive and you’re feeling out of breath, it is advisable to open your buckle whilst ascending. Should you black out, the belt will slip from your hand and the weight belt will fall off, allowing your wetsuits buoyancy to take you to the surface.

Another handy hint is to buy TWO complete weight belts. This way, you’d be more inclined to dump your weight belt should the need arise.