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Are Weight belts important?
- Thread starter code2d
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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It all depends what you're doing, how deep you're diving, and what sort of exposure protection (wetsuit) you're wearing.
Basically if you want to be neutrally buoyant (neither sink down nor float up) then you can control that with weights. Shallower depths, heavier water (salt vs. fresh), thicker wetsuits, and fatter divers require more weight.
Personally I am neutral at 10 meters with about 4.5 kg of weight while wearing a 5 mm wetsuit. With 7kg I'm neutral at about 7 meters.
Basically if you want to be neutrally buoyant (neither sink down nor float up) then you can control that with weights. Shallower depths, heavier water (salt vs. fresh), thicker wetsuits, and fatter divers require more weight.
Personally I am neutral at 10 meters with about 4.5 kg of weight while wearing a 5 mm wetsuit. With 7kg I'm neutral at about 7 meters.
Like the others said it depends on what you want to do...
If you just want to go down and up Id say you should be fine without it but you must keep in mind that your natural boyancy will take you back to the surface so a weightbelt will be handy in the fact that you wont have to expend so much energy trying to stay down there should you wish to look around for a bit and less energy expended means more time u/w as your o2 reserves will last a bit longer. Also should you wish to go hunting in the future you will need a weightbelt for aspetto and so on as this helps to keep you still on the bottom and when hunting or even doing u/w photography of fish ect that is a very important part as they tend to hide from or avoid a big permanently rapidly moving object.
If you just want to go down and up Id say you should be fine without it but you must keep in mind that your natural boyancy will take you back to the surface so a weightbelt will be handy in the fact that you wont have to expend so much energy trying to stay down there should you wish to look around for a bit and less energy expended means more time u/w as your o2 reserves will last a bit longer. Also should you wish to go hunting in the future you will need a weightbelt for aspetto and so on as this helps to keep you still on the bottom and when hunting or even doing u/w photography of fish ect that is a very important part as they tend to hide from or avoid a big permanently rapidly moving object.
Dont get one too stretchy! I have an omer weightbelt, and the rubber is just way too soft. I mainly rock-hop, and walking over the rocks is a pain when every step causes the rubber to flex. Also it doesnt give such a good fit.
But like people said, weight belts are only really important if you need one. The more rubber you wear, obviously the more weight you will need to balance it out. It also depends if you dive empty lungs or not.