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Portable counter ballast system

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

salibandy

The Mothership is coming!
Oct 31, 2007
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Hello everyone in DB,

I've come to you guys once again for advice.

I want to build a portable counter ballast system that I can bring wherever I go. Obviously it should be fairly light. However I do not know what to expect so I'm not putting a weight limit down.

Just want to know if anyone has any plans for such a build? Or any ideas they'd like to throw on the table?

I guess materials needed would be sailing rope clutches, floats, beams, pulleys. I'd need a base plate at the bottom and something to hang weights off. Anything else? Strobe lights? Rope?

I thank you for your time to read this.
 
I'm looking to build one of these too, for linediving in Toronto / Canada

I'm hoping to construct a bare-bones setup similar to the one sketched below, but made out of square alum tubing. 12 ft in length with 2 x 6ft lengths with male / female ends and bolts to secure them.

I'll use innertube floats at both ends... at least 1 per side and maybe even 2 for security / added buoyancy if needed.

It should fold up into a car for easy / light transport. The weights are the heavy parts!

counter+ballast+system.jpg (image)

I'm not sold on the 3rd weight system... but I see it's advantages (if you don't use the system to save a diver... you don't have to pull all that weight back to surface!)

It's basically just the "boom / arm" that we used in Toronto from Nationals last year:
[ame="http://www.flickr.com/photos/freedivetoronto/6040239244/sizes/l/in/set-72157627295704577/"]All sizes | DSC_0055 | Flickr - Photo Sharing![/ame]

Picture and some some additional ideas stolen from:
Under water, where I belong: What is a Counter Ballast System and how to build one?

Also, for everything but competition, we will not use a bottom plate - instead just a scuba belt with lead for the bottom weight and a knot and "polo ball" a metre up for a lanyard stopper.

A plate adds hydrodynamic resistance in pulling it back up and is not needed for training. That's what our watches are for... telling us how deep we went.

Anyone else build a simple floating arm with counter ballast setup?
 
Last edited:
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