Weight belts

[gates]

I have a nylon weight belt for SCUBA but im not sure if it suits my needs for spearing. Any ideas? :blackeye

 

[Old Man Dave]

Welcome to DB Mr Gates. If you use the search button you will find everything you ever wanted to know about weights/belts etc and also lots of stuff you'll never need to know as well. Latest thread with info is this one http://forums.deeperblue.com/beginner-freediving/82471-weightbelt-discomfort.html although not exactly your question answered, but look at my post #6 on thet thread for my opinion. We have a south america spearo rep called Azapa http://forums.deeperblue.com/members/azapa.html although I think he's in Chile not brazil at least he's in the right continent.

Dave

 

[sgnips]

hey Old Man Dave, it seems you're getting older than you might look: our friend gates comes from Canada...:t

 

[foxfish]

Sgnips, he might be old but he is still sharp because gates is going to Fernando de noronha in Brazil.
http://forums.deeperblue.com/fish-photos-regulations/82488-hunting-brazil.html#post760980

 

[mundial]

when he will get to Brazil
he will forget spearfishing believe me rofl
so match fun there
maybe in my age :friday
good luck anyway mate
belt only made of rubber
like the MARSEILLES ones

not sliding not moving on your body
stay when you put it
a must for a spearo!

 

[Mr. X]

when he will get to Brazil
he will forget spearfishing believe me rofl
so match fun there
maybe in my age :friday
good luck anyway mate
belt only made of rubber
like the MARSEILLES ones

not sliding not moving on your body
stay when you put it
a must for a spearo!

roflA friend & colleague some years ago used to go down for Carnival. A straight-laced kind of guy I thought, until he put some Carnival music on the car music system on the way to lunch one day. It was so out of character - quite a surprise. Apparently he went once & was hooked, and now goes every year. He was a lot more fun that I had imagined.

Coincidently I watched a movie last night, Girl From Rio, not a great movie but fun. Hugh Laurie (Dr. House) as a samba-obsessed banker/bank-robber.

Agreed, rubber Marseilles belts are the usual recommendation for spearing. Rubber because it stretches a bit & tends to stay in place quite well. Not sure why the Marseilles buckle - perhaps because it works well with rubber belts. It's design is certainly familiar, simple & time proven - got something similar holding up my jeans at the moment. I use a Rob Allen Marseilles belt, I see Omer make one, and at least two other companies do too. I have no complaints, although I lost my first one crossing a shallow reef - just came off unnoticed in the choppy sea, so I now tend to hold the end in place with a weak rubber band or two now - although I think Bill McIntyre uses a different technique, I believe he bends the end of his belt out. He uses the same brand of belt as me but uses a different style of weight which leaves more belt spare at the end. More importantly perhaps, he dives from a boat in deep kelp & whereas I dive from shore, around rocks.

OMD, I seem to recall that several of the Guerns make their own belts - do you favour any particular buckle design/brand?

 

[Old Man Dave]

I/we make belts from strips of solid neoprene which is available locally. The company that supplies it has it in big sheets/rolls and a strip 50mm wide by a metre or so long costs about £2. I use the 5mm thickness although it's available in other sizes. It is basciaclly sold for making heavy duty gaskets. I like the extra thickness. When I used a shop bought rubber belt it was too thin and stretched so much when I put 20+lb on it that it kept falling off when walking down the beach. I now only use 14lb on my belt as I use a weight vest + belt, so maybe the shop bought belt would work. Anyway the 5mm thickness is fine. I use a stainless overcentre/cam quick release buckle sold by the local dive store (under £5). You have to stretch it slightly for the 5mm thickness belt but it works fine, in fact best belt I've ever had.

Dave

 

[foxfish]

I used the same 5mm neoprene but attached the quick release buckle by riveting 150mm nylon webbing to the end of the neoprene.