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Weight Vests - Which is favourite?

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fearthespear

Poke and hope specialist
Nov 12, 2005
775
266
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I know, I know, there have been many discussions about these before but just for one last time please post your favourite and why. I am going to get one very soon and would appreciate your views before I invest. Many thanks in advance.

Ben
 
I have a Beuchat one. I don't know if it's the best, but it wasn't as expensive as the OMER one and has these great little straps on the side of it that go under your weightbelt to hold it in place- there are plastic balls that hold it in place. Since it goes under your belt, instead of on it, you can drop the belt without fear of keeping it strapped onto you.

Here's a couple of (not very good) pictures of the vest. You can see the top, but it doesn't show the attachment points very well.

Jon
 

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Reactions: Mr. X and fearthespear
I have the spetton one, but would get the beuchat one if i needed another one - has the improvements over the spetton that are needed - front clip and belt/ball clips.
 
Reactions: fearthespear
I have an omer, it is designed to take 1kg bags of lead that can be distributed around the vest & held in the vest pockets.
In theory this is a great idea & sounds much better than one lead plate on your back however, I found this very uncomfortable as the relatively big bags of lead felt like they were far to heavy but it was very easy to mod the amount of lead held in the pockets.
I actually use 3kg evenly distributed in 8 pockets, i did this buy emptying the lead out of the supplied bags & refilling some 12'' lengths of thick women's tights I just tied a knot ether end of the tights to keep the 375gms of lead in place.
I would say this is a very comfortable way to wear extra lead on your upper body.
 
Reactions: fearthespear
Spearo Dave has a couple, possibly Seatec, in black or camo. I looked into vests a while back, Best Hunter also offered a fairly simple, inexpensive model which appealed to me. In the end I opted to stick with just a weight belt, having found some belt weights I liked in Portland Oceaneering.

I like the idea of camo, as I don't have a camo wetsuit and thought it might also help break up my profile. But maybe black is less visible overall? Being fuller coverage, I wondered if the Omer Gilet might also add a little warmth.

Nice(!) mask Jon.
 
Reactions: spaghetti and fearthespear
I got a seac sub one. Spent a fair bit of time researching vests and have never regretted getting this one, Main points are one size fits all (and it does), not too big or small, has weight pockets front as well as back, takes weights you can make yourself (thin pieces of roofing lead cut with scissors - no casting required) making it flexible and adjustable, its in cammo, its strong, its cheap. Heres a link to my research thread http://forums.deeperblue.com/hunting-equipment/75704-assorted-questions.html .

Dave
 
Reactions: fearthespear
I brought the Seatec one from Spearo Dave.

Probabley the best piece of spearong kit i have ever brought.Very comfortable and has help my diving alot.
 
Reactions: spaghetti
Ben I’ve got a Seatec one from Dave as well and yes it is a good bit of kit, even if it is a little tight.
 
Reactions: spaghetti
I've a got a Seatec vest too: the 3 kilograms camo type.
Feedback: very positive.
It fits like a glove on my upper back, and the weight is so well balanced and well distributed that I don't even slightly feel any weight at all. (the weight is made of flat metal plates, inserted into the neoprene vest and anatomically distributed on the upper back).
If we had to necessarily find something wrong with the Seatec vest (but we don't have to: it's an excellent piece of kit indeed), there are only two possible downsides: the weight plates are stitched into the vest, so you can't take them away or add more weight, unless you break the stitchings from the neoprene. Anyway, this is not a big downside: once you know it's 3 kilograms, keep it 3 kilograms, why modifying for the sake of modyfing? Just keep it as good as it comes.
One second feature that you might consider a downside: it has no "ball" for securing to the belt, but a clip. So that, if you need to drop your belt in case of danger, first you have to unlock the vest clip. But on the other end, unlocking the clip is easy and quick, just a moment, so I can't see this as a real problem.
Seatec vest: very positive feedback from Spags.
 
Reactions: fearthespear
I've used one of these Harnais de plombage souple Spider Divers Ceinture-Plomb-Lestage for 2 or 3 years and wouldn't be without it.

Bought it as a cheap option to see how I got on and would probably look at the beauchat one if buying new, but it does the job. I've got a 6lbs and 2 2lbs lead weights in it and I've never had it slip or feel like it may come off, despite it not having a front clip. Forget you're wearing it once in the water.

Like Spagos it clips at the back rather than using the ball type setup, but thats never caused a problem and would be very easy to convert to a ball if so desired.

HTH
 
Reactions: fearthespear
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