A dive supervisor's comment made me swap my weight belt setup

Been diving for about 7 years now, mostly inland and some offshore in the Gulf. I always wore a standard weight belt with 30 pounds, figured it was fine. Then a supervisor in Port Fourchon told me my belt was riding too high and could slip off if I got hung up. He showed me how to distribute the weights into a harness instead. After one week of using that setup, I noticed way better trim and less strain on my lower back during long bottom times. Has anyone else switched off a traditional belt for a harness and stuck with it?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_lucas1mo ago

Have you noticed any difference in how quick you can ditch weight if something goes wrong? I always figured the belt was easiest to drop in a hurry, but the harness seems like it'd be a tradeoff if you ever needed to get rid of it all at once.

bethj441mo ago

Whoa, hold on. You ditch the whole belt at once? I never even thought about that as an option. With my harness, it's a two-clip system so I have to undo them separately, which definitely takes a few extra seconds. I always figured that's just the tradeoff for the extra security, but now I'm sitting here wondering if I've been overcomplicating things this whole time.