Weighty Question: Travel With Dive Weights?
When diving from a cruise ship vacation, packing compactly and packing light is one of the top challenges and dive weights are the heaviest things you can pack. I now wholeheartedly would suggest leaving them behind.
Here are a few of the considerations for why or why not to bring your weights – there actually are a few pro’s to the debate!
On a recent dive cruise, my dive partner was convinced we should take the weights.
Here’s why: our Zeagle BCD’s both have integrated weight pockets, meaning, there are pockets in our BC’s for weights. No weight belt is necessary for these buoyancy compensators. Soft weights are placed in removable zippered bags that are inserted into specially-designed pockets on my Zeagle Zena BCD. This system is also used in my dive partner’s Zeagle Ranger BCD. These removable bags have straps on them for quick removal from BC pockets. My Zeagle weight pouches are rated to hold up to 12 pounds of weight each. The main concern was that the hard weights would chafe the zippered pouches, or chafe the actual BC when placed in the rear pockets that do not have removable zippered pockets.
So, the weights came with us. A whopping 16 pounds each.
There is something comforting about using every bit of your own gear, especially when you are diving somewhere new. Diving an unfamiliar site is not the time to learn how to operate new equipment. Safety is always the first priority, so the idea of sticking with what you know is reassuring.
Those weights nearly doubled the total weight of our dive bags. The more we dragged them around, the less we were convinced it had been a good idea.
We realized that the Zeagle weight pouches truly are very sturdy, and not very likely, after all, to chafe. We realized that the hard weights did not have the sharp edges we had imagined would pierce our bladders. The hard weights in the zippered pouches could have been wrapped in a washcloth and secured with a hair tie if chafe actually was a factor, but it wasn’t. Placing wrapped hard weights in the zippered pouches would not affect safety, as whatever you put in the zippered pouch would be removed when handing the pouch up to a boat. They would weight slightly more out of water than in, due to water trapped in the washcloth. However, wrapping hard weights to be placed in the rear pouches could result in sufficient friction to render them un-droppable; a safety hazard. Not advisable.
From now on, the weights will stay at home.
No more dragging them long distances to where weights are waiting!
What We Learned: Switching from soft weights to hard weights in an integrated BCD did not affect the performance of the BCD, or affect our safety and ability to drop front or rear weights. Upon testing, the rear weights slid as easily from the velcroed pouches as the soft weights do, in fact, slightly easier and faster.
For those using weight belts, the answer is even easier. DO bring the belt you are familiar with and have practiced dropping. Use the dive shop’s weights.
What do you think – are there additional pro’s or con’s to traveling with weights? Or do you have any great jokes, cliche’s, or play-on-word for this heavy debate?
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Updated May 20, 2019
