How Scuba Weights Have Changed - Scuba Tech Tips: S12E18 

I love the Kevin ribbing, cracks me up every time! I come for scuba tips.. I stay for the Kevin ribbing!

Mr Pierce, you could talk about air bubbles and make it enjoyable. The sport and industry is a better place because of you.

Give me a good old school SCUBA video I need to escape, this year is the worst. Take me home Alec back to the good ol days of vintage SCUBA. I remember learning to snorkel in the '80s and just seeing half the gear this guy brings up is such a dose of nostalgia. It's hard to find a feel-good channel anymore on this website. I find more and more that I'm coming to enjoy me some vintage SCUBA stuff. Now zoom in here a little bit Kevin.

I made two for old style weight belts with shoulder straps for cold water 7 mil suits for hookha diving and went through 30ft of webbing. It just poofed away, no waste. What I found was that, on the waist the weights always wanted to dangle and flop around. Thinking, I spliced in a 5-6" wide construction type tool belt and added a quick disconnect to that (they have the same size webbing weaving around the belt, held by many belt loops). it's comfy, soft, doesnt dig in and weights dont rotate or dangle. Thanks Alec.

Hi Alec. Wife, son and myself all just got our open waters certs done in tobermory (cold) and wife and i are off to cozumel for our first dive trip in a few weeks. We are new to all this and eager to learn all we can. Will have our nitrox course done by then and get our advanced while down there and hopefully knock off a lot of dives to work on skills. Your tips are great as we are slowly gearing up and spending $ , your personality is AWESOME. You are a professional with passion and a very sincere thanks for the time and trouble and willingness to share your knowledge. Cheers from fellow Canucks and much success and adventures in your future. Thanks to Kevin too for his good nature and camera work in the background.

Plus, the shot weights are much easier on the toes if you drop one of them on your foot. :-)

Another great job of looking at the options and evolution of lead weights.

I live in Croatia, we still melt lead in the club, collect 30-40 kilograms, and then melt it into blocks of 1 or 2 kilograms

Using the weights like the first one you showed, we used to put a half twist in the belt on each weight to work as a keeper. Made it a lot easier to get suited up. Great video, enjoyed it very much! Thank you!

Hello Again Alex, Love the content you provide as always! I was wondering if you could do a video talking about diving on doubles and maybe incorporating a bit of vintage scuba of how manifolds have changed over the years? Again I absolutely love the content and your videos inspired me to work at my local dive store and pass on the knowledge provided.

Great video. I recently ordered a Le weight mold, but haven't had a chance to mess around with it yet. I've got a few hundred pounds of lead, so I thought it would be fun to make some of my own weights.

the approach is a bit different on the newer weight systems but the dynamics is the same, the choice of the diver depends widely on the intended use. I prefer as much as possible weights that are incorporated to the BCD to relieve the weight on the waist, What I do is to incorporate at least 50% of the weight needed to my BCD in the form of lead blocks and the rest in lead shot in my belt so much esaier on my body and i retain the emergency release of my belt in the case of necessity.

They had advertising like that in scuba magazines back then?! Wow, the old times really WERE good...

Thanks!

A few years ago, I wanted some bulk lead - cheap. There was a listing on eBay for 140 Lbs of various SCUBA weights on the other coast, local pick-up only, starting bid $10. I placed a bid for the $10 and wound up winning the weights, the guy was out in the boonies, no other bidders wanted to travel out there I guess. I told the guy I would send someone out in a few days to pick them up, and I would send him a couple of boxes to put them in for transport. I went to the Post Office and picked up a couple of flat rate Priority Mail boxes, put on prepaid labels, Stuck a small roll of 2" strapping tape between them, and mailed them off. When the guy told me he had them all wrapped tight, I called for his letter carrier to pick them up at his house, The guy told me she weighed about 100 Lbs wet and could hardly pick up those boxes. He said it was funny, but got mad because he did not know about flat-rate Priority Mail and the carrier pickups - could have sold them for a lot more money. The boxes had all sorts of weights - hard lead, bullets, soft packs, and even 2 pre-loaded soft belts. I wound up melting the hard lead and soft packs for fishing/downrigger weights. The soft packs of lead shot was pretty oxidized and I didn't want that in the water, so it worked out well all the way around. I believe they coat the shot in those now, don't they? 140 Lbs of lead for a total of about $35 (at the time) was a pretty good deal. It's hard to find free lead on parked car/truck wheels anymore.

Do they have lead free diving weights now, like they have lead free birdshot and what not?

Kevin, don't listen to him, pink is a great color. I love neon pink!

They now make belts with pockets if you still want to wear a belt buy use the modern bean bag weights. You can also get a harness if you have problems wearing a belt.

Hey Alec, still use my 1.5kg belt weights but also have an intergrated weight system. Would like to know your opinion on tank weights for bouyancy distribution.

Bullet weights are a pain in the butt. I always have to open them with a screwdriver to get them on the webbing. I only use the 1lb to tweak buoyancy. Did you do a video on Horse Shoe vs Vest Type BC's?

Got 14 kg in my belt to gain negativity on old scuba diving in 1995 now i used on dry suite about the same on eccr but get 45 kg on my body too

I think that lead shot constantly rubbing together in a porous, mesh, sack would put more lead into the environment than even solid, uncoated lead weights. Don't you think?

why don't using block weight in the BCD? it can also put in.

Alec what’s your thoughts on how small of an increment if weight to use? I’ve heard some people use 4oz fishing weights to dial in trim. Is that a little excessive?

i went on a liveaboard and lost a weight pocket and had to use a belt. it kept falling down, i don't have hips. is there a way to tie it so it doesn't fall down?

I have the bullet weight belt.

Why are weight belts still in use with them being so uncomfortable to wear and knowing that so many people have weight belt loss problems during dives. I guess some old-school people still like weight belts vs weight-integrated BCDs (to each their own).

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