Yes or no to removable weights when scuba diving?
When a student is taught to scuba dive, whatever agency is responsible for the training, they are told that weights are added to the diving equipment to ensure that the diver is able to maintain neutral buoyancy when in the water. This is usually achieved by wearing scuba diving equipment that includes a weight belt or having integrated weight pockets in the stab jacket.
Sometimes a diver will choose to wear both a weight belt and have weights in the stab jacket, as this can be more comfortable and manageable. Whatever system chosen, the weights are always incorporated with quick release systems to ensure that the diver can quickly jettison them in case of an emergency.
A rapid buoyant ascent can be very dangerous, but less so when a diver is undertaking shallower sports dives and in any case can possibly jettison only part of their weights if wearing a mixture of integral weights and a weight belt.
However, as a diver progresses to longer and deeper diving, an emergency buoyant ascent is to be avoided. It is not such an available option due to the distance and time needed for a diver to return to the surface. The diver is effectively diving in an “overhead environment” as there should be no quick way to the surface when carrying out extended range dives.
A diver with a twin set will find that he or she does not need a lot of additional weight, perhaps 2 or 3 kilograms which is a lot less than the 10 to 15 kg that a typical sports diver will require. A couple of kilograms can easily be incorporated as “V weights” between the twin tanks and means that the diver has an uncluttered set of scuba gear.
When a diver moves to this sort of diving additional training is required, to replace the emergency buoyant ascent training that would be sufficient for the sports diver with removable weights. Now the diver will be trained to use a surface marker buoy (each diver will always be carrying two of these), his own or buddy’s dry suit or buoyancy wings in order to manage an emergency but controlled ascent procedure.
The extra training needed for more adventurous dives will dictate whether or not a diver must wear removable weights or not and in order to avoid dangerous and potentially lethal ascents, or at the worst a diving computer alarm that locks you out of further diving for a day or two.