DIVER TESTS
WEIGHT-BELT IMERSION STANDARD
ON TWO OCCASIONS I HAVE DITCHED weight-belts. Which is why I’m still here.
The first time, I was 10. I had read somewhere that by exhaling gently while snorkelling, you would blow off CO2 and could prolong your dive. This seemed to work very well - until I reached the surface, cleared my snorkel and sank.
Along with blowing off the CO2, I had also exhaled most of my buoyancy.
The second or third time I ducked back under, while finning furiously to try to get my head above water and snatch a breath, I dropped the belt.
The other time was during a swimming assessment for a novice sport scuba course run by the Army. One of the exercises was to swim 50m wearing a weight-belt.
The maximum weight was set at 5kg, and it was supposed to be adjusted down for thin people, which I was at the time. I did the swim wearing only my shorts in freezing sea temperatures and, about halfway through, my legs seized up. Again, I ditched the belt.