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#154
Waist Belt Placement
EricM - 7/13/2015 9:32 PM
Category: New Diver Q&A
Replies: 7

I just got my BCD last weekend, and my instructor fitted it to me, but the waist belt seems kind of high, in that it runs across me just at or slightly above navel level. I am one of those people that have a disproportionately long waist in relation to body height and am thinking that I should lenghten the shoulder strap drop, in order to lower the waist belt. Is there any practical reason for the belt to ride high, or is this an adjustment that should be made to suit the individual?
#20448
LatitudeAdjustment - 7/14/2015 4:34 AM
Without knowing what kind of BC this is I’m thinking that lengthening the shoulder straps to get waist belt down to the waist would make the tank pull back on your shoulders more when you are out of the water. You don’t want the belt up near the ribs, that would make it hard to breathe :(

This is one of the reasons I love Back Plate and Wings, perfect fit!
#12178
Eric_R - 7/14/2015 6:13 AM
Is it fitting this way in the water?
#154
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EricM - 7/14/2015 9:50 PM
Haven’t had a chance to dive with it yet. I have been working 6-7 days a week for months now. I have a weekend off at the end of August, so I am going to try to spend it getting my Deep, Night, Navigation, And Nitrox practical exams done. That will be my first dive with it.
#154
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EricM - 7/14/2015 9:54 PM
From LatitudeAdjustment: LatitudeAdjustment - 17 hours 17 minutes ago.
Without knowing what kind of BC this is I’m thinking that lengthening the shoulder straps to get waist belt down to the waist would make the tank pull back on your shoulders more when you are out of the water. You don’t want the belt up near the ribs, that would make it hard to breathe :(This is one of the reasons I love Back Plate and Wings, perfect fit!

It is a Dive Rite Nomad with a butt plate, and a Dive Rite Rec Wing. I was looking at it yesterday morning, and there isn’t much shoulder strap left to run out. I hadn’t thought about the tank placement until you mentioned it either. I guess I will just have to wait and see. I can always ebay it off if it doesn’t suit me, I got a really good deal on it so I shouldn’t lose money. It has a crotch strap too, so I shouldn’t have to cinch the waist belt to the point of discomfort to keep my gear in place. I will get my wife to tak a photo of me wearing it this morning, and post it.
#154
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EricM - 7/14/2015 9:57 PM
From Eric_R: Is it fitting this way in the water?

I haven’t had a chance to dive with it yet. I have been working 6-7 days a week for months now. I have a weekend off at the end of August, so I am going to try to spend it getting my Deep, Night, Navigation, And Nitrox practical exams done. That will be my first dive with it. Now that I have the wing, I may just ebay off the Nomad harness, and get a backplate and harness.
#1639
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SeaGoat - 7/17/2015 3:32 AM
I think you may want to wait and dive with it on before you make a decision one way or the other. Having the weights around your belly button may seem a little Urkel-ish when you’re on land but your instructor may have placed the weights higher on your body to keep you slightly upper body-heavy when you are swimming horizontally. This will keep your legs and fins a little higher than your torso and keep you from kicking up silt, damaging the reef or finning yourself into an ascent.

I usually wear a weight-integrated BC and my weight pockets are just below my ribs. I, too, have a long torso and when I wear a traditional weight belt around my hips, it changes my trim - and strains my lower back if I’m wearing a thick wetsuit and lots of weight.
#154
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EricM - 7/18/2015 2:10 AM
From SeaGoat: I think you may want to wait and dive with it on before you make a decision one way or the other. Having the weights around your belly button may seem a little Urkel-ish when you’re on land but your instructor may have placed the weights higher on your body to keep you slightly upper body-heavy when you are swimming horizontally. This will keep your legs and fins a little higher than your torso and keep you from kicking up silt, damaging the reef or finning yourself into an ascent. I usually wea...

That makes a lot of sense. I never had a crotch strap before either, and was told that I wont need to cinch the waist belt as tight as I had to with the Zeagle Ranger I was using before in order to keep everything in place. My instructor knew from previous conversations that I wanted to have steel 120’s and that I was going to eventually run them as doubles, so he set my BCD up as to be adaptable for that.