Making a weight belt?

[Miyu]

Halloo all! I got to go swimming for the first time in over a year yesterday! I went to a local mer-meet and got to try out monofins and everything! :D

I had been thinking that maybe I wouldn't need a weight belt for a while, since I won't have anything but a fabric tail for a while, and I've just lost a lot of weight so I figured I wouldn't be as buoyant. Well, I was wrong. My btt is still a flotation device. I was having trouble staying under to take a look at people's tails!

So I'm going to set out to make a weight belt for myself. I'm not sure what I'll end up using as weights... I don't want to use lead weights (I am super-paranoid about lead. Shush.), and once again I'm attempting this out of things I find around my house.

What would you folks recommend I use as weights? I was told I could use sand. I'll take any ideas, there is a TON of hoarded supplies, tools, random things around my house - just nothing specific to swimming or diving :P

[Mermaid Julz]

mix sand with epoxy and fill into the back of shells..give a look of material embedded into it so you have a loop to put your netting belt through it... this way you can add as many as you need.

[NerineArcticMermaid]

i make them if you decide you cant do it. i do use lead shot weights but they are sealed into silicone shells with a neoprene backing so you never touch the lead. raina has one of my belts and im making echi one too

[AniaR]

just a suggestion: put weights in a baggy befor eputting them inside a shell. Even if you think the loose weights are glued down they can come loose. When I broke one of my shells (my fault) all the weights poured out all over the pool. @_@ brutal.

[Miyu]

Thank you guys for all the tips! I had thought of using baggies or something, as it would be horrid if I suddenly dumped sand or whatever all over the pool... O.O

The epoxy idea is smart :D I may test that out a bit.

If it proves to be too annoying for me though (after I procure some materials), I may have to get in touch with you, Nerine :) I know lead *would* be best in terms of weight... I just have a really hard time handling the stuff - my skin is paper-thin and super sensitive. -_-

[Echinacea]

I wonder if you could pour epoxy into the shell, with the weights, to avoid Raina's problem of having to round up all the lead pellets from the pool bottom, in case of accidents?

[AniaR]

They will still break loose over time.

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[NerineArcticMermaid]

Since the broken shell incident I have come up with a solution to that problem. :) using it on Echi's belt. ...

[Echidna]

I use a merified scuba belt, it has pockets for the weights (super secure, no contact whatsoever, and nothing can ever fall out).

It looks pretty nifty and not at all like scuba with the stuff I sewed on it (somewhere in Accessories should be a pic, it's green),
the only downside is that it's quite broad and thick because of the pockets, which doesn't go well with most tails (especially in other colours), but for training it's great.

[AniaR]

Honestly, my belt was great but now with the extra add ons on my tail I find it's always brushing against my pelvic fins and getting caught in them. for me I have learned to swim better by putting ankle weights IN my tail, evens out my floaty issues better.

The best way is to just experiment and see what works the best for you. it's a tricky process.

[Seatan]

I wonder if you could make a mini scuba belt and fasten the shells onto the belt. As in sew small pockets with Velcro and attach shells and decorations on top of the pockets to hide them? It seems to me that would be the most functional and safest way, since you could exchange the weights for a different size if your weight/buoyancy goes up or down and you could easily dump the weights if needed. I dunno as I have not yet attempted a weight belt, but when I do I will probably be staying true to the sort of thing I am used to, which is scuba gear with pockets for baggy weights. I just like being able to change my weight depending on whether I want to be neutral or sink to the bottom.

[Miyu]

Caltuna, that's why I was going to try not using just a plain scuba belt :P I think it may look extra-awkward on me, as I am child-size but with curves -_-

Raina, I was wondering about how it would fit with extra fins... I'm really good at getting tangled up in myself haha! SO that is definitely something for me to watch out for :)

Maybe I'll take a crack at Seavanna's advice and make a sort of mini-weight belt... I do think for myself it would be best to be able to change the weight accordingly. I'll probably still be hitting up Nerine for some shell weights (Nerine, do you sell just the shell weights, or do I have to order it as part of a belt?).

So, I don't want to sink to the bottom (VERY NEW MER), but I want to keep my butt from endlessly trying to breach the surface... How do you tell how much weight you should be strapping on?

And the ankle weights are a very good idea... I may try that after I've been swimming for a while. I'm so new that I don't trust my ankles to take both the weight AND the force from the monofin just yet. So for now, I'll just keep the weight around my waist (where I need it most, haha).

[Echidna]

I just like being able to change my weight depending on whether I want to be neutral or sink to the bottom.

yep, that's why I chose pockets.
I can fill them with variable weights, or take them out.
I put in more if I'm wearing a wetsuit, for example.

16433

I don't intend to perform in it, just wanted to get rid of the black scuba "man we're all so cool"-look :p
you see there's room for improvement.

My goal in the long term is building enough mass to be more neutrally buoyant anyway, but until that happens, I'll need weights ><

[AniaR]

I dont put the weights on my ankles I hold them between my thighs.

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[NerineArcticMermaid]

raina
..do we need to adjust your belt?

[AniaR]

I like my belt. Ive just moved beyond belts and find weights in my tail easier for my needs

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[NerineArcticMermaid]

Okey dokey. Just making sure :)

[Seatan]

So, I don't want to sink to the bottom (VERY NEW MER), but I want to keep my butt from endlessly trying to breach the surface... How do you tell how much weight you should be strapping on?

Take anything that can work as a weight (you don't have to buy weights to test this, you can just put something you have weighed that is heavy in a bag and use rope or something to strap it to your waist). You need to have at least two weights so that the weight will be evenly distributed. If it makes you nervous, start small (1-2 lbs on each side maybe) and go up as you feel comfortable. Make sure that if you tie the weights to you with a rope that you use a slip knot so you can ditch the weights if you panic. Weighting yourself is a trial and error thing. I use nine pounds when SCUBAing, but that is with my BCD and gear. You will probably need less for mermaiding. I don't use any at all when mermaiding, but I cannot sink to the bottom without letting out ALL my air, nor can I simply hover in between the surface and the bottom with a full lung of air--I am definitely positively buoyant, I just continue to swim down when I start to rise.

The first thing to realize is that how much air you have in your lungs SERIOUSLY matters. It's like a built in inflatable life jacket. You will never be neutrally buoyant and still AS you are exhaling air/blowing any bubbles. You will continue to sink the more air you allow out of your lungs.

If you are capable of it, you can test whether you are neutrally bouyant by swimming so you are laying/floating face down about two feet above the pool floor and slowly letting out most of your air. You should be nearly touching the pool floor when most of your air is gone. If you hit the pool floor and still have a good amount of air in your lungs, you are negatively buoyant (you will slowly sink even with air in your lungs). If you can't get near the pool floor at all--note that this involves NO movement from you, just the air leaving your lungs--you are still positively bouyant (you will find yourself slowly rising when you have a lung full of air.) You need to find the in between.

If it makes you nervous to test it out so far down, just keep this in mind when you test out weights: When you are neutrally buoyant, you should be able to swim down and hover between the surface of the pool and the bottom of the pool without rising up again or sinking beyond that point. (Expect some trial and error as it can be hard to find the middle ground without a SCUBA tank--having a tank allows you to exhale AND inhale, so you can see how much you rise and fall depending on the air in your lungs. Heck, it's hard to do when you first start SCUBAing, too--it must have taken me like twenty tries to learn to do the "pool bottom pushups"--inhale rise up two feet, exhale, drop to the floor--when I was getting my certification. So be patient and don't stress out!)

If you try weights and find you are still rising, but only a TINY bit, let some air out of your lungs. See how much air you have to let out to stay in the middle. If all it takes is a tiny bit of air out of your lungs, it might be good enough. Just remember that if you do bubble kisses or anything else that involves exhalation, you will sink and may have to swim upward if you are trying to stay at a certain depth.

It can be hard to judge if you are neutrally bouyant at first, but you will get the hang of it. Just put on as much weight as you feel comfortable with and see how it feels. If you feel like you need more, add more. How much weight you need simply depends on what you want to do. Just make sure that it is equally distributed around your waist or you will start to "turn" in the water, tilting to one side or the other.

[Miyu]

Thank you so much Seavanna, that's a lot of great info! I'm not confident in my abilities quite yet to test my buoyancy, I'd like to get a few more swims under my belt to get the hang of actually going where I want to go without panicking for air :P At one point in my first swim, I finally got the hang of things for a moment, and ran out of air because I was just amazed at the sensation LOL :P Thankfully I was only halfway down in the middle depth part of the pool and not the deep end, haha! I spent the majority of my time in the shallow end trying to come to terms with having a giant piece of plastic stuck to my feet >.<

Next time I go swimming I'll make sure to weight out some random household objects to test that out :) Good call on the slip knot! I'm so new to what I would call "technical swimming" that I didn't even think about that.



Is there any sort of epoxy that might work for sealing sand into shells that would be available at Wal-Mart? I'm heading into town tomorrow and have a small amount of spending money, but not a whole lot.