[Mark Davies]

I think what the Coroner is talking about is ditching your weight once at the surface or near the surface (not at depth) as he seems to be referring to cases where people have been seen to get near the surface and then sink again. It makes some sense if you know you've got problems to get rid of all your weight when you surface and so make sure you don't go down again. Let's face it - if you've got to the surface and are concious you're probably going to live, so the deaths he's talking about were probably avoidable.

But, as Zak says, perhaps we're all just a bit too tight to dump any kind of kit, even if it is just a few quids worth of lead. We practice all other kinds of drills, but who ever actually practices throwing their weight belt away? Of course we don't, so when the shit hits the fan it's not a trained relfex action. Perhaps it should be drilled into us when training that the first thing we do when surfacing in difficulty is ditch the weights - IN ALL CASES.