This scuba girl has sampled three. One was a little number I like to call ‘the instant bruise’. The other resembled a workman’s tool belt. But the grand prize winner was ‘Bright Weights’ with their cute slogan swim like a fish. Think small individual weights, rounded at the edges that can fit a dive girls body’s contours easily. If it didn’t have to be so heavy, I’d say it was comfy.

Weightbelts. Yes a necessity in dive gear.

The first weightbelt I used was the standard belt that the great lead chunks slide onto. The things slip around the belt, clang on the tank, and are just plain awkward. It’s not only frustrating, it’s painful, and totally unsuitable for a female diver.

The only other time I’ve ever had bruises like that, was in one of those rides at the show where you are strapped into a little booth, and are slammed against the side as the thing throws you in rotations through the air, while you hope the thing was serviced recently.

Enter Bright Weights. The makers have realised that individual body shapes need different arrangements of weights, not just different total mass. They’ve also noticed something else about us dive girls. Yes we have hips! Each individual half kilogram piece can be positioned to suit any shape, and they won’t slip, or shift, or all gather on one side, as the weights slide into the belt, rather than onto it. They even have harness versions, and individual holsters for additional pocket weights, for BCD’s that function with integrated systems.

The final draw card. The belt even features a tiny stainless steel loop and miniature weight-shaped keyring to slip spare ‘o-rings’ onto. Ingenious. Such a small, yet handy and often ‘saveth the day’ edition to an already relevant piece of equipment in a scuba girls toolkit.