This click release harness belt gets the thumbs up from Charles Hood 
Click Release Harness Belt, £80.00The average drysuit-wearing UK diver requires around 10-12kg of lead to be neutrally buoyant. However, for the larger-framed person, or if you are adding extra thermal layers in the winter, this can jump to anything upwards of 18kg.
Installing this amount of lead blocks on a conventional weight belt is not an easy task and wearing the result can be pretty uncomfortable. Even if you can fit all that lead onto your belt, there is a risk that suit compression and sheer weight may conspire to send the whole payload slipping off your waist, sending you on an uncontrolled, super-buoyant journey to the surface.
One solution to this problem is to use a weight harness such as the Click Release Harness Belt from Bowstone, which I have been testing for the past few months. Being a waistcoat-style design, it's a simple and effective method of carrying huge amounts of weight safely and comfortably. The one-size-fits-all harness can be quickly adjusted to fit virtually any type of physique and the two weight pouches can hold up to a sizeable 9kg of lead each.
The pouches are held quite firmly in place by a large strip of Velcro, which is further secured by a quick-release buckle, ensuring the pockets can't be accidentally removed. In practice, they work very well, and we had no problem both inserting them pre-dive and removing them in-water post-dive. The harness is available in black, blue, red or yellow colour schemes and, at 80 quid, represents pretty good value.
DIVE SAYS...
Effective waistcoat-style weight belt
Value 8 Performance 9
Contact Bowstone • 01663 735 361 •
www.bowstonediving.com