This is a post by Jorg Jansen.
The Standard Neck Weight
On Thursday it was pool time with Sanne again. Time for some testing and experimenting! Now we’re training regularly again, it is also time to fine tune other parts besides the monofin kick itself. Streamlining, weighting, glide moment, everything.
At the moment we’re looking for an alternative for the normal neck weight and weight belt around the waist. While both systems have their positives, there are also some negatives. Around the neck is a pretty good place with regards to aligning, but not so for comfort and relaxation. I’m also not so convinced with regards to the streamlining of some of the neck weights I see. Especially the 5+ kg belt around the neck give some stress in the neck and drag in the water
Around the waist is a pretty comfortable place and what most people are used to. But it’s not in the center of your body and doesn’t hold you down in the right place, especially when you’ve got big lungs. Streamlining is still an issue here. But if you use half kilo blocks, it is pretty minimum, but still a disturbance in the flow.
So, we did some testing with placing weights on very strange parts of the body in also very interesting shapes. And we were very surprised about what we found out and how it worked! It coming weeks we will fine tune our new weight setup and make some video’s about it. I think a lot of people will find it ‘interesting’ and in the beginning probably even stranger then the first neck weight they saw.
I used the tube from a kiddie-bike (12″ wheel size), it’s pretty thick rubber and it doesn’t wrinkle on the inside (your neck) as much a a moped tube of similar thickness.
Remove the part that holds the valve (1cm on either side, tie a simple knot, shift it as far to the end of the tube as you can. Place the one end of the clip behind the knot. Then take the foot part of a pantyhose, shove it down the tube with a pvc pipe, insert a funnel and fill it up with softlead, as much as you want/need. Tie a knot in the pantyhose, push it down the tube as far as you can, place the other part of the clip and tie the 2nd knot. And there you are, no glue, no tape, easy does it!
For added comfort around your neck, you could glue a layer of neoprene (hd) to the inside of the weight. Just my 2 cents worth…