onepointfivethumbs
Registered
I dive in cold, fresh water (great lakes and quarries), so "you don't need weight" responses are unhelpful.
When I did my OWD the shop gave me about 30lbs of lead, I did my checkout in a jacket BCD, 7mm suit, hood & gloves. I did the "eyebrows weight check" but even then I felt heavy, when we were doing follow-me drills at about 40FFW my BC was about 60% inflated.
I admit that I am not svelte in any sense of the word, however I still sink when I fully exhale. My understanding is that it takes 2lb per millimeter of suit thickness, so a 7mm suit would need 14-15lbs of weight. If the bp/w assembly weighs 6-7lb, and assuming everything else is functionally neutral, I would only need to find another 7lb of weight. So where does this other 15lb come from?
My understanding is that DIR promotes the use of a "balanced rig", properly weighted so that you can swim up an empty tank and only have to ditch a minimal amount of weight for a full tank. If you dive dry you can dive steel, which is negative empty and full, and you can make up the difference with P-weights or V-weights.
For starting out in a steel backplate and an STA, how much weight should I really be looking at carrying?
When I did my OWD the shop gave me about 30lbs of lead, I did my checkout in a jacket BCD, 7mm suit, hood & gloves. I did the "eyebrows weight check" but even then I felt heavy, when we were doing follow-me drills at about 40FFW my BC was about 60% inflated.
I admit that I am not svelte in any sense of the word, however I still sink when I fully exhale. My understanding is that it takes 2lb per millimeter of suit thickness, so a 7mm suit would need 14-15lbs of weight. If the bp/w assembly weighs 6-7lb, and assuming everything else is functionally neutral, I would only need to find another 7lb of weight. So where does this other 15lb come from?
My understanding is that DIR promotes the use of a "balanced rig", properly weighted so that you can swim up an empty tank and only have to ditch a minimal amount of weight for a full tank. If you dive dry you can dive steel, which is negative empty and full, and you can make up the difference with P-weights or V-weights.
For starting out in a steel backplate and an STA, how much weight should I really be looking at carrying?