How much weight do you need? What kind of tanks and exposure suit are you using? What is your height and weight?
Me: Female, 5'10", 170lbs (36 if age matters). Technically on paper, on the high end of "normal" BMI. In reality, I'm a little overweight. Not sure what my BF % is, but I know it's higher than the average "healthy/normal BMI" woman, and you can definitely tell by looking at me. I'm working on it.
In warm/tropical water (a majority of my dives, and all of my recent dives, Bonaire and Hawaii most recently if that helps with the context), I wear a 3mm shorty and use 16-18lbs depending on the tank. After my most recent dive (ended with lower air than usual, 500psi, due to strong currents/heavier breathing, on an aluminum tank), my buddy requested that I go with 18 from now on, as 16lbs with lower air wasn't enough to keep me neutral and I ended up floating to the surface while finning down (fortunately it was a shallow dive with no safety stop needed! But he said if it had been a deeper dive I could have been in trouble). In colder New England water, a 5mm full suit, 7.5mm gloves, 5mm hood. I've only gone twice and I don't recall what kind of tanks, but I suspect they were aluminum based on how heavy they felt out of the water and how different my buoyancy was at full versus not full tank. But I could definitely be wrong. I was also maybe 10lbs heavier for these dives, as it was the earlier covid times and I hadn't been to the gym recently, and I know fat floats haha.
I needed 26lbs for a larger capacity tank (I believe it was 120) and 30lbs for a lower-capacity tank (don't recall if it was 80 or 100). If I didn't get that backwards. Sorry for the lack of specifics. I should (and will) be more careful about noting tank types in my log book.
Also, how much weight are they typically offering you?
In warm water/3mm shorty, they usually want to give me 12lbs. I can usually "negotiate" up to 14 before splashing, and end up at 16-18 once in the water. In colder water/5mm full (again, only done twice), they offered me 22lbs.
in fairness.....many divers are very unsure of the weight they need when showing up at a shop on holidays. and many who ask for weight are asking for too much. i am sure the shops are only concerned for you.
This was exactly my assumption, hence the "if I'm being a Karen" comment.
Shops have been very "there's NO WAY you need that much weight" beforehand, we discuss my previous dives and they give me a little more but not enough, and then they're "okay I guess you do need that much weight!" after making sure I wasn't holding air in my BCD, giving me more weight in the water, and watching me complete the dive. But always in a very nice way (with one exception that I'm still salty about because the DM told me if I needed more weight he'd have it on him to give me (no spares on shore), but then he descended and left with the group while I was still at the surface unable to descend, so my buddy and I missed half of a two tank dive). Part of me doesn't want to "argue" because I know they're doing it for a good reason, and I generally eventually end up with decent weights and have great dives, so really I shouldn't be complaining. But the more times I have to do it, the more slightly irritated I get when I have to start with 12lbs and work my way up, haha (and I have presented my log book, every dive has the weight I used and almost every dive has comments about how the weight worked for me).
