How to (politely) advocate for more weight?

[Diver With Altitude]

I have found the scuba otter website to be way off of my lead requirement for a 3mm full wetsuit, AL80, in salt water. Even with a higher body fat category, this website underestimates my actual weight requirements.

For a 7 mm full suit in fresh water, it underestimated my need by 2.5 lb if I enter body fat as "average" (more true than it used to be, but I'm still pretty lean). I'm about to go on a warm water trip with a 3 mm full suit and I'm guessing I'll need 2-3 lb more than what it's calling for. I'll be interested to see if the difference is consistent. For comparison, the Dive Buddy calculator (which allows fewer inputs) overestimated my cold freshwater weight requirement by 2 lb.

 

[rongoodman]

Deflating vertically through the elephant's trunk helps a lot.

Flipping head down and using the rear dump works even better, in addition to removing the chance of unconsciously finning yourself back up.

 

[Wibble]

Flipping head down and using the rear dump works even better, in addition to removing the chance of unconsciously finning yourself back up.

It does, but not if you've a horseshoe wing.

Have fairly recently given up with the initial flat/head down descent and fighting the initial couple of feet/metre for the vertical let it all out through the hose and once submerged get into a flat trim for the descent.

 

[Rose Robinson]

I want to understand this correctly. You seem to be saying that you could not submerge, but once you were down and doing the dive, you were fine. Most importantly, were you fine all the way through the dive, including a safety stop? If so, then you had enough weight. Your failure to get down initially could have been trapped air somewhere in the BCD bladder and/or a failure to exhale on descent.

Mr. John,

All part of peak performance buoyancy, for which training is the key, not lead.

Rose.

 

[boulderjohn]

Mr. John,

All part of peak performance buoyancy, for which training is the key, not lead.

Rose.

I fully understand that, having taught it. These days, however, I believe that properly taught OW students do not need Peak Performance Buoyancy.

 

[KitHuff]

I told my wife that I needed more weight than the calculator suggested to descend and to keep from floating back to the surface if I did get down. She said it was because my head was empty except for air and it increases my bouyancy. With experience I hope to prove her wrong, but I am smart enough to doubt it.

 

[boulderjohn]

I told my wife that I needed more weight than the calculator suggested to descend and to keep from floating back to the surface if I did get down. She said it was because my head was empty except for air and it increases my bouyancy. With experience I hope to prove her wrong, but I am smart enough to doubt it.

If you are able to descend but then float back to the surface, the problem is not that you have too little weight. It is more likely you have too much.

• If you are able to descend, you have enough weight for at least that portion of the dive. (It is possible you will need more later as the tank empties.) The compression of the wetsuit means you need less weight once you are at depth than you needed to descend.
• As you dive, you need to balance the amount of lead you carry with the amount of air in the BCD and the amount of air in the lungs..
• The air in the BCD expands or contracts as you change depth, and you need to use the air in your lungs to compensate.
• The more air in the BCD, the harder it is for the lungs to overcome that expansion and contraction.
• For every pound of lead you have in excess of your present needs, you need about the equivalent of 15 fluid ounces of air in the BCD to balance it.
• The shallower the dive, the more the air in the BCD expands and contracts with changes in depth.

Consequently, an overweighted diver must have a lot of air in the BCD, and that air expanding with even a small ascension can be enough to take the diver to the surface. This is made even worse when the diver is in shallow water, because the air expands and contracts less the deeper you are. It is made even worse when the diver is swimming at a 45° angle so that the act of kicking is constantly pushing the diver upward.

 

[DiveProKoko]

I'm a newer diver, and apparently I'm extra buoyant. I've done warm and cold salt water diving, and folks are almost always surprised by how much weight I need to weight check/descend/stay at depth based on my size/gear/etc .......Recently, I've been having issues with dive shops straight up refusing to give me the weight I ask for......... I was wondering if there's a good and polite way to express "yes I know this sounds like a lot of weight, but based on previous dives I think I need it so can I please just start with this weight instead of having to get more once I'm in the water?" I

My wife is in the exact same boat, but is not a newer diver. In fact, she's quite experienced and always gets the second look when she asks for weight. Just tell them exactly what you need. If they second guess you, tell them you know it's a lot, but you are unusually buoyant. As a dive pro myself, I give people what they ask for and don't ever second guess them unless it seems "unsafe" OR they ask me for help getting their weight right. I simply hand it over. Just like I wont try to "fix" your weighting issues over the internet, I don't try to "fix" weight issues for certified divers that they may not even have. My students on the other hand get more attention!

I think divers who offer unsolicited advice on every aspect of diving mean well, but mostly should just not say anything unless they are asked or see a safety issue. Except for people who dive in split fins.....they deserve to be corrected immediately on sight! Hahahaha!

 

[inquis]

Another option when you board the boat: ask where the weight bucket is and just grab what you need.

 

[Diver With Altitude]

I'm about to go on a warm water trip with a 3 mm full suit and I'm guessing I'll need 2-3 lb more than what it's calling for.

So, Scuba Otter calls for 4.76 lb and I dove comfortably with 6 lb today, though I was wearing a shorty (thanks, AAL for losing my checked luggage )