How much weight do you dive with?

[Sas]

Height 5'10"
Weight 78kg

Various configurations in salt water:

Single tank (10 or 12L)
SS BP
7mm full suit
Weight: 12lb

Single tank (10 or 12L)
SS BP
4mm crushed neo drysuit
Weight: 22lb

Double tank (12L)
AL BP
4mm crushed neo drysuit
Weight: 9lb

 

[Starcruiser]

5'6", 190 with a 7mm one piece wetsuit, diveskin, bcd, al80, gloves, etc
saltwater 24lbs
freshwater 16 lbs
Yes, I'm a natural floater, too.

 

[Uber]

about 165lbs.... but she's going on a diet:laurel:

 

[divebelly]

5' 10" 265 Rash gaurd under BCD. Steel 100 I use 6lbs. 10lbs with an AL80. Tropical SW.

 

[vinegarbiscuit]

Very hard to get an 'across the board' comparison, because folks have so many different gear configurations and are at various stages of their diving career (with the broad assumption that experience = comfort in the water). But for what it's worth, here are my stats:

Warm water:
Height/Weight: 5'4" 150lbs
Exposure: 3mm
BCD Style: Steel plate/18 lb wing
Tank: AL80
Accessories: None
Lead: 7lbs (5 lb is on my plate, and another 2 lb on my single tank adapters).
I've grown rather heavy since I was certified four years ago, but I find I'm using almost half the weight I did when I was first certified. I actually did a weight check last week, and found myself hovering perfectly at 10-15 feet with 500 psi in my tank and an empty wing.

Caves:
Height/Weight: 5'4" 150lbs
Exposure: 7mm one-piece
BCD Style: Plate/47 lb wing
Tank: Double steel 100's
Accessories: Three lights, inc. one can light
Lead: None. I have all the ballast I need from those damn tanks! I wouldn't mind switching over to an AL plate, because I truly have all the weight I need. Then again, I'll have to revisit my weighting requirements when I invest in a drysuit, so maybe I should leave well enough alone!

 

[aquaregia]

It might be interesting to the OP to note the buoyancy of your breathing in terms of pounds of lead. My FEV is 6.8L, which comes out to around a 16lb buoyancy shift (roughly the same as my 7mm). On another thread, some posters had even higher volumes than that. That "last bit of air" can easily provide several pounds of buoyancy.

 

[eponym]

I'm just curious to know how much weight people carry based on their body type and gear.

I'm not close to your body type but for what it's worth I'll contribute. I think this an excellent reason why scubaboard exists . . .

My height 5' 7"
My weight 140 pounds
Bilam drysuit
Transpac BC (with all the pads and covers removed)
Single HP steel 100
Weight 18 fresh, 22 salt

I am a novice at 20 dives, and have been carring 38lbs on me since my OW class. It came to my attention after researching problems with holding a safety stop that it is more than likely because I am overweighted and using a lot of air in my BCD which expands quickly in the last 20ft (and inexperience).

I think that's a good insight. I cut my weight needs sharply between starting out in a drysuit and doing some focused weighting test dives.

The next time I get in the water I will do a proper weight check. [snip] I'm looking forward to finding the minimum amount of weight possible and practicing some shallow water buoyancy control and awareness.

Kudos on planning to do it right.

-Bryan

 

[Ber Rabbit]

5'5", 130 pounds

Trilam drysuit with heavy undies an AL tank 28 pounds. Hubby outweighs me by 100 pounds and wears 24 pounds dry. Did I mention my undies are really heavy

5mm wetsuit with AL tank, 14 pounds.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[kjvander]

6' ~270
Ranger BC
Tri-Lam drysuit
HP120

Winter undergarments 38# (a little heavy yet just started diving these undergarments)
Summer undergarments 22#

 

[TSandM]

It seems as though most of our students wearing 7 mil Farmer Johns end up with somewhere between 25 and 30 lbs of ballast. 38 certainly sounds as though there might be some room to drop some.

Me: 5'4", 120 lbs, laminate drysuit with Whites Mk3 undergarment, 200g Thinsulate vest, and DC base layer, LP95 tank. Total ballast (including plate) 31 lbs.