How much weight do you carry (warm water)?

How much weight do you carry (warm water)?


  • Total voters
    92

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

could you elaborate on this more, what you mean by "correct" breathing? Is this like "yoga" breathing we're often taught during relaxation exercises, i.e. extending your stomach while breathing?

I'll try, its not easy without a white board

Imagine your lungs as the fuel gauge on a car.

A Normal breath (relaxed position) is the mid point, exhale at 1/4 and inhale at 3/4 mark E & F are for extremes

Say you descend down a line and near the bottom you take a big inhale, to slow you while adding air to your BCD. Then exhale a bit to become neutral - you're not really neutral because you're just using the top half of your lungs. Your brain will compensate for this, until its require to think about something else and them it'll revert back to normal, and you'll sink.

The opposite can happen too.

Also you have the fight or flight reflex. The second part of which is adrenaline. The first part is that the diaphragm drops, which increases lung volume.

You don't need to be that stressed for it to happen

When people first roll in it can happen, or at a SS if buoyancy is a problem, both are diagnosed as being under weighted. On vacations people often drop weight during the course of the week because they're more relaxed.

If I'm adjusting my buoyancy at the end of a descent, I'll exhale once (relax my lungs) which takes me to the mid point, I'll exhale a second time - takes me to the normal empty and a final exhale to fully empty my lungs. My buoyancy should be neutral at the mid point of my lungs.

I make a relaxed breathing cycle, slow inhale, pause, slow relaxed exhale, pause etc etc for a normal breathing cycle -. When I first learnt, I used to mentally count the inhale, pause and exhale to get a rhythm

Hope that's mildly clear and helpful
 
If I exhale completely during safety stop at 500 psi left in my tank & still positively buoyant, then what should I do? Keep finning down for 3 minutes in the blue to maintain the 15’ depth? Holding on the rope / bar if available?
Yes.
 
11 lbs in a 3mm, 17 in a 5mm with aluminum tanks. I can feel a little bit of air in the bottom of the wing at the safety stop but I don't see any reason to have it shrink wrapped around the tank.
 
I forgot to mention that’s with no air in BCD. How much more weight should I add for the next similar dive?
If the situation allows, you might try this: You’ve just competed the dive where you’ve been a touch too buoyant at your safety stop. You may now have a cylinder with about 500 PSI remaining. Remember the old technique to determine proper weighting. A diver with 500 PSI in their tank and no air in their BCD should be able to float at eye level on the surface in a vertical position while holding a full breath. Upon exhalation that diver should become slightly negative. If the circumstances allow, how about just re-entering the water with a few more pounds of weight and checking your adjusted buoyancy? Then add or reduce a pound or two at a time until you are satisfied.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dan
I forgot to mention that’s with no air in BCD. How much more weight should I add for the next similar dive?
As a follow-up to my earlier post #55: You may no longer have a nearly depleted cylinder as you’ve had your tank re-filed or returned a rental. No worries. You can perform the same weight check with a full tank by simply accounting for the weight of the air that you’ll use, and removing that amount of weight from your rig. For example; 80 cubic feet of air weighs 6.4 pounds. In a tank rated for 3,000 PSI, you’d have about 1 1/2 pounds of air remaining when you reach 500 PSI. To do the weight check, enter the water with the full tank, but remove 5 pounds of weight from your rig, and see how high you float, or if you are negative. Then add or remove a little bit of lead until you are satisfied. This will not be a dead-on, sure fire solution, but you’ll certainly be in the ball park.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dan
As a follow-up to my earlier post #55: You may no longer have a nearly depleted cylinder as you’ve had your tank re-filed or returned a rental. No worries. You can perform the same weight check with a full tank by simply accounting for the weight of the air that you’ll use, and removing that amount of weight from your rig. For example; 80 cubic feet of air weighs 6.4 pounds. In a tank rated for 3,000 PSI, you’d have about 1 1/2 pounds of air remaining when you reach 500 PSI. To do the weight check, enter the water with the full tank, but remove 5 pounds of weight from your rig, and see how high you float, or if you are negative. Then add or remove a little bit of lead until you are satisfied. This will not be a dead-on, sure fire solution, but you’ll certainly be in the ball park.

I have done these in the past. I’m just a floater, I guess. At 5’9” (1.75m) tall, 155lbs (70kg) with AL80 (11L) tank, 3mm full wetsuit, I will need 12 lbs (5.5kg) lead. I figure my average air consumption is about 0.4 cfm (11L/m) and the limiting factor of my warm-water recreational diving is NDA. So, having the lead a little bit on the heavy side won’t bother me.
 
Since I’m switching to a bp/w I’m trying to figure out my new weight needed. I currently dive 12-14lbs in a jacket bc depending on the model. I’m 6’0 182lbs. I usually just wear a rash guard. My BP weighs just under 3 lbs. I’m assuming with all hardware and wing the rig should be 5-7 maybe? So maybe another 6lbs in trim pockets on the tank? What do you guys who are close in size to me and use a similar rig dive with weight wise?
 
Since I’m switching to a bp/w I’m trying to figure out my new weight needed. I currently dive 12-14lbs in a jacket bc depending on the model. I’m 6’0 182lbs. I usually just wear a rash guard. My BP weighs just under 3 lbs. I’m assuming with all hardware and wing the rig should be 5-7 maybe? So maybe another 6lbs in trim pockets on the tank? What do you guys who are close in size to me and use a similar rig dive with weight wise?


BC's can be more buoyant by a few lbs.

If I were you I'd start off with 12, then weight check at the start of a dive. Rough guide, is with a normal breath and full tank your head should stabilise at a hands width under the surface, before you exhale to sink. This shoudl ball park you

Then check at end of dive with 500psi (empty or almost empty wing at SS) If you're diving regularly then as your dive count increases along with the comfort with your new BP/w you should see some more weight drop off
 
I carry 2, in two trim pockets on the top camband, one on each side of the cylinder. :whistling:
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom