A "real" weight question

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Nomad:
Note that if you are weighted properly by this method, you may have a difficult time staying at 15 feet for your safety stop when your tanks are low on air, so you might want to add 2-4 pounds.
Why would you think that?
 
Walter:
Why would you think that?

'cause an empty tank weighs less than a full one...
:D

I have found that when I use this method to determine my weighting needs, it seems like I am always just a tad too bouyant towards the end of the dive.
 
With a 3 MM suit I would be surprised if you needed more than 14 lbs.

At 180 lbs with a 3MM fullsuit and Zeagle Ranger, I use 10 lbs in warm water. THat is perfect weighting for me. I also found that two pounds made more difference than expected. At 12 lbs, I tended to sink more radically when exhaling. At 10 lbs, I hardly had any air in my BC for the entire dive, and then no air on the safety stop.

And wow, how comfortable the diving was. No air adjustments, no fighting the current getting pushed up.

And a slight nit on others comments: you want to hold a normal breath when checking weighting at the surface rather than a deep breath.

Also, I don't believe stories of freeflowing through the whole tank in 30 seconds anymore. To bleed off air to test at 500 lbs at the end of a shallow dive it took minutes to go through 1000 lbs.

Last tip: current can affect your weight testing on the dive. It can sweep you up, making you think you don't have enough weight. Don't hold your breath (bouyancy), breath nice and slow.
 
Shasta_man:
And a slight nit on others comments: you want to hold a normal breath when checking weighting at the surface rather than a deep breath.

I stand corrected. (Actually, I am sitting down right now.)
 
I dove with 14 lbs before (different BC) and I felt it was too much - I always had quite a bit of air in the BC.

I'm 195 lbs., but fairly lean and not too naturally buoyant, so I'll give 12 lbs a try at first. 6 for the saltwater, 6 for the empty tank. I'm thinking I may be able to drop that down to 10 and maybe 8. I'll see if I can get a beach dive in on Sunday for some tests before going out on a boat dive.

Thanks.
 

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