Abalone Diving Weight Help

[roknroll]

I love ab diving and try to go a few times a year, but don't have any regular dive partners. Last year, and this year, I've taken a few friends out who wanted to try it but none have their own gear. Each time I go, I usually end up with someone who's trying it for their first time. Any suggestions on a good rule of thumb for how much weight they should have? Every time I have gone out, the weight belts my friends have rented were grossly under weighted which made diving extremely difficult. I usually bring some extra 4 lb weights out in the tube with us, but adding weights while in the kelp/swell with a new diver isn't the easiest.

They usually have a 6.5mm rented wetsuit, sometimes a 7mm. I think the first time they had something like 10% of their body weight, but that was like wearing a life vest. I have had my weight belt (unchanged) for over 10 years, so I don't even know how much it is anymore.

I'm going again this upcoming weekend with two new divers, and want to give them an idea of what to ask for when going to rent their gear. In the past I've told my friends to make sure to bring up the fact that they are abalone diving and need more weight, but still they come out 5-10 pounds under weighted. for the newer divers, I like them to be *slightly* bouyant at the surface, maybe just a pound or two.

 

[fdog]

It's just a personal opinion, but I would never send someone ab diving in a 7mil wetsuit that was only a pound or two positive at the surface.

Overweighted + blackout = deceased

I teach freedivers to be neutral at 10 meters. With very shallow ab divers I'd be willing to weight them neutral at 5 meters. It's worth considering that 99% of blackouts happen at depths of 5 meters or less and you want to be positive if you black out...

I personally carry 8% when wearing a 5 mil Yazbeck in the ocean. Anyone going out of our shop renting a 7 mil (back zip) suit for freediving gets ~10% (plus a loose 4 lb weight if they look like they have big lungs). I can't imagine the liability if we knowingly gave someone the amount of lead that would make them overweighted.


All the best, James

 

[roknroll]

Thanks for the insight. Ya, I can see the issue as being a liability thing, and also a saftey/blackout thing. Where we are diving, it is never more than 10-15 feet deep.. I don't take newer divers out very far, plus they usually get nervous once they can't see the bottom, thus self-limiting themselves to shallow water.

But like I mentioned: the last couple times that their weight belts has been around 10% of their body weight, it is a massive struggle for them to just get down 5'. Even at 10' down or so, they are still being pulled pretty strongly back to the surface.

 

[Akimbo]

Proper weighting is very important to a freediver, too much and you can easily drown in the event of a shallow water black out, too buoyant and you waste a lot of energy. The ideal that is generally accepted is neutral at 33' or your working depth, whichever is shallower. The variation is caused by loss of displacement due to suit and lung compression. Example: For me, the difference between 33' and 18' is 8 Lbs. The only way to get it accurately dialed in is a test at depth for each person and gear configuration.

As far as finding Abalone diving buddies, check out NorCal Underwater Hunters. I am sure you can meet divers there and learn a lot as I have.