Balanced Rig: AKA "How much Lead do you REALLY need?"

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I dive in cold, fresh water (great lakes and quarries), so "you don't need weight" responses are unhelpful.

When I did my OWD the shop gave me about 30lbs of lead, I did my checkout in a jacket BCD, 7mm suit, hood & gloves. I did the "eyebrows weight check" but even then I felt heavy, when we were doing follow-me drills at about 40FFW my BC was about 60% inflated.

I admit that I am not svelte in any sense of the word, however I still sink when I fully exhale. My understanding is that it takes 2lb per millimeter of suit thickness, so a 7mm suit would need 14-15lbs of weight. If the bp/w assembly weighs 6-7lb, and assuming everything else is functionally neutral, I would only need to find another 7lb of weight. So where does this other 15lb come from?

My understanding is that DIR promotes the use of a "balanced rig", properly weighted so that you can swim up an empty tank and only have to ditch a minimal amount of weight for a full tank. If you dive dry you can dive steel, which is negative empty and full, and you can make up the difference with P-weights or V-weights.

For starting out in a steel backplate and an STA, how much weight should I really be looking at carrying?

Hello One,

Common question.

I dive dry, full time, no additional ballast, don't own any.

I dive with HP double steel 80's.

My tec instructor, who hailed from Seattle was a buoyancy master, and could dive with just about any configuration, with no additional ballast.

My philosophy is, if you can carry lead, you can carry larger tanks, 117's/120's/133's/149's.

Larger tanks, will give you the negative buoyancy you are looking for from lead, and unlike lead, you can breathe from them.

On more than one occasion, I've been on a dive boat, with dry-suit divers, diving heavy doubles, and wearing forty pounds of lead. To me, this is someone, who was taught something, but learned nothing.

Learning/using/taking best advantage of peak performance buoyancy is the key, not more lead!

Rose
 
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