Best Way To Weight With a Wing & Dry SUit

[waterpirate]

I dove a 9mil wet suit for years with 20# of weight. When I went dry, I shed all that weight and traded it in for a 2# clip weight. Everyone is diffferent, every rig is unique. If you are going to go dry, the proccess is the same as any new rig, start at zero and evaluate.
Eric

 

[Peter69_56]

Well for the record, I bought a weight harness, played with weights and ended up with 21 lb with twin steels and manifold. Happy with trim as well as weight. perhaps I can play with it a little after more dives but am comfortable with what I have.

 

[WhiteSands]

I am diving singles and I have 4lbs ditchable weights on my waist harness in weight pockets. They can store up to 8lbs total. I bought 2 more weight pockets to attach to my 2 tank bands. I can put 4lbs in each of the pockets but I doubt I will need so much. Probably another 2lbs for 6lbs total?

i considered the STA but I travel on budget airlines most of the time and weight is an expensive repetitive problem.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

I have a few different v-weights for doubles along with weight belt. I adjust according to the undergarment I am wearing.
I prefer a weight belt to the weight harnesses I have seen. A belt does the job just fine; I would suggest a Mako freediving weight belt. They are pretty cheap, and they don't slide.

If I am diving singles, then I also use a weight belt. I have cam band weight pockets which achieves the same thing that a v-weight does for doubles.

Do a weight check with nearly empty tanks and just a little bit of gas in the suit....try and hold a 3 meter stop.
Dial that in and you'll be set (for THAT undergarment). The amount of weight you use will change over time, as you gain experience, and settle in on the amount of gas you keep in your suit.

I run a little bit of gas in my suit.

It's a dry suit...not a vacuum bag.

Cheers,
Mitch

 

[Subcooled]

My rig is correctly balanced for wet suit diving. As I have never dry suit dived how would I know?

You don't.

Your rig is correctly balanced for wet suit diving at what depth? And what wet suit?

The wetsuit has a fixed buoyancy on the surface, but its buoyancy will be reduced at depth. You can overweighten yourself though, and compensate with a wing/bcd. Or you can weigh yourself for the target depth and swim down.

After these insightfull words I must add that I've never dived in a wetsuit :|

The buoyancy of a drysuit depends on how much clothing you wear under it. A tight fitting dry suit in the tropics does not require a lot of extra weight (if you manage to empty it properly, hence the tight fitting criterion), but if you're going to dive in one degree below freezing, then you want all the under garments and air thats possible. And thus much more lead.

Start with zero weights and if you then cannot stay at 3m/10ft while having 20 bar in each tank, then and only then, add a few pounds.
_____
I need 10 lbs of lead with twin 12 litre 232 bar eurocylinders (steel) without a manifold and without a backplate in near freezing water (perhaps 8 lbs with a manifold and even less with a back plate system). A suit gas bottle would further reduce the amount of lead. Many divers use these tanks and a steel back plate and a manifold without any extra lead. One really needs to test this at 20bar in each tank.

 

[cdemith]

When I first got my drysuit, and for many dry dives after, almost all I did was try to get my weighting and trim right. I felt more unbalanced than even as a new OW student.

I got a DUI weight harness because I dislike weight belts. The harness was much more comfortable. After dialing in my weight at 20lbs I did a lot of dry diving. Now, I am pretty overweighted again because I am much more comfortable in my drysuit. Between my new SS BP, hp100 and some cam band weight I dont even think I need the harness. I have not tried yet, but am now excited to not have to even wear that.

My point is that as you become familiar and comfortable with your dry suit your weight requirements will change.

 

[Peter69_56]

My original question was to check the weight "in the order of" as a starting point, not having dived dry before. I am well versed on wet suit diving and have weighted for 6.5 mm semi dry, 5/4 mm semi dry and 3 mm, all with twins, singles, wing and BCD. I always weight so I can perform deco blue water down to 30 BAR if necessary.

I would disagree with over weighting myself and then compensating with a wing, it means bad trim and excessive air in the wing constantly. I also disagree with underweighting (swimming down) as if I have to do a blue water deco, I have no control when shallow at 3 m. My method is to dump all the air except 30 BAR and then weight to allow no air in the BCD/wing at 3 m.

I was also taught that sling cylinders do not form part of the weighting, they are disposable. If you weight for all the gear you carry (when full) then dump a cylinder you may well be very very light on later in the dive, and if you empty them and they are aluminium, you are now even more buoyant if you keep them.

I however agree that more diving will allow me to drop a little more weight. I just bought a dry glove set and so this will change the mix a little.