Bouyancy charts

[Wijbrandus]

Is there a chart or some sort of information I can find that will tell me how much weight I need to compensate for different levels of protection?

For example, if I go to a pool, and get myself weighted with 500lbs of air and floating at eye-ball level with all my gear except the wetsuit, how will I know how to compensate?

I'm getting my first BC this spring. I'm also taking the advanced course. I plan on familiarizing myself with the BC in a warm pool where protection isn't needed, but will be doing my AOW dives in 61F water where I'll be wearing the John & Jacket 7mm. I don't want to be a dope on the rope about my weight.

The only good thing is I'm getting a bp/w, so that'll be a significant chunk of lead of my belt.

 

[neophytediver]

Advice I'd give you is to dive everything you intend to wear on your dive, dive it IN THE POOL. I know you'll look like weird, but it's much better than slapping on what lead you think you'll need and not being able to get under easily (happened to me on my first OW training dive). The amount of lead a person needs is a very personal thing. Personally with my 6.5mm chicken suit I wear 10 pounds fresh, 15 salt. (That's 6.5mm with exposed legs at 50F... people think I'm nuts!) This is a bit heavy for both enviroments, but after my first experiences I learned that at least for me I feel better a little bit negative. You'll just have to give it a bit of trial and error and come up with your own way of doing it.

 

[Ari]

IF you want to save time and cut down on the errors, take your equipment and using a confined water area, work your weights until you can stabilize (become neutral) at 10-15 feet of water, with your tank at around 50 Bar (end of dive pressure) and you BCD empty.

Naturally, you will need to repeat this every time you change your setup.

At the end of the day, it's worth it. You'll be amazed to learn how much weight you can decrease from your belt.

I went from around 18-20# (when I just started) to about 8# today, with the same setup. I just had too much weight on, which made my dives so much more difficult.

Ari

 

[MikeS]

Is there a chart or some sort of information I can find that will tell me how much weight I need to compensate for different levels of protection?

Wearing a 7 mil Farmer John in a warm pool to sort out buoyancy is no fun. Assuming that you are properly weighted without the Farmer John and that you are not going to remove any existing exposure protection, all you need to do is add the amount of weight it takes to sink Farmer John. Put the suit in a mesh bag while making sure there is no air trapped in the suit; add weights to the bag till it sinks. That’s how much weight you need to add. This will not address trim however which can be significantly affected by thick exposure protection.

Mike

 

[ScubaCrossing]

Someone posted this link in another thread, it breaks it all down for you.

http://dive.scubadiving.com/html/200105buoyancycalc_chart.html

 

[foamer86]

the peak performance bouyancy classs was one of the best classes i have ever taken. it helped me figure out how much weight i need it even helped me drop 8 lbs. and become much much more comfortable in the water. there actually is a chart in the padi advanced book that will help you with this weight descisoon

 

[donacheson]

Is there a chart or some sort of information I can find that will tell me how much weight I need to compensate for different levels of protection?

For example, if I go to a pool, and get myself weighted with 500lbs of air and floating at eye-ball level with all my gear except the wetsuit, how will I know how to compensate?

I'm getting my first BC this spring. I'm also taking the advanced course. I plan on familiarizing myself with the BC in a warm pool where protection isn't needed, but will be doing my AOW dives in 61F water where I'll be wearing the John & Jacket 7mm. I don't want to be a dope on the rope about my weight.

The only good thing is I'm getting a bp/w, so that'll be a significant chunk of lead of my belt.

FWIW: My (6' 4'' and 210 pounds) 1/4 inch (6.35mm) wet suit weighs about 9 pounds but displaces about 27 pounds of water if not compressed by depth. Hence, I need about 18 pounds of lead to compensate for it at the surface.

 

[TCooperWFI]

Someone posted this link in another thread, it breaks it all down for you.

http://dive.scubadiving.com/html/200105buoyancycalc_chart.html

Nice link, very useful.

 

[dgallo]

Thank you for this link!

I just wish there were hard and fast formulas I could do. More manufacturers should give weight and buoyancy characteristics for their products. It would certainly help me out!

- David

Someone posted this link in another thread, it breaks it all down for you.

http://dive.scubadiving.com/html/200105buoyancycalc_chart.html

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

Is there a chart or some sort of information I can find that will tell me how much weight I need to compensate for different levels of protection?

Read this post. It has the info from PADI's Peak Performance Buoyancy course and offers a good starting point for figuring out weighting. It helped me out and allowed me to drop a few pounds from when I first started.

Marc