BP/W and Steel Tanks

[cool_hardware52]

Assuming you start a dive adjusted for the air weight, meaning you are neutral when the tank is near empty (500 psi) at 15 ft. That means you are entering the water around 14 - 20 negative at the surface. At say 99 ft, and just picking a wet suit requirement for 20 lbs, you will be around 30 lbs negative... that assumes that the suit just lost 75% of it's buoyancy, but some of the newer materials, when compressed actually go negative (density of the material is heavier than water, and when the gas is compressed, will go from buoyant to sinking..you can see it with a small piece of the material, by the way). So, have a super stretch suit, and you might be 35 lbs negative or more. If you ditch all your weight, you are still 15 lbs negative..which you can swim against, unless you are in an inclosed space

A compressible foam exposure suit cannot loose more buoyancy than it starts with at the surface. It might in fact become negative at some point, but the total change cannot be greater than the total positive buoyancy it had at the surface.

As you compress the material it does not become heavier, it becomes more dense. Whatever the net weight of material was at the surface is unchanged.

Tobin