Buoyancy in salt water vs fresh

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GlowWorm

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Location
Charleston, SC
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The only diving I've done has been in fresh water and I think I had a good amount of weight. (I'm still trying to perfect my buoyancy). Anyway, the buoyancy is different in salt water right? So how do I know how much weight I will need? I don't want to get in the ocean and have too much or not have enough. Or is there not much difference and the amount of weight I use in fresh water be enough for the salt?
 
Take your entire dry land weight (you plus tanks plus BC plus regs etc) and multiply by .025. For most people diving a single tank that will work out to about 5 or 6 lbs.
 
If your equipment is all the same, multiply your total weight with everything on and empty tanks by 0.025. That will give you the amount of additional weight required.

Edit: J beat me to it.
 
One caveat. It is rare to dive the exact same wetsuit in the ocean. If you are changing wetsuits, your current weighting is irrelevant, and you need to start over from scratch.
 
I will have a thicker wetsuit. I don't own one yet so I'll be renting
 
Thicker wetsuit and different BC means your previous weight is 100% irrelevant. You'll need to get in the water and do a buoyancy check.
 
Are you diving on a charter? The DM will be able to help you with your weight setup. Rule of thumb for wetsuit is 2lbs per mm, but wetsuits vary in buoyancy from manufacturer to manufacturer. If you were using a 3mm in training, and go to a 5mil on your ocean dive, you could try 4lbs extra for the suit, and 5-6 lbs extra for salt water. BCs can vary from neutral, to 2lbs positive, to even 4lbs positive. This will be a bit of an unkown if you don't know what the buoyancy of your last BC was, and the one you will be renting. Generally, as you are still feeling yourself out, getting your buoyancy down, you will be a little heavy on your first few dives. You just don't want to be too heavy.

Without the ability to do a predive buoyancy check, I would rely on the advice of the DM (assuming you are going on a charter with a DM). Depending on the type of dive, the DM might be able to help you get dialed in, in the water.
 
I just did my first saltwater dive last week. I asked my LDS to ballpark my weighting based upon what I did for fresh water and their recommendation was perfect. In short, just ask.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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