Buoyancy of wetsuits

[alan_lee]

Hi everyone, I've finally worked out how much weight I need when I dive in just my rashie and board shorts (am diving in the tropics), so now the next mystery for me is: how do I know how much weight do I add when I'm donning exposure protection equipment, such as wetsuits of different thickness, as well as hood. Is there some kind of resource that is available that has the answer?

Cheers!

 

[markfm]

I wear size L. My Henderson 5 mm core warmer is 4 lb, while my 5 mm full wetsuit is 8 lb buoyant. My 3mm full suit, an Evo, seems about 4 lb also. I

They of course compress at depth, and degrade some over time, but the idea is to target for neutral at the end of the dive, at the safety stop.

For salt vs. fresh water conversion, given that I'm dialed in salt and would be diving the same AL80 in both cases, I have a -6 lb buoyancy adjustment going to fresh (less buoyant), due to the higher density of salt water. That should be fairly close for someone in about the 160 - 200 pound range.