Coldwater Diving Weight Suggestions

[Dont_Hold_Your_Breath]

I’m looking for advice on managing weights for cold-water diving. I’ll be spending 8–10 hours a day in 50°F freshwater, mostly snorkeling with some limited diving. Because I’ll be in the water for such long stretches, I need to wear multiple thick undergarments to stay warm. The problem is that this makes me extremely buoyant.

The challenge is that access to these sites requires bushwhacking a few miles, so I have to keep my load as light as possible. I can carry a weight belt with a limited amount of lead, but realistically I’d need 60+ lbs to get properly weighted, and that’s not feasible to hike in with the rest of my gear. Making multiple trips isn’t an option.

Once I’m at the site, there are plenty of round river rocks I could use as makeshift weights, but I don’t have a good way to actually wear them in the water. I’ve been considering something like a heavy-duty backpack with good padding and a quick-release system that would let me load it with rocks on-site and use it for ballast.


Has anyone tackled a similar situation or found a practical solution for carrying and using natural weights like this?

 

[johndiver999]

It sounds crazy to try to carry 60 lbs of negative buoyancy in rocks on your body. Also 50 degrees is not that cold for super shallow water - so I doubt you will need that many layers of suit. You would be better served to bring a stove and a metal pot and heat water and pour it into suit ever so often rather than trying to wear a ridiculous amount of neoprene that will drastically reduce your mobility and comfort.

 

[Thunder Struck]

The DUI harness is good for adding a fair bit of weight to an existing integrated weight system. A few cam band pouches could hold a few more. Using rocks for weights is nothing new.

But 60+ lbs? Have you properly tested this weighting in open water? Even with doubled up ski suits for undergarments that seems like an incredible amount of weight.

With the undergarments I use in temperate salt waters with undergarments that I'm comfortable at 55 deg in, I'm around 26 lbs in a trilam, AL backplate (3-4 lbs neg) and a steel 100. Even with a neutral BCD and AL tank that'd be 34 on the high end.

Next is the amount of time in the water. 8-10 hours is an awful lot of time, particularly if this is salt and the dehydration factor that brings. A hard look at how much actual time you should be in the water with appropriate surface intervals, even from the snorkleing is in order. Even with two ski suits under that dry suit, there's only so much you can do for your head and hands.

Now with 8-10 hours in water and you managed to arrange surface time to warm back up, by the time all is said and done will you have enough daylight and energy to get back? Hiking in the dark over poor trails with bulky and heavy equipment creating a high center of gravity is on my general list of thigs to avoid. Your core temperature will have taken a big hit with the time in the water then you are out in the dark? All the makings for hypothermia.

Then there's the logistics of getting to the site: having to haul all this gear to a site that you have to "bushwhack" for a few miles? Bushwhacking to me is that you are climbing over around or cutting through obstacles, a few miles with heavy gear would leave one exhausted and then you've got 8-10 hours to spend in the water before trekking back? Even if you weight with stones you'll still be carrying cylinders for this distance and those are cumbersome and heavy, plus the rest of your gear, drysuit, undergarments, and whatever else you are going to need to sustain for 8-10 hours in what sounds like an isolated area. So plenty of water for all the exertion to get there and back, as well as water to have to drink on site, then there's food items/snacks that hopefully extends beyond peanut butter, flour tortillas and cocoa mix.

Even if it's just a simple hike down a maintained trail, a cylinder on a backplate would be doable, if not comfortable. But now add in some way of carrying all that other dive and support gear? Rolled up drysuits and undergarments are bulky. Let alone everything else. If you aren't willing to do it in multiple trips this is the time to reconsider hiring a boat. If you are committed to taking the Dodge patas approach, a mule. Mules would allow you to bring in multiple days worth of supplies at one and establish a camp to work from. Spread out the need for being in the water over multiple days, camping on site to save time and energy traveling to and fro.

Something else to consider from the standpoint of if you get hurt. Let's say twist and ankle getting into the water or just as you are about to head back. Think as far back in as you would be. What is your exit strategy? What's your contingency plan for having to stay overnight at the location waiting for help when you fail to return on time according to your flight plan?

 

[rjack321]

1) There is no way you need 60lbs
2) "Natural weights" won't work - their density is way lower than lead so the volume needed become insane
3) Bring 35lbs and a heated vest

 

[Dont_Hold_Your_Breath]

Appreciate the advice! I have done this before and am extremely experienced in the outdoors so I apprecaite the concern/prep but I have that part covered, just not my bouyancy. Last year I used a backpack and it worked alright except the amount of stones/weight was incredible and without a pad it was digging into my back. I don’t have an actual number on weight, just a rough estimate based on what I can normally lift and how heavy it felt and that was diving would a tank (snuba).


It’s all shallow freshwater near land in rivers and streams (southern Canada) so not a big deal to get out mid day to warm up and get a quick snack. Last year there were times when I was very cold mid day and I’d get out and warm up for 10 minutes and then get back in. Not shortage of energy I can promise you that and have no problem bushwacking out in the dark and have the correct emergency gear. By bushwacking I mean walking through the woods, no trails. For the longer hikes I’ll probably just snorkel, shorter hikes I will bring a tank. Unfortunately no options other than getting to sites by foot.

Considering heated vests, will have to take a look at my options but might make my own. Should also add that I'm in a drysuit, not a wetsuit.

 

[rhwestfall]

steel tank(s)
no floaty bc (BP/W) - maybe transpac harness for the walk
weight harness (DUI)
- and a lot less than 60#

 

[ChrisMBC]

For your use-case, a 2-piece 7mm open-cell wetsuit would honestly be a better fit. Drysuits suck for extended surface use (in my experience) as it's quite hard to get consistent loft of undergarments in the places you need it. Sure, they are warm-ish, but (as you've discovered) you have to wear an absurd amount of undergarment in order to make your whole body (especially feet) warm.

I do both scuba (exclusively drysuit) and freediving/snorkeling (exclusively open-cell wetsuit) in water with a surface temp ranging around 44-50F for most of the year. I can easily do a 4+ hour freediving session in my 7mm open-cell suit, with about 18lbs of lead on a weight belt. I'm much warmer after those sessions, even in the depths of winter when the air is freezing or below, than I am after a typical 90 minute dive.

 

[Tom_Ivan]

Can you tell us what your up to?

Gold hunting?
looking for caves?

 

[Thunder Struck]

Get out and actually run the planned exposure suit configuration beforehand to get an idea what your weighting will be. I just can't image someone truly needing 60 lbs.

 

[inquis]

Lead is far more "efficient" compared to rocks. At an average density of 1.5 g/cm^3, 60 lbs of river rocks is equivalent to 8 lbs of lead for buoyancy purposes.