I wear 42 pounds of lead. Someone will surely respond saying that's way too much.
Hey, Tom, surly, that is way too much!
Not of course if that‘s what you need.
@Froggienp : Welcome!
Disclaimer: I am neither an expert, nor a hero diver, instructor or super experienced diver ... or anything really. Just like to be practical.
You are doing good keeping your buoyancy very much in mind early on.
The craze about not being over weighted is not really a craze... proper weighting does matter, for both efficiency and safety and more so the deeper you might go with compressible neoprene. But the part where a divemaster or instructor sizes you up and proclaims to, educatedly, guesstimate your weighting right just may not always work so well with everyone. People vary more than people think...
Read Up on proper weighting.
This is my take, maybe the experts can correct where I am just seeing it wrong...:
Keep in mind that this is supposed to be done with a tank at 500 PSI or such. If you then are weighted such that at mid breath (or half exhaled) you float, with empty BCD, at mid eye level (vertical in the water, arms in the water), then you can hold a safety stop at 15 feet neutrally buoyant without having to fin down.
Really, as far as I am concerned you should be able to hold 3 feet depth also when at 500 PSI... I see no point in shaving that one pound or so ....
Anyway, But if you do this test with a full tank, like at the beginning of a dive, if it‘s an AL 80, after you found the weighting to float at eye level (BCD empty, half exhaled) , add 6 lbs. You may use 5 lbs of air during the dive and still need to hold a stop... 5 lbs is hard to divide between left and right, ... 6 is just fine. Then, with a full tank and empty BCD, you should sink just fine. If not something is off. Maybe you did not get your BCD empty? Picture where on the BCD the air comes out of the bladder when you dump it. Make sure that point is highest at least when starting to sink so the air can come out.
Now, if you are doing pool practice and depleted your tank to say 700 PSI You‘ll have more trouble sinking, it‘s because your tank is lighter. Exhale a bit more. You should sink. Lift that arm holding the inflator up higher. That weight above water will help to push you down a bit. Use the other arm too? If all else fails with empty BCD, kick up a bit, get yourself out of the water to your breast, and while dropping down make sure you exhaled... the momentum should carry you down to beyond sinking difficulty. Don‘t forget equalizing very soon after your head is below.
Try things, be sure your envision the BCD dump valve you use to be at the highest point when dumping and orient yourself to that vision... and you should not really have trouble sinking. Yes, you can swim down... but remember, if you need to do that, how will you hold buoyancy with a near empty tank at 15 feet for your safety stop at the end of your dive? ... Or how will you hover neutrally at 2 feet in the pool practicing (or look at something in the quarry or just practice buoyancy in the shallows, because it‘s harder...
So if you have to swim down at the beginning of your dive in order to get down, you either still have a good amount of air in your BCD or you are weighted too light. Once you are weighted correctly, there is absolutely no problem with swimming down. No need to pop up to breast level just to gain momentum to get down. You may have reasons so to start your decent in that vertical fashion. Maybe to watch your partner who descents thus... just go with what your instructor says there. ... or anywhere... just offering my take in case it helps...
Try, practice try again, Don‘t weigh yourself way heavy, but also not too light. Don‘t sweat it if you are 2 lbs heavy... Fine tuning your weighting to that level can wait a few more dives. 2 lbs heavy imho is quite good and quite better than 2 lbs light. 6 lbs heavy is too much, 10 is bad, More is very bad...
