How Buoyant is Neoprene?

[EgyptinMagicin21]

I was wondering if there is some sort of equation or rule of thumb for how buoyant neoprene is per pound?

I know that there are different kinds of neoprene and different thicknesses, but just a rough factor on how many pounds of weight needed to offset the buoyancy of the wetsuit would be great.

Thanks!

 

[drbill]

As you mentioned, there are different types of neoprene, with differing buoyancy characteristics, so this is not an easy question to answer. With some of my wetsuits, I can actually feel the difference. You might try doing a buoyancy test with and without the wetsuit in a controlled environment (like a warm pool) to find out.

 

[Gombessa]

I don't know per-pound, but IIRC a two-piece 7mm is about 20-24lb buoyant.

 

[miketsp]

I was wondering if there is some sort of equation or rule of thumb for how buoyant neoprene is per pound?

I know that there are different kinds of neoprene and different thicknesses, but just a rough factor on how many pounds of weight needed to offset the buoyancy of the wetsuit would be great.

Thanks!

Try this:
There are various formulas (formulae?) on the Internet to calculate body area.
In my case my body area is very close to 2m2 at 1.96 sq m.
So every mm of neoprene will displace 2kg of water (roughly) ie 2kg of buoyancy.

Then I can just weigh the suit and subtract this weight from the calculated buoyancy.

The result is the net buoyancy of the suit.

 

[drbill]

Or you could attach a weight belt and keep adding weights until it is neutrally buoyant... or...

 

[spectrum]

Yes there are some standard buoyancy ranges and they are buried somewhere here in the archives.