how do you dive a 7.5 mm full suit

[Mosseltje]

I had a 7mm full wetsuits with a secondary 7mm body.
I needed 18kg to descend.

The first time I went deeper then 90ft I noticed my BCD was too small.

Now I have a drysuit for the winter dives.

 

[Rred]

Jay, I used to dive full 1/4" farmer john and hood. And with an Alu80 tank it took me about 30# of lead to get neutral with the emptier tank.

That's not unusual.

Wetsuits do compress differently depending on make and age (older is usually crushed more) but that's physics. Yes, cold water diving will require more wetsuit and more weight. The only "progress" I could make was going to a steel tank, which doesn't have as much buoyancy as an aluminum one, so you can loose some weight, or at least, transfer it from your belt to your tank.

 

[ystrout]

I dive my 7mm wetsuit regularly in San Diego's cold water. I use 24 pounds.

It feels like just enough at the surface about to descend and when I'm at 15-20 feet doing a safety stop with an empty tank. I completely drain the BCD to descend and have tiny amount of air in the BCD for the safety stop.

But at 60-70 feet, I feel super overweighted like I could easily drop 2-4 pounds.