How do YOU weight yourself?

[CuriousRambler]

After talking to a few divers I know and reading around SB a bit, I'm curious to know how you all weight yourself for dives. Just like any other part of your kit, it seems to be something that requires a certain amount of personal preference, but also has an arguable "right" and "wrong".

The two biggest ways of weighting yourself I hear are to be neutral at the beginning of the dive, or neutral at the end. So how do you dial your weight in, and at what point of the dive do you prefer to be sinking like a rock or corking to the surface?

 

[dive_lover88]

For me,i took about 9-10 dives to control my breathing and boyancy,i used 6 weights at 1st then shaved off to 4. I'm using an integrated weight BC.Now on dives which i use lycra,i use 2 weights to stablize myself,coz i know i will list to one side if i only used 1 weight as i have a SpareAir on the right hand side of my BC. With my wetsuit,i use the same amount of weights.It took time and advices for it to be able for me to cut down my number of weights.
D

 

[Zeeman]

I like to have minimal weight. Which means basically at the end of a dive, I am neutrally bouyant with a quick press of the inflator if the bladder is fully empty of air.

Z...

 

[Kwbyron]

I'm trying to dial in my wieght, I did a float test at the end of my dive this week...seemed to have it about as good as it'll get... so my vote is neutral at the end of dive, I'd think that'd be safer, risky to float up when you need to do the safty stop..

 

[Sting J]

Sounds like you learned the hold a normal breath and float at eye level with no air in your BC technique. If you do it at the beginning of a dive you will be pretty close, and will get through the dive alright but if you do it with a near empty bottle you will be closer. Aluminum 80 tanks change buoyancy by roughly 4 lbs at the end of a dive due to gas used. You can also find neutral with a full tank then add 4 pounds. That is assuming you are using an aluminum tank every kind of tank is a little different.
The big concern about being buoyant at the end of a dive is that you will not be able to ascend in a slow controlled manner. Also, if in the extreme case you had to make a decompression stop you want to not float uncontrollably past that stop. In that case it could mean your life. Another scenario is you are surfacing and notice boat traffic overhead. If you can not control your buoyancy there may be a boat prop or a jet ski with your name on it. Buoyancy is a skill that takes practice, and anytime you change gear, body weight; etc. it changes. But in the interest of reef preservation and personal safety it is a noble pursuit. I am glad to see you guys are after that goal.
Cheetah you might consider a Peak Performance Buoyancy class or other further training i.e. Advanced Course. Either one will allow you to try things out and have an instructor handy for advice even if it is a question about something covered in other courses than the one you are taking . Plus advanced classes are just plain fun. They usually consist of more dives than book work. They will give you lots of experience in different kinds of diving too. Advanced classes are my favorite ones to teach. Diver skills and confidence really blossom in a short time in those classes. It is fun to watch and participate in.
Happy diving!

corrections 5/28/06:
add 5 lbs when using aluminum 80 not 4;
it is safer to be a little over weighted than under weighted, and one can adjust for the overweighting with the use of their BC with the trade off of higher air consumption;
see Markfm's posting, my second posting on the subject, PADI's Adventures in Diving, PADI's The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving, and the appropriate text from all training agencies for a more in depth discussion on propper weighting.

 

[PerroneFord]

Seems to me someone who is neutral at the BEGINNING of a dive would be awfully light at the end of a dive.

 

[Sharkbaithawaii]

Seems to me someone who is neutral at the BEGINNING of a dive would be awfully light at the end of a dive.

I thought the same thing too

 

[spectrum]

I'd like to meet the diver who manages to dive by being neutral at the start of the dive. That diver is either an anchor line ornament or an accident waiting to happen.

The reason for carrying weight is of course to offset excess buoyancy and your buoyancy will be the greatest at the end of the dive when you have consumed 5 or more pounds of air.

The next pivotal fact of diving is that a controlled ascent is crucial to your well being. Being able to make a slow ascent, a safety stop and then creep to the surface are all dsirable abilities. On a shore dive the same is true except that you may be following the bottom and may find your self diving in a delightful tidal pool in 4 feet of water. An anchor line can have nothing to do with the equation since you won't always have one or may not find it in time to come up. If you are making an ascent and hear something like a boat coming you do not want to be hoplessly destined to bob to the surface.

That being said I use the method of bobbing plumb in the water with about 500 PSI left in my cylinder. Keep your feet still, cross your fins if you have to. An average breath has me at eyeball lever to the surface, a good exhale sinks my mask, a deep inhale brings my chin to the surface. Eventually you can fine tune this based on your ability to stay where you want to say depth wise at the end of your dive.

The beginning of the dive has nothing to do with all of this. By definition you will be negative in the beginning and that is why you have a Buoyancy Compensator.

When weighted to this balance point just a few feet of depth compress my wetsuit enough to barely stay down. At the start of the dive I easilly slip below the surface.

It's best to do the test at the end of the dive since some gear will trap air and make you seem escessively buoyant at the start of the dive. As a starting point if the check is made at the start of a dive add 5-6 pounds to account for the air mass you will deplete.

Pete

 

[grazie42]

I get in the water in whatever config I´m "dialling in", with almost empty tanks and a guessimate of the weight I need. Then I go down to safety stop depth and start dropping weights until I feel "uncomfortably floaty". At that point I add the last weight back and then I´m done...

Don´t see the point of complicating things with "rules of thumbs", math or any of the other stuff...ymmv

 

[markfm]

As always, don't trust anything you read, but:
http://markfm.dynalias.org/Weighting.pdf