How much extra weight for 3 mil?

[soamelt]

I just purchased my first wet suit, I dive warm waters in a rash gaurd and shorts. Is there a rough guide for how much additional weight to add to my BC for 3 mil wet suit? Thanks.

Greg

 

[Brewone0to]

Take just the wetsuit alone and see how much weight is needed to submerge it.
This will give you a very accurate answer to anything you have this issue with.
Note that it will be different for fresh VS salt water.
Hope this helps out.

 

[divinginn]

4lbs more should get you close.

 

[Muggsy]

I just purchased my first wet suit, I dive warm waters in a rash gaurd and shorts. Is there a rough guide for how much additional weight to add to my BC for 3 mil wet suit? Thanks.

Greg

calculation is to use 5% of your body mass for total weight. For example if you weigh 200lbs you should start with 10 lbs. This would be if you have a jacket BC and an aluminum 80. It's a good guidline to start with.

 

[String]

It'll depend on tank type. With a nice steel 12 i can dive with no weight at all on a 3mm in salt.

If im unlucky and someone makes me use an aluminium (rare) about 2kg maximum. The above calculation would see me massively overweighted.

 

[redacted]

Size is probably the biggest variable but mfgr (type neoprene) will also have some effect. My wife's small 3mm full suit requires an extra 5 lbs. My XXL 3mm fullsuit requires 8 lbs extra.

 

[soamelt]

calculation is to use 5% of your body mass for total weight. For example if you weigh 200lbs you should start with 10 lbs. This would be if you have a jacket BC and an aluminum 80. It's a good guidline to start with.

You mean 5% for total weight right? Not adding 5% for going from not using a wet suit to using one? Which I guess makes sense since the shop where I took my classes at sold me weights for 10% saying that's what I needed, but quickly learned on my first few dives that I was about 50% over weighted.

 

[Charlie99]

You mean 5% for total weight right? Not adding 5% for going from not using a wet suit to using one?

Some posters didn't notice that you were asking only for the change in weighting needed to account for the 3mm suit. divinginn and awap are the answers you should look at. I need about 4 pounds for a 3/2mm full wetsuit, XL size (3mm on the core, 2mm on the limbs). I also need about 4 pounds for a 3mm shorty. So my guess would be around 5 pounds for an XL size 3mm.

A brand new wetsuit will require a bit more weight until you have crushed it at depth a few times, and it is much more awkward to be light a couple pounds than to be overweighted a couple pounds, so I'd add a pound or two to my best guess and start off with 6 or 7 pounds for the first dive and do a weight check at the end.

Charlie Allen

p.s. the recommendation by Brewone0togo of seeing how much weight it takes to submerge the wetsuit is also a good suggestion. It doesn't matter whether you do that test in salt or freshwater, since that will change the result by less than 3%, and 3% of the expected result of around 5 pounds is just a couple of ounces.

 

[ZzzKing]

I would start at 4-5 lbs.

 

[soamelt]

Thanks for all the suggestions, 4 lbs sounds like the place to start.