How much weight is to much

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tomcat114

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Hey guys and gals. New to the boards here. I was wondering if adding weight to get down indicative of inexperience or is it just physics. I am 5'9" 260 down from 310 8).
I was having to use 31 to 34 pounds of lead to just become close to being neutral buoyant and that was with out any air in my BCD. I had to fight to get down but after 15 feet then I was ok. I was diving in Fresh water lake using a 7 mil Farmer john setup with hood gloves boots. And after the dive I was really having a difficult time trying to stay at the 15 foot mark for the safety stop. Should I just add allot more weight so I can have a less difficult time?
From what I have been reading that the more experience that people have the less weight they need, but I just don't know if my having more experience can overcome my spectacular ability to float

Or givin my size and the gear I am using does this seem about right for the weight?


Marc the almost unsinkable.
 
That's not all too much weight if you are just starting out. It used to take me 40 in salt with the same setup at 210 lbs when I started.

An extra couple of pounds isn't going to hurt (too many people get hung up on trying to find the exact weight, when even being 3 or 4 pounds heavy beats the heck out of being a pound light) although you'll be a bit more air to your BCD at depth when your suit crushes as you go deeper. Close to ideal would be if you are basically neutral with an empty BCD at 10-15 feet at the end of the dive so you are not fighting to stay down, the fighting just burns your air faster.

If you are just starting out, you WILL find yourself using less weight if you start diving more frequently, but it may take several dives.

Have fun,
 
tomcat114:
Hey guys and gals. New to the boards here. I was wondering if adding weight to get down indicative of inexperience or is it just physics. I am 5'9" 260 down from 310 8).
I was having to use 31 to 34 pounds of lead to just become close to being neutral buoyant and that was with out any air in my BCD. I had to fight to get down but after 15 feet then I was ok. I was diving in Fresh water lake using a 7 mil Farmer john setup with hood gloves boots. And after the dive I was really having a difficult time trying to stay at the 15 foot mark for the safety stop. Should I just add allot more weight so I can have a less difficult time?
From what I have been reading that the more experience that people have the less weight they need, but I just don't know if my having more experience can overcome my spectacular ability to float

Or givin my size and the gear I am using does this seem about right for the weight?


Marc the almost unsinkable.
Welcome, unsinkable! Physics says that depending on gear and body composition one may need more or less weight. I find 34 lbs for a wetsuit in freshwater a bit high, but I have known (big) experienced people needing that much. The role of experience is that new divers tend to jiggle their legs more than needed, to not know how to control their lungs in the shallows, and to expect quick sinking at the onset of the dive. New divers also tend to use more air, hence become more buoyant at the end of the dive. After my first year of diving, I was able to shed about 8 lbs!!!
I think it is definitely safer to be a bit overweighed than underweighed, and I'd say keep using that much weight until you yourself feel it is too much, then drop a couple of lbs at a time. If you find the bulk of your weightbelt just too cumbersome, you can of course use steel instead of aluminium tanks, as well as a backplate.
 
For diving (in salt water) it is "recommended" to use 10% plus 4-6lbs of weight. So for you, it would be around 30-32lbs. Sounds like you are correctly weighted, according to recommendations. But it also depends on how comfortable you are in the water. My boyfriend was diving with 35lbs during his OW!!! He only weights about 160lbs, but he was getting used to diving/swimming etc. He now dives with ~20-22lbs. and is much more comfortable in the water. I'm sure the more you dive, the more comfortable you'll get :)
 
I guess that I am deferent as I am not close to that. I am 6.1 tall and 275 lbs. A little over wight. I yous 18 lbs in salt water.
 
Skeeter1097:
I guess that I am deferent as I am not close to that. I am 6.1 tall and 275 lbs. A little over wight. I yous 18 lbs in salt water.

Are you doing the 18 pounds in a 7 mil john and jacket? If so you're really good on controlling your breathing. Original poster had full 7 mil farmer john setup... if including 7 mil jacket then that's the equivalent of wearing nearly five 3/2 full suits as far as buoyancy goes. It's gonna need more weight that the typical tropical diver uses.
 
tomcat114,

What you describe is entirely within the realm of possibility especially with an Aluminum 80 cylinder. The difficulty in holding your stop indicates that you are under weighted. You may be able to use less someday but you need to be weighted for the here and now. There is a very objective way to set you weights and it is as follows:

Remember to set your weight so that you bob vertically at eye level at the end of your dive with an empty BC, an average breath, your feet still (crossed) and about 500 PSI in your cylinder. A deep breath should get your mask out of the water and a deep exhale should sink your mask. Do all of this while breathing from your regulator. The end of the dive is the defining moment for your weight requirement and you want just enough to let you stay down in the shallows with a light cylinder.

With that number in hand you can decide where to place the weight for comfort and trim. Being a new diver as well as having a new fully buoyant (and warm) wetsuit can initially demand some extra weight, don't fight it. How you control lung volume, your trim and other inadvertent motions can all be contributors but you need to be configured to stay down safely for now. In time you can keep a 2 pounder on a clip or in a pocket and hand it off during safety stops with a near empty cylinder. When you find you are OK without those 2 pounds you can try leaving them behind on the next dive.

Pete
 
Skeeter1097:
I guess that I am deferent as I am not close to that. I am 6.1 tall and 275 lbs. A little over wight. I yous 18 lbs in salt water.

I assure you that we are all different.

Body build, body density, lung volume, how we manage our lungs. The cut, quality and age of our exposure protection, what cylinder we use, ancillary gear, inherent buoyancy of other gear such as a buoyancy compensator and how we move in the water are the short list of why what we individually wear for weight is pretty much irrelevant to another diver.

Pete
 
friscuba said it. Just a couple more pounds should be right, given that you are able to sink and make it to the point of a safety stop at the end. Maybe try +2 - +4.

It's reasonably likely that you'll be able to drop a few lb over time, given that's your weight in fresh water, but get yourself so that you can comfortably hold that safety stop first, do a handful of dives with that known working configuration, before trying to reduce.

I did my OW combined with drysuit. I literally took 40 lb to sink me in fresh at first, poor form, unconscious sculling, typical new diver things. I switched to 32 lb for my final cert dive (I took more dives than a standard OW set -- combining multiple things and really cold water). Same configuration, after a bunch of dives I use 18 - 20 lb.

Over time, say each 5 - 10 dives after you get your weight to work, try dropping in small increments. A couple of 2 pounders can be handy, with a buddy who is willing to take a hand-off from you. Don't forget that on a given stop, you should make sure that you have "extra" weight -- if I get to clean at 750 psi, I would actually put my correct weight at another 2 lb, to allow for that bit of air in the tank (I like to weight for neutral at 0 psi, so that I can still do a safety stop if I've had to take my tank down near empty).

{Whoops -- Pete beat me to it :) }
 
ScubaGir1:
For diving (in salt water) it is "recommended" to use 10% plus 4-6lbs of weight.

That is a poor recommendation, I'd advise you not to listen to other recommendations from the same source. Different people have different % of body fat and different % of muscle. It is impossible to come up with a mathmatical answer to weighting that fits all people without taking their specific gravity into account.

As for the original question, Spectrum answered it quite well. The only thing I would add is that there is one other possibility to having difficulty holding the safety stop, the BC may be trapping air. There are a surprising number of BCs that trap air, some of which have an excellent reputation.
 

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