How much weight?

[crocogator106]

I am new to diving and had a question about how much weight to use. I did my checkout dives at Vortex Spring, FL. I used a full 7mm suit and used 15 lbs. That seemed to work OK but it was fresh water and my next dive will be salt water. I know that there is a difference in the bouancy of the two. I was told that a good base starting weight is 10% of your total body weight. I just dont want to get caught out on a boat and not have enough weight. I weight about 185lbs. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[scubajcf]

I am new to diving and had a question about how much weight to use. I did my checkout dives at Vortex Spring, FL. I used a full 7mm suit and used 15 lbs. That seemed to work OK but it was fresh water and my next dive will be salt water. I know that there is a difference in the bouancy of the two. I was told that a good base starting weight is 10% of your total body weight. I just dont want to get caught out on a boat and not have enough weight. I weight about 185lbs. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What size suit will you be wearing in the Salt Water?
Start with 10% and doing a weight check at the beginning and end of a dive may be the best way to dial in your weight needs.

jcf





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[Puffer Fish]

The sort of standard rule would be to add 6 lbs to your freshwater amount.. if you are wearing the same suit,boots, gloves, hood, etc....

After that, if you are wearing something thinner... it is at best, a guess.

Just going from a used suit to a new one can be pounds different.

Thankfully, every boat I have been on has extra weights if one needs them.

 

[Garrobo]

I'm 180# and with a 2mm farmer john lower, no top, no booties, no hood it takes 18# to hold me down at the safety stop. Less than that, I float on up.

 

[jridg]

Every person is different. With a .5mm fullsuit in warm salt water, I dive with 4 lbs. With a 3mm fullsuit in salt water I dive with 8 to 10lbs.

In the pool with a 3mm fullsuit I don't need any weight.

I weigh 180lbs - but it's all about body composition. Some people are more buoyant than others.

I know some people who need 40 lbs to get down with a 7mm farmer john and others use 20, yet others use 30......

Experience tells me that if you use the same wetsuit in the ocean that you did at the springs, you would need to add 4 to 8 lbs to compensate. Your instructor/DM will most likely tell you the same thing.

 

[don Francisco]

The fresh to salt water conversion is easy. Seawater is 5% denser, so the same displacement gains 5% more bouyancy. Compensatre by adding 5% of your total weight, including your rig.

Compensating for different wetsuits is much harder to predict. Obviously thickness is the major factor, but your size and the duro (resistance to compression) of the wetsuit also figure in, making it difficult to predict the needed weighting change.

Make a crapshoot guess then do a surface weight check for a decent starting place. Based on how things go at the end of the dive adjust your weight accordingly. Once you've fine tuned your weight to your satisfaction, write it in your log, or maybe inside the wetsuit itself, so that next time you wear this particular suit, you'll know the correct weighting in advance.

Make

 

[crocogator106]

My saltwater dive will be done wearing a 3mm shorty. All the rest of my equipment will be the same except I have purchased a weight intergrated bcd. It is a Seaquest Balance.

 

[NudeDiver]

Just tell the boat people you need 30 pounds of weight. That will ensure you have however much you need once you get there, get in the water, and do your buoyancy check.