Just bought a semi dry looking for advice on weights

[jnocerin]

Hi all-
I hope this is the right place to post this. If not let me know and I can relocate it.

I have been diving for a few years, but mostly travel diving (caribbean, Fiji, GBR) and did my initial training in CT. I moved to Northern California and plan to start diving more and working on some speciality certs. I visited some local shops and there is great diving in Monterey which I plan to start doing regularly. In CT I would use a 5mm wetsuit with a 3mm shorty over it. I had a great conversation with a diver shop owner and ended up buying a Henderson Thermoprene Hooded semi-dry suit 7/8mm. It was great as I was even able to try it in their dive pool, yet the one thing I noticed is that I was fully floating with just the suit on, I can’t say that ever happened with my wetsuits, but honestly I never went in the water with just suits on. So here is my question , previously dove with 35lbs/16kg in the integrated pockets (fully packed) and assume I will need more weight now. Can anyone give me an idea of how much additional weight I may need? And how I should lid it? My BC has weight pockets on the tank strap. I honestly hate the idea of wearing a weight belt if possible. One diver friend said maybe ankle weights.
Obviously I know the amount of weight will be an estimate, I plan to try out weighting in my pool, but need an idea of what to have on hand.
Thanks again, and also open to any tips or pointers on diving NorCal as well, and open to new dive buddies.

 

[Vitesse2l]

Take your old suits and find how much weight it takes to sink them. Do the same with your new suit - the difference will guide you what extra you might need.

I'm slightly unsure why you find the new suit floaty and your old ones not, unless the old was really old!

16kg seems to be plenty of lead? Perhaps with the new suit you can go back to basics, do a weight check in the pool and dial it in somewhat. Personally I don't need any weights at all if I just wear swim shorts and a tee in the pool, so in the sea I'm only offsetting my suit, around 8kg weight belt or 10 with a shorty as well, plus a bit to allow for salt water. Every one is different though!

 

[Marivan377]

I was diving 18lbs in my 7mm before I switched to my Hollis semi-dry. After the switch I didn’t need any more weight to sink me. Now I also switched to a backplate so I only use 14lbs now so I guess in actuality I added a pound. The plate is 5

 

[jnocerin]

Thanks everyone , so a few corrections , I actually got the Aqualunf solXFX 7-8mm. That what I get for posting too late at night. I was between the two and realized this morning I posted the wrong suit. Also realized there’s a bird for exposure suits, so I’m going to repost there. Thanks for the advice I plan to do a bouyancy check in the pool this weekend.

 

[gert7to3]

Suit material varies. Cheaper older suits seemed to be more floaty. The only direct experience I had was my old Aqualung 7mm AquaFlex and my Scubapro Everflex 7mm/5mm. I required nearly 10 pounds more with the Aqualung suit.

 

[WI Scuba Dave]

Take your old suits and find how much weight it takes to sink them. Do the same with your new suit - the difference will guide you what extra you might need.

I'm slightly unsure why you find the new suit floaty and your old ones not, unless the old was really old!

16kg seems to be plenty of lead? Perhaps with the new suit you can go back to basics, do a weight check in the pool and dial it in somewhat. Personally I don't need any weights at all if I just wear swim shorts and a tee in the pool, so in the sea I'm only offsetting my suit, around 8kg weight belt or 10 with a shorty as well, plus a bit to allow for salt water. Every one is different though!

Hi all-
I hope this is the right place to post this. If not let me know and I can relocate it.

I have been diving for a few years, but mostly travel diving (caribbean, Fiji, GBR) and did my initial training in CT. I moved to Northern California and plan to start diving more and working on some speciality certs. I visited some local shops and there is great diving in Monterey which I plan to start doing regularly. In CT I would use a 5mm wetsuit with a 3mm shorty over it. I had a great conversation with a diver shop owner and ended up buying a Henderson Thermoprene Hooded semi-dry suit 7/8mm. It was great as I was even able to try it in their dive pool, yet the one thing I noticed is that I was fully floating with just the suit on, I can’t say that ever happened with my wetsuits, but honestly I never went in the water with just suits on. So here is my question , previously dove with 35lbs/16kg in the integrated pockets (fully packed) and assume I will need more weight now. Can anyone give me an idea of how much additional weight I may need? And how I should lid it? My BC has weight pockets on the tank strap. I honestly hate the idea of wearing a weight belt if possible. One diver friend said maybe ankle weights.
Obviously I know the amount of weight will be an estimate, I plan to try out weighting in my pool, but need an idea of what to have on hand.
Thanks again, and also open to any tips or pointers on diving NorCal as well, and open to new dive buddies.

my old Aqualung farmer john 7 mm wet suit required 32 pounds of weight when I wore the hood, gloves and boots. My BC was only rated for 16 pounds so I put the other 16 on a weight belt, which wasn’t too bad.

 

[greeniguana]

I always wear weights on a belt when wearing my 7mm suit.

 

[Superlyte27]

I’d buy a set of doubles before I added something as useless as weight.

 

[lowviz]

35# of lead on a belt? Superlyle27's post (IMHO) means that you may want to explore a different tank size/material/config. It all comes down to trading off lead on your waist for more gas on your back.

Research 'balanced rigs' on this site. (use google search from the outside, the internal search sucks)

So, in short, you can turn that lead into more gas and still have a belt with around 8 pounds on it so you can ditch it if you splash with a full tank that is closed off or otherwise nonfunctional. Drop the 8# and head up.

Drop a 35# belt and you will leave the bottom like a Polaris missile.

 

[TuckerIdaho]

I have the Henderson Thermoprene Pro 8/7 semi and running 20lbs of lead with an alu 80 and stainless BP.