nwlinux
Registered
Thank you for your contribution.Some things aren't adding up for me here. I saw some posts on doing a proper weight check, and I would recommend this as well. Just going to add a few points.
27 lbs with a steel 100 sounds really high to me. However, you are also using a much thicker wetsuit than I'm familiar with, so it's possible that's what you need. For the sake of discussion, your lift needs to be sufficient to offset your total ballast. I'm assuming that you are able to at least establish neutral buoyancy at depth. If that's the case, that's a data point indicating that your lift is not undersized. That said, with the amount of weight and the negative properties of the steel, you may be really close. Your exposure suit offsets some of the weight at the surface, but that goes away at depth with a wetsuit. How full is the wing when you first get to the bottom and establish neutral. If it's full, or nearly so, you may need a larger wing for that given weight.
Since you said wing, I'm assuming BP/W or at least rear-inflate. No matter how large the wing is, it will never be able to float someone during a surface swim without using a snorkel or regulator. Assuming we aren't talking about backstroke, the lift is all on the diver's back, so at most the back will be at the surface, but everything else underwater.
You really need to do a weight check at the end of your dive during a safety stop. At this point, your tank is closer to empty, your wetsuit has re-expanded. So in other words, you'll be at your most buoyant at this point. Your wing should be empty, or nearly empty. If it's not, there's some weight that can be shed.
If your dive count in your profile is correct, being overweighted is pretty much expected. A lot of instructors teach with their students overweighted as they feel it's easier that way. Also, it's a normal tendency for a newer diver to hold a bit more air in their lungs. This will get better with time.
Yes, neutral buoyancy at depth is no problem. Once I drop and get down to depth, I give my BC no more than 2-4 quick air shots and I'm good. The rest is breath control and my lungs. Yes, it is a BP/W setup.
To add additional clarity, I was talking about backstroke on the surface. The 32# did not do well getting me out of the water, but my WTX-D40 is sufficient to accomplish out of the water backstroke surface swimming.
At safety stops, my wing is empty or pretty close to it.