Manta Ray Night Dive-Weighting?

[Rock2r]

Did the Manta dive with BID this past September. While I have no regrets, in so much that I am returning in January and will most likely do it again, Sitting on the bottom with two very large boulders on my lap took some of the enjoyment from the experience.

I loaded up with 22lbs and it didn't even come close to keeping me still at the "campfire". I normally load 18 lbs and I'm fine. Would have been nice if the weighting situation had been discussed at the pre dive briefing so that I, and 3 others who gathered rocks, could have loaded AMPLE weight.

For those that have done the Manta dive multiple times, how much additional weight are you packing to keep your butts in one spot? Pre-dive, I did not realize the current those bad boys are capable of generating.

 

[ryssyr]

I added an extra 4 but it still seemed like I was getting pushed around a bit. If I get to have that experience again I'd throw on at least 5-6lbs.-- not too much to be so overweight so that I couldnt swim up my rig, but enough to keep me in one spot.

 

[DiveMaven]

We've never done the Manta night dive, but have done a couple of shark dives that are basically the same concept of "kneeling at the bottom to watch the show." The first one we did I only had 6 extra pounds and had to grip a rock with my knees to keep from being moved around. The second one I did, I put an extra 8 pounds in my pockets, which wasn't so much that I couldn't swim up, but enough to glue me to the bottom.

 

[CLEAR BLUE]

I didn't have any extra weight but was using alot of energy trying to stay still. I held onto a rock most of the time (and needed to watch out for urchins) and at the end of the dive had cramps in my legs from them being so tense because I used them continuously to steady myself. Next time I would take at least 5 extra pounds.