More weight needed?

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ShakaZulu:
Agreed, but the steel tank is always negative, where the AL tanks starts out negative and change positive at the end of the dive.

Doesn't matter ... Charlie99 is correct. He was responding to your previous statement ...

ShakaZulu:
With AL80 you will be slightly over weighed at the start of the dive, since the tank becomes 4-5 pound positive at the end of the dive (otherwise you'll not be able to do the safety stop).

And he's correct that regardless of what kind of cylinder you're using you will be slightly overweighted at the start of the dive ... because you have to factor in the air you will be removing from your cylinder as you dive.

80 CF of air weighs the same, regardless of what type of cylinder it is stored in ... it is the weight of that air that you're compensating for.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
To descend there are Four keys:
1. Exhale
2. Dump air from BC, all of it
3. Stop kicking with your feet and legs. Be perfectly still. Movement is lift, lift is not the direction you want to go in. You will be amazed, if you look, at how many divers are trying to go down and subconsciously moving their legs and subsequently fins and swimming up. I know I saw my dive partner doing this and I thought how funny, then I looked at myself. Yep, I too was doing it.
4. Relax. You should sink slowly. If you drop like a lead weight, you may consider diving with less weight.
 
H2Andy:
second, make sure ALL your air is out of your BC. you will be surprised what a difference a little air can make. HOld that purge button above your head and squeeze and keep squeezing.
I've used rental BCs where you had to do kind of a hula dance to get all the air out. Or maybe it was the hokey-pokey ..... put your left shoulder up, put your left shoulder down, shake it all around ......
 
Thanks for all your tips, guys. I talked to my buddy tonight and he sheepishly agreed that I really should have had more weight on. I have 8 dives, but my buddy has a lot more (50+). He was just trying to wean me off too much weight, probably a bit too soon. The rental suits are fairly new, too, making them more buoyant than well-used suits. On a side note, I heard my new 7mm full suit has finally arrived, so I'll have it for my next dive :)

I didn't have any problems with the safety stop on the first dive, but there is a current on most of our dives, and so-so viz, so that's why we use the mooring lines to descend/ascend.

I was finning to get down when I was going in headfirst on the drift dive; if I go in feetfirst I don't fin at all, in fact I usually end up horizontal after the first 15 feet or so. I guess I was a bit stressed on that drift dive (it was my first real drift dive), since I was having problems getting down, and I just wanted to get under and go. Oh, and my mask leaks, too. I wasn't having a great day at that point.

I'm actually feeling like I'm STARTING to get the hang of a lot of this, which makes it more fun. Now if I can get my weighting correct, it will all fit into place. I've found a lot of useful advice/tips on this board for all aspects of diving, which has helped me a lot.

Thanks again.
 

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