My Weight Belt Diet

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watchmanjc

Contributor
Messages
140
Reaction score
23
Location
Camarillo, Calif.
# of dives
100 - 199
When I started diving in 04, I did my check out dives and a couple more with a 7mm farmer john & jacket, Scubapro Stab Jacket and Standard AL80. That’s 14mm of rubber on my core. I floated like a cork. My instructor couldn’t believe how much weight it was taking to keep me down. I ended the day with 36 lbs on my belt! YIKES…!

After receiving a one peace 7mm O’Neal suit as a gift, I made a trip to Catalina to dive the Park in Dec 05. With 35 lbs. on my belt my trim was horrible. I finned through the water like an airliner on approach to land, very tiring.

With help from one of my dive buddies, I moved 6 lbs in trim pockets up on my tank (now a NB-AL 80) for my next dive trip to Santa Cruz Island in Feb. 06. My trim was much, much better now with only 22 lbs on the weight the belt. I made several dives in this set-up.

Through much reading here on ScubaBoard, I began to see the advantages of a steel tank and steel BP/W set-up. A week or so ago I used an Eclypse 40, Steel 119 (no trim pockets) for the first time and dropped the weight on my belt to 16 lbs ! WOW !!! YAHOOOOO!!!!! :D I already posted about this, but man what a difference.

I now figure that I can maybe take off another 4 lbs from the belt. That would put me at 12 lbs. With only 28 dives logged, I am much happier about my buoyancy control and trim in the water.

In reflection, I wonder why some of the weight and trim issues weren’t covered in better detail in my OW classes. At the very least tank trim weights ought to be a standard training configuration.

Anyway, my thanks to all the posters here on ScubaBoard!
 
Congratulations!

I agree with you that some discussion of weight distribution ought to be in OW classes, but then again, so many divers come out of OW fairly massively overweighted that there may not be a lot of point in spending time to optimize the distribution of an absurdly excessive amount of weight.

The important thing is that the information is out there, and you found it, and have put yourself together a good set of gear that's more comfortable and more functional for you, just in time for a gorgeous summer of diving!
 
I wonder why some of the weight and trim issues weren’t covered in better detail in my OW classes.

I think the emphasis of OW is on staying alive. You can then go on and do Peak Bouyancy as part of the AOW course or as a stand alone course, if you so desire.

Also the majority of OW students do so in rental gear, so even if more time was spent adjusting bouyancy, it would all go out the window as soon as you get your own gear anyway.
 
TSandM, how much additional weight do you add when you dive wet with a backplate? I find the setup interesting, but I worry that I would end up needing no additional weight (currently using 10lb with 3mm and rental BCD) and would end up with no ditchable weight.
 
With a 3 mil suit and a SS backplate, I add two pounds to the cambands. I'm not worried about not having ditchable weight when diving a single Al80. I can swim it to the surface when it's full, and take my gear off if I'm having any buoyancy problems.

With a 5 mil suit and 2 mil hooded vest and a Kydex plate, as I recall, I was using 10 lbs. At that point, I put about half on my back and wear a weight belt.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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