"New" neoprene, weight question(s)

[nolatom]

I'm playing hooky this afternoon to drive over to Gulf Shores for a shallow 2-tank boat dive on a nice day. Woo hoo!
Am bringing two pieces of neoprene I haven't worn before and want to experiment to see if they're comfortable and fit well-- or not:

New bought-from LeisurePro on-line hood, 5 mil, with the flare that tucks under my usual 3mil full suit.

Old yard-sale Hobie shortie, 3-2. I'll try this over my existing suit as a possible cold-water outfit .

With just the 3 mil full and AL80, I'm comfortable with around 10 lbs.

I'm thinking the shortie would add 3 pounds (?), maybe 4 since it may trap some air initially? And say 2 pounds for the hood?

PS: I managed to misplace my old Harvey's 3mm hoodie vest, is why I'm trying this mix-and-match stuff. I miss Harvey...

I'll splash in in about 5 hours, sorry for the short notice but thanks.


Tom

 

[mbwilliamn]

Old shorty maybe a 1. The new vest probably 2lb. Remember at the start you are heavy due to the air anyway and by the end of the dive it will be saturated, so you should be OK. Other question is how you normally weight? Are you "perfect" at 500psi at the end of the dive, or still a little heavy? If you are "perfect" I'd probably start with 4 or 5 total and tune it down after the first dive.

 

[Esprise Me]

I dive with a 7mm skirted hood, which seems to add less than 1 lb. of positive buoyancy--much less than a hooded vest.

 

[nolatom]

Thanks for the advice. All went well, I wore 14 pounds instead of the usual 10-12, and it felt right.

And the hood (first dive), was reasonably comfortable, so it's a keeper (better be, I already burned air escape holes into it).
The Hobie shorty over my 3mm full, I thought was going to feel bulky, but it didn't, I never noticed it at all. So, success on both "new" pieces.

This was an "inshore" dive with Down Under dive shop and boat out of Gulf Shores Alabama, right near the Florida line, which in the Panhandle means about 3 miles out and 40' depth. All sand, but there's a manmade dive recreation area called Poseidon's Playground, with steel or stone statuary arranged in a sort of circle. This is not my video, it's an older YouTube, but gives you the idea: Vis (unlike in the video) was poor, 10 feet, maybe 15, so you needed the guide lines, and you needed to pay attention to how you got there (meaning look at your compass a LOT), or you won't know which line to follow in order to get back to the boat mooring chain. An excellent insta-buddy, Frank from Germany, was easy to work with and had good situational/directional awareness. We got two 40-minute 40-foot max dives in, and didn't get lost. Good boat, good crew, I like the MV DOWN UNDER.

Nice to get wet again after about 7 months.
Long drive over and back from New Orleans but good YouTube music--(Spirit heading east, Gordon Lightfoot heading west for home) made the miles go by enjoyably.