Noob questions about various weight(s) topics .....

[went_postal]

My very first post !!!

I'm brand new certified OW and only have 2 real post training dives. (Holy cow Kyalami Divers in West Palm Beach was crazy awesome)

I have a few questions about weight(s).

1. It seems to be a hot topic to have the least amount of weight on you as possible. Even a bunch of advertising has how light such and such part is. What's all the lead hate about? Is it really going to kill you to have one extra puff of air in your BCD ?

2. When am I ever going to "drop weights"? I hear all the talk about not ascending too fast. That seems counter to my lessons. What is a real world example where you had to drop weights? Wouldn't it possibly be a problem if you accidently dropped weight out of a quick release pocket? It seems more logical to have permanent weights with only a very small amount of releasable weight. Even then I cant think of a real need.

3. Why do I care if my 1st stage is light and compact? Wouldn't that make it less durable?

Thank you for asking these questions. This has been a topic brought up at the local dive shop a few times. So this has been on my mind a lot lately.

In Fresh Water I've been using ~12 lbs in rental rigs. Last time I tried to submerge I actually had to fight to get down until my suit compressed.

The shop owner seems to think I should be able to get away with 6 lbs. I dunno... In a pool with no suite I don't need any weights... So I am going to assume part of my "issue" is my 3mm suit may not be the best fit and has too much air in it (its not super tight because I can't stand when they are super restrictive).

With 12 lbs at ~35 feet I have an empty BC and I am not crashing into the floor. I go up and down with my breath. To me that sounds about where I should be.

With salt... you are going to be more buoyant... so it would seem I would need more weight and not less.

Someone asked about training about blowing bubbles in the way up... They taught it to us... we had to do CESA to pass OW with SDI.

 

[inquis]

With salt... you are going to be more buoyant... so it would seem I would need more weight and not less.

Yes, based on average salinity, these are ballpark adjustments to fresh water weighting for single-tank diving in salt water, based on your body weight. Add 5 lb (145-190 lb), 6 lb (190-230 lb), 7 lb (230-270 lb).

These assume about 40 lbs of gear (incl. tank), but a few lbs more or less won't change things appreciably, as it's about 0.25 lb lead for every 10 lbs of diver/gear mass.