Ok...I need some serious help on this issue..

[Axewizard]

I have a pretty bad bouyancy problem. My body is EXTREMELY negative. Just to give some background, I'm male, 5'9, 140 lb, no body fat. Here's what happens to me in fresh AND salt water. If I dive with no wetsuit at all, I'll drop like a lead weight with only 4 lbs in my BC. In a 5 mil, I can get away with 2 lbs of weight in fresh, but I haven't tried in salt. I've talked to some divers and they're a little shocked and somewhat envious of this, but my biggest concern is getting into a runaway decent. What should I do to solve this?

Axe

 

[Uncle Pug]

Pasta. Lotsa pasta.

 

[mossym]

well one good thing is you'll need more weight in saltwater than fresh...maybe not enough to help you..

your only answer is to move somewhere cold where you'll need a full 7mm and a hood, you'll definitely need weight then..

 

[vladimir]

If only there was a device that could increase your buoyancy when you needed it.

 

[mossym]

i presume he's worried about ditchable weight in case of bcd failure....

 

[WellBelowH2O]

I have a pretty bad bouyancy problem. My body is EXTREMELY negative. Just to give some background, I'm male, 5'9, 140 lb, no body fat. Here's what happens to me in fresh AND salt water. If I dive with no wetsuit at all, I'll drop like a lead weight with only 4 lbs in my BC. In a 5 mil, I can get away with 2 lbs of weight in fresh, but I haven't tried in salt. I've talked to some divers and they're a little shocked and somewhat envious of this, but my biggest concern is getting into a runaway decent. What should I do to solve this?

Axe

If you drop like a lead weight w/ 4 lbs, take out the 4lbs--not sure why you'd weight yourself w/ 4lbs with no wetsuit, but 2 lbs with (unless I read it wrong).

If you use 2lbs in fresh, you'll need more in salt so that should be fine. Your BC should compensate for your lack of buoyancy. Hence the name

Your issue would be with ditchable weight in case of a problem.. I don't know what you'd do in that case other than dump any weight you have on. You'll gain less positive buoyancy than most, unfortunately.

 

[Diver0001]

but my biggest concern is getting into a runaway decent. What should I do to solve this?

Axe

Why are you worried about this?

R..

 

[Charlie99]

I'm male, 5'9, 140 lb, no body fat. Here's what happens to me in fresh AND salt water. If I dive with no wetsuit at all, I'll drop like a lead weight with only 4 lbs in my BC. In a 5 mil, I can get away with 2 lbs of weight in fresh, but I haven't tried in salt. ...What should I do to solve this?

What tank are you using? Most steel tanks are significantly negative, while AL80 tanks are just a couple pound negative when full, and about 4 pounds positive when empty.

At 140lbs weight, you should see about 5 pounds difference in buoyancy between fresh and saltwater, so I'm surprised that the same thing happens when in both fresh and saltwater.

It's normal to be negative at the beginning of a dive, since you have the weight of the air in your full tank (about 6 pounds for 80 cubic feet). With no wetsuit,4 pounds in your BC, and a full tank of air, a lot of people will be negative in fresh water, even with an AL80. Take off the 4 pounds and see if you can still hold a safety stop, then do a controlled ascent to the surface with only about 500psi in the tank.

Charlie

 

[Walter]

If you don't need lead, don't use it.

 

[Ana]

If you don't need lead, don't use it.

What type of answer is that? are you implying that people should only take with them what they need? What about all the stuff they were told to purchase?

I bet you are the type that would turn the nose to the nifty little calculator PADI is using now instead of the outdated, not friendly plastic tables.