Overweighted for OW Class

[ZzzKing]

Just curious about something. I know the textbook method of properly setting up your weights. Should I be weighted enough to be able to stand on my knees without bobbing in a 4' pool? It's funny, because during my pool class I was really buoyant and the instructors wanted us to be able to stand on our knees in the shallow end to do the mask clearing drills and whatnot. It was not set up the way the text book says and I was basically told to just keep shoving weight in there until I sank, which was like 35 lbs plus two 2 lbs ankle weights and I'm only 260lbs. I don't get it. I think it's way too much. I was wearing a 7mm wetsuit and boots.

Thanks.

Also keep in mind that kneeling on the bottom is definitely NOT a desired activity in any surroundings except (debately) a pool. Any skill you learn while kneeling on the bottom should be practiced while properly (neutrally) buoyant if you really want a usable skill. I haven't read the whole thread yet so please forgive if someone has already pointed this out.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Some people think to hard on th number. You and all divers need to descend into the water in order to dive. I f it takes 35 or 28 that is that. I am 6' 1" 280 and need 26 lbs with 6 MM 2 peace.

LOL! I'm 5'7" and 130 and I wear 28 lbs with my drysuit and heavy undies. How's that for not dwelling on the numbers I wear 14 or 16 lbs with my 1/4" farmer johns (one is older and less buoyant).

We use 12% of your body weight as a rule of thumb and tell the students to make sure they get at least two 2 lb weights to make it easier to add/subtract small increments of weight to get them neutral.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[bolantej]

The real problem for me was not being able to float on my back due to the extra weight, no matter how much or how little air I had in my BC. I'll have to experiment more later I guess.

 

[SmileMon]

Its also depends if you have back inflating or vest (I think that's the right one), on a back inflation one its easier to float on your back (or on your face) but its harder to stay vertical - which is bad for new divers, but you can always add more weight in the back part of the BC (if it has pockets) or dive steels.

This also depends if you want to dive the right way - horizontal or not, horizontal is easier if you're trained on that from the beginning, changing that habit of diving vertical is going to be hard in case you'll want to.

I've found that its better to be overweight during the OW class and then take some of this weight off when you're ready, its relatively easier controlling your bouyance with your bladder in the begining, as you learn better bouyancy with your lungs you can take that weight off.

Further more, if you're planning to go rebreather anytime soon, I've heard that taking a full breath won't get you positive, so its a good practice..

 

[Captndan]

it really depends on a lot of factors. freshwater vs. saltwater. what type of wetsuit. steel tank vs. aluminum. and most of all your personal body composition. saltwater takes about 5 lbs more than fresh. the thicker the suit, obviously the more weight you need. steel tanks are always neutrally or negatively bouyant, full or empty, whereas aluminum tanks are negatively bouyant when full but positively bouyant when empty, so you have to adjust weight accordingly. as far as body comp, the more muscle mass you have, the more negatively bouyant you will be. im 6'1", 205 lbs, but when i was in open water i was wearing about 20 lbs of weight to keep me down during skills. when it was finally time to dive, my instructor said to drop all the weight and see what happens with a half breath of air. i did it and sank to the bottom rather quickly. for my cert trip we dove freshwater, i wore a 3mm suit and zero weight and was still negatively bouyant. just play around with it. you should float at eye level with no air in your bc if you are weighted properly. i would keep the weight for the rest of the class though because its a pain in the *** if you cant stay down when you are doing skills.

 

[bolantej]

I spoke to my instructor tonight and he said we'll be setting up our weights properly for the next set of confined dives. Thanks all for the help.

 

[shark.byte.usa]

Well for our open water checkouts in 7mm's we started with 10% + 8lbs, with a few 2lbs to add or subtract to get it right, for me that was 26lbs and oddly enough it was just right and still what I use today, I tried shedding a couple lbs but couldn't hold a stop at 10ft and 500psi in an AL80, popped up like an f'n cork.

 

[MCHRISK]

HEY JAY I'm thinking you could put oh 53 lbs you should be good in the pool

 

[Ice9]

On my first pool session, I wore 28lbs on a belt with a 7mm suit. This seemed to work OK, but WOW that 7mm suit was HOT! So on the second day, I climbed into a 2mm shorty, but still strapped the 28lbs to my waist.

I had the majority of the weights mounted forward on the belt, and my BC was a rear-inflate. As you can imagine, it was exhausting to keep finning to stay upright on the surface. The thought of ditching the weights never even occured to me. I ended up struggling to the true point of exhaustion. Finally, all I could do was lay there face down and rest.

Luckily one of the trainers saw this and realized that I was WAY over weighted. He swam down and released my belt, and brought it back with the proper amount of weights for that suit. I was really tired after THAT session.

What did I learn?

1. Use the right amount of weight for the suit that I'm wearing
2. Use trim pockets on my BC to spread the weight out some

So now, for a 7mm suit, my load-out is:
10 lbs in each (two) ditchable weight pocket (integrated on BC)
4 lbs in each trim pocket (two) of BC
2 lbs on the back of my weight belt. (I added this to make up for tank buoyancy)

This comes to 30 lbs, but spread out in a way that I will never have probs keeping my face out of the water