Salt Water vs. Fresh Water Weighting

[Daner]

I recently purchased my first set of gear and will be jumping in the pool at my LDS next week to test it out and determine my weighting requirements. In February, I will be heading down to Cayo Coco, Cuba and would like to know how much more weight will I need in the salt water?

I will be wearing all the same gear in the pool as I will be on my vacation so I don't think a detailled description of gear is necessary.

 

[Wayward Son]

Generally about 4 to 6 lbs more for the same setup.

 

[Walter]

1. Weigh yourself and all your gear.

2. Weight yourself in the pool.

Since you are noty changing any gear, you can figure it mathematically.

3. Take the number from 1. above add in the lead from 2. above. Mulitply the sum by .024. Add that much lead.

For example, let's imagine you and your gear weigh 190 lbs (dry). Let's also imagine you need 10 lbs in the pool. That gives you a total weight of 200 lbs (including lead). Multiply 200 by .024 givimg you a result of 4.8 lbs. Make your salt water dives with 15 lbs.

 

[Charlie99]

Note that "weigh yourself and all your gear" includes the tank + lead too. An AL80 weighs 36 pounds. If you are lazy, then just assuming 60 pounds total for gear isn't going to be very far off. For an 180 pound guy like me, this means total weight of 240 and a fresh to salt water weight adjustment of 6 pounds.

For the mathmatically challenged, adding 0.025 of total weight is the same as adding 1 pound for every 40 pounds of total weight.

 

[spectrum]

Like they said, this is a simple physics deal. Just take your time at the LDS and make sure your gear is good and saturated so you don't have stow away byouyancy and you can nail this one.

Pete

 

[claplant]

Last october I went to Cuba and did a few dives. It has been the only place where I had the chance to try steel tank. Because of this I can tell you that I was using 4 pounds instead of 8.

 

[markfm]

Here's the tank weights link, good ole Huron:
http://www.huronscuba.com/equipment/scubaCylinderSpecification.html

Buoyancy empty tells you about changing from one tank class to another. For example, if I know my weighting in an AL80, change to an E7-100, I'm changing from a +4 to a -1 -- 5 lbs net decrease in the lead I would carry with an E7-100 relative to the AL80.

If I was also changing to salt, I would take about 6 lbs more lead, for a given exposure suit, compared to fresh. If I went from AL80 fresh to E7-100 salt, I would then be changing by -5 + 6 = +1 lb more lead (close enough to not matter, since I slightly overweight on purpose)

 

[Daner]

Thanks for your advice. I never thought that I could be diving with a different type of tank so the info on the tank bouyancy is appreciated.