Water Science
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How much weight can the "average" diver fin up from the bottom without a buoyancy compensator for assistance.
swim up weighted
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Back when we didn't use BCD's (they either hadn't been invented or were too costly), we learned to weight ourselves pretty accurately and could always swim up with the proper weight.
On a dive where my tank valve clogged at about 75 ft and stopped delivering air to my regs or BCD, I swam up on evacuated lungs and an "empty" (at depth) BCD with a 36# weight belt. I wouldn't want to do that again! Good thing I have massive German legs (and a stubborn German mind).
On a dive where my tank valve clogged at about 75 ft and stopped delivering air to my regs or BCD, I swam up on evacuated lungs and an "empty" (at depth) BCD with a 36# weight belt. I wouldn't want to do that again! Good thing I have massive German legs (and a stubborn German mind).
You don't need a BC, you should not be so heavy as to be unable to swim back up, at least for normal diving profiles. Leaving aside dry suits and specialized diving a wetsuit diver should only be weighted enough to allow swimming downward through twenty or so feet. Below that the suit will compress and you will become negative. In the pre BC days we weighted to be neutral/slightly negative once the suit was compressed which meant it was required to swim down--not up--as air was consumed we became progessively more bouyant which meant by the end of the dive swimming up was not a problem and often we had to grab rocks to stay down--lol. Your BC only needs to offset that amount of weight to allow neutral bouyancy once the suit is compressed. This would not be so significant an amount of weight that you could not easily swim back to the surface without the assist of a BC. This is a simplified and incomplete explanation which does not cover all aspects of diving or possible combinations of exposure gear and scuba. We were taught this way, it is not diffucult but requires a different method and mindset. If your afraid you cannot swim back up I suspect your severly overweighted. N
CAPT HOOK
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Not really the answer to your question but I swim up 18 lb. when i dive.
bigfrog23
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the most i have ever kicked up was 45lb. it was hard to stay on the surface with it and no it was not mine i found it free diving for abs. decided that i needed a new weight belt to go with the 200lb. of led in the garage that just seems to keep growing. if you ever want to know how much led you can swim up just get your instructor sert and you will get plenty of practice toting belt back up to the surface.
H2ODog
Registered
Are you asking how much weight one can bring to the surface such as a treasure like weight swimming? Don't know if there is such a thing but I'm sure some science/math expert could figure something out. I'd think it would be fairly complex including fin size, stroke length and speed.
To answer your question though, I don't have a clue.
OP
Water Science
Registered
I lost a 20 lb anchor off my boat a few years ago at Lake Powell in about 35 feet of water. Way past my skill level to swim dowm and get it without SCUBA. Long story short that's how I got back into diving.
I learned to dive at West Point over 30 years with backpack with or without a horse collar bc. Now I dive at Lake Powell using only a backpack . I don't own a lift bag but I did have a bc. So I donned, went down and found the anchor and swam up and used the bc to only help lift the anchor. I was extremely careful not to drop the anchor during ascent and I know I should have used a lift bag and I open myself up to criticism. If the anchor was any heavier I would have use a bag.
I learned to dive at West Point over 30 years with backpack with or without a horse collar bc. Now I dive at Lake Powell using only a backpack . I don't own a lift bag but I did have a bc. So I donned, went down and found the anchor and swam up and used the bc to only help lift the anchor. I was extremely careful not to drop the anchor during ascent and I know I should have used a lift bag and I open myself up to criticism. If the anchor was any heavier I would have use a bag.
I once had to retrieve a 25# weight belt someone had dropped of our dive boat. Must admit, I had trouble swimming it up even with my BCD inflated. I use a minimal lift wing when I dive to reduce drag... it's enough to bring me and my gear up, but not the added weight!
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I can't believe you guys took the bait.
He might as well have asked "How long is an average piece of string?"
Terry
The average diver can swim up with about 10lbs of negative weight. There are many factors that play into this though; such as suit compression at depth and tank buoyancy swings from full to empty.
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