To weight or not to weight

[MauiScubaSteve]

A good thread and an interesting read. Unfortunately at entry level training too many instructors don't seem to want to spend the time teaching proper breath control and simply massively overweight their students under the misguided impression that it makes their lives easier as their students won't float up so much. What they don't understand is that they are making it much more difficult for their students to control and fine tune their buoyancy and are actually making it dangerous for them. As has already been discussed being overweighted means that you have to have too much air in your BCD, causing you to have more drag in the water and meaning that you have to work harder. It is also near impossible to fine tune your buoyancy using breath control. It is also more likely to make you float up too much, as if you go up slightly the volume of all that air in your BCD increases. Not to mention the danger of losing your weight belt if you have lots of air in your BCD.

Good buoyancy control is like learning to drive a car. At first you have to really concentrate, but as you gain experience it starts to come more naturally. It is the mark of a good diver.

My question for you, Sally, is where do the differing school's of thought fit into your school of thought?

Here on SB there seems to be a couple very popular thought schools with regards to weighting, but there are way more than two.

At one end of the spectrum is what I've heard called the "less is more" school, but I call that school's proponents "weight Nazi's" due to the fact that it only works for "the superior diver." IF you have very low SAC, rarely get your tank to 500 psi and always ascend up mooring lines or anchors, holding a SS can usually be accomplished with less weight than will sink you at the beginning of the dive. This school requires pulling or swimming yourself down the first 15-20 feet, and anticipates that wet suit compression will help with the SS issues.

Then there is the "perfect weighting" idealists, who seem to think the absolute minimum weight necessary to hold a free SS with 500 psi when breathing gently is the "only" proper weighting.

Somewhere between "perfect" and the "massively overweighted" that Sally claims "too many" instructors do because they "don't seem to want to spend the time to teach proper breath control" is the school of thought I subscribe to. Weighted for the worst case scenario, of the main emergency most of our other emergency training is training us for; weighted for "alternate ascent from rock bottom."

Neutral at the surface with an empty tank holding a normal breath.

If both divers are breathing excitedly off one tank with less than 300 psi, and the other tank is empty, what happens at 15 foot depth?

Unfortunately, ScubaBoard seems to label instructors who "weight" for rock bottom OOA emergencies as instructors who massively overweight, but seems to applaud instructors who "gas plan" for rock bottom OOA emergencies.

 

[coldwatercanada]

My only comment is whats considered overweighted??? Usually for the first two open water dives i try and keep my students 4-6 lbs over weighted then on the second 2 dives i remove about half the weight and explain to them what Im doing. As an instructor i sit around 10 lbs over weighted myself but would never get my stedents weighted to that level

 

[coldwatercanada]

Ankle weights - IMO are not good - good luck trying to dump those quickly!


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Its two clips so as long as you can reach the top of your foot its easy to dump. the bigger problem is unless you have "floaty feet" ankle weights tug you down in the water and make it harder for you to be streamline

 

[sibermike7]

As an instructor i sit around 10 lbs over weighted myself but would never get my stedents weighted to that level

Why would you want to be THAT over-weighted?? :shocked2:
I have "over-weighted" myself in the past when doing underwater tasks, i.e., we did an anchor retrieval that required us to physically "horse" an anchor out of a wreck and I need the "bottom weight" to give me leverage, but I cannot see the need to put an extra 10 pounds on for teaching. Slightly overweight, maybe. When working with students, you are not working in "deep" water so even after all the dives, I have plenty of air in my tank to take care of an emergency even at the end of the dives. So if I'm properly weighted with my rig (meaning I am able to break water/sink with breath control on the surface with an empty tank), then I'll be a bit "over-weight" until that point (zero air) anyway. My own air will accomplish that. I see no point in strapping on 10 lbs. extra.

Please explain.

 

[coldwatercanada]

I over weight myself when teaching so if a student freaks and tries to use there bcd as an elevator i can grab hold of them and slow them/us down to a safe assent rate. It also helps when doing hovers and bouncy checks cause with beginners your holding onto them and if they add too much to there bcd it doesnt take you both up. When i dive for fun or with classes with no dirrect contact with the students Im usually my perfect weight. Also 4 out of that ten is ankle weights which is quick release.

 

[coldwatercanada]

I also had a student lose one of his weight pouches in about 40 feet of water so i managed to grab him and hold him down long enough for the dm to grab the pouch and me to re hook it

 

[MP40]

Noob question regarding weight. On my first cert dive, it seemed like the only way I could sink was to dump ALL my air from my BC. It seemed that this was just enough to get me down to 25 feet without going any further. Am I perhaps to light?

I am a big guy (260lbs fatty) and the second I lost 3 lbs (not sure how it slipped out of my bc) of weight I began an uncontrollable ascent. I imagine at greater depths for an extended period this could have resulted in injury. Buoyancy control to me seems to be a highly critical part of diving safely.

 

[tadawson]

If you can barely sink with a full tank, you will be in a world of hurt as it empties, since you will lost more than 3 lbs due to air consumption.

Do a proper buoyancy check, preferably with a tank with 750 or so in it. When that is good, you should be good to go.

- Tim

 

[sixt3denied]

Hi all,

I'm 5'8" tall and weigh about 215lbs. I have a brand new 3mm wetsuit. I wear a weight integrated BCD. I am scheduled for a boat dive shortly. I will probably not have a chance to check my weight first. I was figuring on about 20lbs (based on the 10 percent rule) and the fact that the wetsuit is brand new. An instructor told me that is too much - that 16-18lbs should be good enough. But with the 10 percent rule I should actually be at 21.5 lbs. I'm wondering what you guys thoughts are on this. I rate myself as a beginner diver - because although i have a good amount of dives i haven't dove in many many years and am just getting back into the sport. I just finished a PADI refresher course. Any suggestions on what weight to dive with?

 

[DM_cappie]

six3denied,
if I were you I’d go ahead and dive the 20lbs, being that you are just getting back into diving after some years away the extra 2lbs won’t make much of a difference. Your right though that your new wetsuit will add some extra buoyancy. Once it’s been crushed a couple of times the added buoyancy it provides should become more constant. Proper weighting in my opinion is learned over time, everybody is different in what weight they need or feel comfortable with. For that reason the 10% rule should just be a starting point.
For myself I have 3 different wetsuits, and from diving each I pretty much know how much lead I need depending on which wetsuit i grab, with experience you will too.
Hope this helps,
Cappie