Trying to transition from total-noob, part 1

[egs]

This is probably the wrong forum, but since you are the folks diving where I dive I'll shamelessly seek advice from you.

I'm a noob, got my OW in mid September and my next dive will only take me to 20. I'm feeling pretty comfy on the dives and feel like I'm getting better, but I still carry too much weight. I'm down 12 pounds from OW, but still more than I want and the second or third hike up the beach at the end of a dive can get pretty tiring.

But with the weight I'm carrying, which is more than the PADI manual suggests, ...

... at the beginning of the dive when I empty my BC and lungs, I get the top of my head wet and that's about it. After I swim down nine or ten feet or so, then I can drop easily.

... at the end of a dive when I've got maybe 500-600 psi in my cylinder, I may be able to hold at 15 feet without anchoring myself on some kelp, but if I drift up to 10 feet I'm pretty certain to surface after that.

I've read the book, listened to the instructors, and they tell me that I'll shed weight as I get more practice. The question for you is whether there is something more proactive I should be working on.

Words of advice?

And assuming that the group isn't put out with this newbie, I'll follow this with a post about another part of trying to become less a noob and more a skilled diver.

 

[paddler3d]

But with the weight I'm carrying, which is more than the PADI manual suggests, ...

... at the beginning of the dive when I empty my BC and lungs, I get the top of my head wet and that's about it. After I swim down nine or ten feet or so, then I can drop easily.

... at the end of a dive when I've got maybe 500-600 psi in my cylinder, I may be able to hold at 15 feet without anchoring myself on some kelp, but if I drift up to 10 feet I'm pretty certain to surface after that.

What are you diving? You tank, exposure suit, so on so forth.

How much lead are you diving?

From what you describe, you may be a pound or two lite.

They may be a wee bit of air trapped somewhere in your exposure suit, hence the reason you can 'crush' dive and get down.

How much weight does PADI suggest you have?

For proper weighting the PADI way, with a tank at 500ish psi, full lungs, empty BC, you're properly weighted if you bob around eye level...exhale you sink.

 

[TSandM]

Are you diving Monterey? The sad fact of cold water diving is that it takes a lot of exposure protection, which means it takes a lot of weight. The textbook recommendations for weighting are only ballpark estimates, and each diver is different. A formal weight check is the way to figure out what YOUR correct weighting should be, and it sounds as though you are very close, but possibly slightly underweighted. Remember that, at the beginning of the dive, you should be negative by at least most of the weight of the gas you intend to use during the dive, which is usually at least five pounds. It may be true that a thick wetsuit (I assume you're diving a wetsuit?) may compress enough during a deeper dive to be a little more negative at the end of the dive than it is at the beginning, but I still think it's a good idea to weight yourself neutral at the surface at the beginning of the dive, and then add the weight of the gas you are going to consume to find your final, total weighting.

Hauling BC and tank and weights up and down slopes and stairs repeatedly is hard work. When I started diving, it was really daunting, but I'll tell you that if you keep at it, it gets easier and easier. Gym time helps, too!

 

[Ben_ca]

Dive... and find a mentor you can latch onto and learn from.

Here's a thread from a little while back... I think you'll find some answers here.

3 things to tell a new diver in Monterey

 

[chrispete]

If you'd like to buddy up sometime let my wife (RumBum) or I know, we're always up for getting some diving in and we're just right down the road from Monterey.

 

[ToddK]

Ditto on what the others have said about potentially being slightly underweighted. Like paddler asked, having some specifics on your setup would help. One question for you- are you diving aluminum or steel tanks? If you're diving aluminum, I would really recommend switching to steel, and then dumping 4-6 lbs from your weight belt. As TSandM said, cold water diving takes a lot of weight, and if you are carrying all of it around your waist, it makes it harder to get good trim. -Todd.

 

[mikemill]

When I dove wet I found that air got trapped in the suit that would eventually work its way out during the dive. So that made getting down harder. If you can stand it you can pull back the material from your neck and flood your wetsuit to get rid of that air. Or just realize you'll need to swim down at the beginning of the dive. No biggy.

I think most people weight themselves to be able to comfortably hold their stop with a 500-600 psi tank. Really the easist way I found was to add and remove weight and go for a dive and see how the stop feels. As long as you aren't shooting to the surface or falling to the abyss you'll be fine. Just take your dives slow and easy.

 

[ae3753]

20 dives since September isn't bad, especially considering our winter hasn't been the greatest.

You'll find that the NorCal group really likes newbie divers. Heck, we were all new once, and many of us remember those first dives quite vividly (some for good reasons, some for not so good reasons).

The PADI Manual is a guideline, and there's a good amount of variation. Especially in our local waters.

You've gotten very good advice so far, and I wanted to add one more thing to check.

In describing your ascent, you stated that you can hold your 15 foot stop. But when you "drift up to 10 feet" you'll hit the surface soon after. Do you have gas in your BC at 15'. And how often do you dump gas when you drift from 15'-10'? It's possible you're not venting often enough.

As you gain experience, you shed add'l weight cause you improve your breath control, your body movement and buoyancy. However, if you're holding a 10' stop with no gas in the BC with only 500 psi in your tank, you're not going to lose any more weight in your current configuration.

 

[egs]

Thanks, everyone, for the good advice. Some have suggested that I'm slightly underweighted, and although my experience suggests that too I don't llok forward to strapping on even more lead.

Here's the numbers, if I set aside my embarrassment at publically offering things like my weight, for my last dive:

weight: 185 lbs
suit: 7 mm (or was it 7.5mm?) wetsuit, with hood and gloves
tank: steel 100 HP
lead: 32 lbs

which is a lot better than the 44 lbs I lugged around on my OW dives, but still more than I'd like. Maybe if I develop a BC that achieves neutral buoyancy out of the water as well as in, I'd be happier.

As to whether I still have air in my BC at my 15-foot safety stop, I try not to. I'm not always sure that I've successfully purged everything so I try to vent via all four valves in my BC, if I'm horizontal, and both top valves if I'm vertical. On one dive I found that I could keep at 15 feet by slowly kicking with my fins while vertical and that felt pretty good, but it was a rather elusive target not achieved on other dives.

So...

... more dives, more practice. I can think of worse ways to spend a weekend.

 

[pacificgal]

Wow, 32 pounds with a steel 100 sounds like a lot. I am certain as you gain experience and learn to relax that number could get to around 20. Takes diving though, becoming one with the ocean, etc. You'll get there, keep diving. The weight gets easier to carry around too, I picked up diving again in August of this year and when I started I had trouble walking around and up and down the beach and stairs in all that gear. I've been diving every weekend and now it's a piece of cake, no more pausing at the steps at breakwater to get back to the car.
Lover's on the other hand... different story.