Under weighted New Diver

[gnat]

Hello Scuba board. I have a question regarding whether I'm being underweighted for dives. During my OW dives in the ocean I used 4Kg in weights. According to PADI, this is less than the recommended weighting for someone of my size and gear config (71kg male, 3mm full wetsuit, jacket bcd, 80l tank), which is around 5% of my body weight + 2 kg, which is 5.5kg. I did fun dives with 5kg since I weigh 80kg now.

I had no issues with weighting during training and fun dives dives since but I wonder if there are risks to being underweighted and if I should increase it?

 

[Mike McG]

If you are underweighted it's actually quite difficult to descend at the start of the dive without exhaling and swimming down and you would certainly find out the end of the dive. As long as you can comfortably hold a safety stop at the end of your dive at 5m you are not underweight.

 

[boulderjohn]

According to PADI, this is less than the recommended weighting for someone of my size and gear config (71kg male, 3mm full wetsuit, jacket bcd, 80l tank), which is around 5% of my body weight + 2 kg, which is 5.5kg

It has been a while since I last taught an OW class. I was unaware that PADI had any such recommendation. When I taught, we just did weight checks. As several people have said, individual people have individual needs for weights, depending mostly on personal body composition.

In my own diving, I have found that I prefer not to be what many people would call perfectly weighted. I like a few extra pounds, but only a few, during an NDL dive.