Want to buy Dry Suit but...

[Teamcasa]

Hey sorry I did not mean to start an argument with regards to weight needs. Perhaps it was the lead implants I had installed!!

The truth of the matter is, we dive NJ with great frequency, dive it dry, with single steel & pony, or double steel cylinders, backplates, and zero additional weight. True, you don't sink like a rock, however, you do sink, and unless there is a race to the bottom, I'll get there too, just like the overweighted diver. Of course, I'll have a lot less air in my BC to contend with throughout the dive, but hey, who's counting?

No argument and no race to the bottom. Sinking to the bottom fast or slow is not the measure of correct weighting anyway, it's the last 10 minutes where proper weighting is determined anyway.

Me? 35lbs in cold water and drysuit. I can hover for as long as necessary with zero air in my drysuit and BC at 5' at the end of my dive so my weighting is fine.

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

OK..there you have it...two different sides of the spectrum. Thank you for sharing your stats, and along with mine, the orginal poster can see there is a wide range of possible weighting scenarios.

 

[Gombessa]

True, you don't sink like a rock, however, you do sink, and unless there is a race to the bottom, I'll get there too, just like the overweighted diver. Of course, I'll have a lot less air in my BC to contend with throughout the dive, but hey, who's counting?

It's not that it's a race, it's just that the weighting requirements for the undergarments needed in the environment we dive in are pretty much determined by physics. Unless you stack a ton of extra weights (beyond a steel backplate and wSTA/weight plates) on your rig, that's what is needed to get you to sink at all (not sink quickly, we typically strive for a very slow, level, eye-contact descent on our typical recreational dives).

If you can get away with 200g undies in 47-50 degree water, you're of course going to need significantly less weight, but you'd also be in a small minority of particularly cold-resistant individuals, and I just wouldn't suggest a new drysuit diver start with such minimal insulation.

No harm, no foul either way, we all use what we need to use--this is just what we repeatedly deal with and see out here in local Monterey conditions.

 

[vimaldude]

Thanks all for some really good input. Gives me a better picture of what to expect from a Dry suit. I guess I will have to experiment with different undergarments and see how much is enough. Also, I will be going for a SS BP setup so it should reduce the wt . on the belt.

Ultimately, as TSandM said, "it will take what it will take..."