silverbackmrb
Registered
I dive in fresh water and have my weight belt just right. I am planning a salt water diving trip to Roatan and was wondering if there was a rule of thumb on how much more weight I would need in salt water. Thanks
Weigh adjustment for fsw
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getwet2
Contributor
Everyone is different.silverbackmrb:
You don't say where you are from or where you do your diving. Is the fresh water cold water that requires a thick wetsuit, gloves, hood, boots or is it warmer water with just a thin wetsuit? Depending on your wetsuit, which will most likely be thinner, you will probably need less weight. If this is your first time diving in the Ocean and you are a little nervous then you might need a little bit more.
You could ask the dive operator to do a checkout dive so you can figure it out, or the dive operator might be able to look at you and give you a close guess for the first dive and you can adjust from there.
Davidl
Guest
Just as an example I used 10lbs for freshwater, and then went up to 12 for salt (wearing the same stuff). Scientifically, I wouldnt think that the density of salt water would be much more than 1.1g/ml compared to 1.0g/ml for fresh water, so that would be 10% more bouyant in salt w. I dont remember the exact number for the density of SW tho.
R
redacted
Guest
If nothing else changes, add 3% (.027 to be exact) of your total wt. That is 3% of the wt of you and your gear. Density of fw is 1.00 while density od sw is 1.027.
donacheson
Contributor
silverbackmrb:
If you'll be wearing the same gear, add 2.5% (1/40th) of your total weight (you plus all your gear).
If, as noted by others, your gear changes, especially if you get out of a thick wet suit or use an Al80 in Roatan in place of your own steel tank, you'll have to reweight yourself.
Switching to salt water is far too complex and dangerous. Don't go! Send me your tickets to Roatan at once! 
O2BBubbleFree
Contributor
Rick Inman:Switching to salt water is far too complex and dangerous. Don't go! Send me your tickets to Roatan at once!
Rick, you going to get me in trouble with posts like that. My boss is, even as we speak, wondering why I'm laughing so hard at my computer...
Sounds like you need to walk right out and go diving!3dent:
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