Weight distribution

[Barnaby'sDad]

As @Brett Hatch mentioned...make sure that you’ve actually got all the air out of your BC. It’s pretty easy for air to get trapped in them.

Im a big guy too. Running a BP/W, I need 11 lbs less than what the online calculator (dive buddy) recommends for my weight, wetsuit, tank, etc.

 

[Jody Freitas]

As @Brett Hatch mentioned...make sure that you’ve actually got all the air out of your BC. It’s pretty easy for air to get trapped in them.

Im a big guy too. Running a BP/W, I need 11 lbs less than what the online calculator (dive buddy) recommends for my weight, wetsuit, tank, etc.

That will be nice

 

[James79]

One piece of food for thought, when dividing weight between your rig and weight belt... if too much is on the rig, and you have a need to doff/don your gear underwater (unlikely, but a potential issue, entanglement and such), you will be struggling to stay down with the rig. In a perfect world I try to weight myself and my rig to be individually neutral.
Respectfully,
James

 

[axluba]

One piece of food for thought, when dividing weight between your rig and weight belt... if too much is on the rig, and you have a need to doff/don your gear underwater (unlikely, but a potential issue, entanglement and such), you will be struggling to stay down with the rig. In a perfect world I try to weight myself and my rig to be individually neutral.
Respectfully,
James

I have bad images from my open water classes of me hanging upside down trying to not leT go of my rig... now I dive with a belt

 

[Jody Freitas]

One piece of food for thought, when dividing weight between your rig and weight belt... if too much is on the rig, and you have a need to doff/don your gear underwater (unlikely, but a potential issue, entanglement and such), you will be struggling to stay down with the rig. In a perfect world I try to weight myself and my rig to be individually neutral.
Respectfully,
James

Happened during checkout.....it wasn't a fun experience to say the least

 

[TMHeimer]

This is what I do with my 42 pounds--
Integrated weight pouches-- 18 pounds.
Belt--16 pounds.
Shoulder pouches on BC back-- 4 pounds each (8 total).
I use a pouch belt with 2 pound weights in the pouches, and made for diving so never worry about belt slipping or being uncomfortable.

 

[blueskies_up_ahead]

I hope it's ok to use this old thread. I tried my first BPW: Finnsub, SS backplate, 17 wing, 7mm in a pool, steel tank, and at first 4kg lead but went down to 2kg split evenly between integrated weight pouches.
While I overall enjoyed it, I had trouble staying on the side when attempting to swim slightly tilted on either left or right side. The BPW pulled me over on my back. I didn't have trouble getting back to the front but I' love to be able to swim on my side and feel stable. Is weight distribution the issue here? Would a weightbelt be better? If so, where should I place the weight? Or is the wing size the culprit? What should I do differently next time? I'll get to try a different brand in two weeks.

 

[James79]

I hope it's ok to use this old thread. I tried my first BPW: Finnsub, SS backplate, 17 wing, 7mm in a pool, steel tank, and at first 4kg lead but went down to 2kg split evenly between integrated weight pouches.
While I overall enjoyed it, I had trouble staying on the side when attempting to swim slightly tilted on either left or right side. The BPW pulled me over on my back. I didn't have trouble getting back to the front but I' love to be able to swim on my side and feel stable. Is weight distribution the issue here? Would a weightbelt be better? If so, where should I place the weight? Or is the wing size the culprit? What should I do differently next time? I'll get to try a different brand in two weeks.

With a steel tank, you already have quite a bit of weight behind you. In a perfect world, your center of mass will match your center of buoyancy and you can be still in any orientation.
To get as close as I can to that, I start with getting the total weight correct. Preferably by goint to 15 ft. (5 m) with a 500 psi tank and establish the amount of weight needed to be neutral with an empty wing. If you do it with a full wing, just add 5 lb (or 2.5 kg) after establishing neutral to account for the weight of air you will use up during a dive.
After that, I make my best guess on distribution, and go back to 15 ft, get neutral, and just freeze in my normal diving position. If my feet drop, I need to move the weight up my body, if my head drops, move weight down my body. If I start to turn turtle, move weight forward on my body (like from back of hips to front, or camband to shoulder straps). From what you describe, this is the most likely fix. after it stops turning you over, see if you can roll to the side and not have it force you back belly down... if it does, move a bit of the weight back towards the rear.
You may never get it perfect, but you can dial it in pretty close.

Respectfully,

James

 

[Shabaday]

Are you using a Single tank adapter? Or integrated into the wing?

 

[blueskies_up_ahead]

Thanks for your input!
With regards to weights, I think 2kg is pretty close to perfect. I didn't have time to do a weight check with a 50bar tank as we needed to exit the pool but it didn't feel like I had too much weight towards the end of the dive. Also the emptier the tank got, the more my feet went up. I do have floaty feet so no surprise there.
So I guess I'll try using a weight belt and moving the weights more towards the front (as opposed to the weight pouches that were roughly on the side of my hips).
As for the STA: I'm not sure if there was one to be honest. My guess is no as it looked like the webbing went through the backplate but I'm not certain. The bp had a cover of some sort.