Weight here a minute...

[Nosnhoj]

I did my first cold water dive yesterday, and had some buoyancy issues. During my certification dives in Florida I wore a 3mm suit with 20lbs of lead (I'm 6'2 and 230ish) that weight seemed perfect. During my cold freshwater dive in a 7mm full suit and 7mm vest I started with 28lbs and a full al80. This seemed to be ok during my buoyancy check but near the end of the dive (after a surfacing at my buddy's request) I could not get back under. I managed to submerge myself eventually, but it was a chore I'd not soon want to repeat.

My bcd had 10lbs in each pocket, and 4lbs in each trim pocket. Im considering wearing a belt next time in addition to the weights above. My question is, I'm in decent shape, is it Normal for someone to use that much weight.? Everything I read here seems like I'm waaaay above the norm with my lead.

 

[mala]

you need what you need.
if you dive regularly you may be able to drop some in time.
new kit and colder conditions may also add to stress which increases the lung volume and makes you more floaty.
there is about 3kg of gas in an ally 80 which you will have to account for with your weight check.
its good practise to do a weight check with a near empty tank.

 

[diveprof]

I'd suggest that you do a weighting check before your next dive wearing a full tank in water too deep to stand. With no air in your BCD you should float at eye level at the surface when holding a breath. When you exhale, you should slowly sink. If you are sinking while holding a breath, you will need to remove weight.
Other thoughts? If you are dumping air to descend by using the dump button on the inflator hose, make sure that the hose is not strapped down to the BCD. IF it is strapped down, this makes an "S" (think sink drain assembly) which traps air and will not allow you to fully empty you BCD. Yes, almost every standard BCD has one of the retaining straps. However, it can cause you to retain air even when you are sure you have dumped it all. Also I have seen folks trying to dump air using the inflator hose dump button while in a horizontal or head down position - this doesn't work either. The dump has to be at the highest point to completely empty the BCD. Lastly, based on limited observations of a few friends with new Bare wetsuits, the new Bare suits seem to require more weighting. Again, this is just an observation based on how three friends who are diving the Bare suits have had to add substantial additional weighting when compared to older generation Bare suits.

 

[Nosnhoj]

I did my buoyancy check first - and it "checked" out ok.

The response "you need what you need" is what I was hoping to hear!

It was in fact a new bare elastek suit, and my inflator hose (not sure why it's in italics now, but this blasted iPad doesn't seem to give me a way to shut it off) was attached to the bcd - but that is because i still have issues grabbing my snorkel instead of the inflator sometimes... I'm working on that!

Ill detach the inflator (the way I was taught in the first place) add a few pounds on a belt, and give it another shot.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[mala]

I did my buoyancy check first - and it "checked" out ok.

The response "you need what you need" is what I was hoping to hear!

It was in fact a new bare elastek suit, and my inflator hose (not sure why it's in italics now, but this blasted iPad doesn't seem to give me a way to shut it off) was attached to the bcd - but that is because i still have issues grabbing my snorkel instead of the inflator sometimes... I'm working on that!

Ill detach the inflator (the way I was taught in the first place) add a few pounds on a belt, and give it another shot.

Thanks for the replies!

if you did a weight check at the begining of the dive with a full tank and it was ok then you would need to add about 6lb in weight as you need to account for the weight of the gas you will use on the dive.

get rid of the snorkle.

2p

 

[SailJuliet]

Keep doing weight checks at the beginning of every dive for a while. Your profile says you have less that 24 dives, what I always tell new divers that come on board is that as you get more and more comfortable in the water, you'll be able to use less weight. For your comfort level right now, you need whatever it takes to pass your buoyancy check. But as you start to get used to that new suit, get used to diving in the cold water, get used to diving in general, you start to relax, hold less air in your lungs reflexively, and you'll be able to pare off a few pounds here and there. So don't think that what you're diving with now you'll be diving with forever, always be looking to see if you can shed some lead.

Also, do a buoyancy check at the end of your dive as well. That's when you'll be most buoyant as your tank is at its emptiest. If you find you're sinking with no air in your BCD while holding a normal breath at the end of your dive, drop 2 lbs for your next dive.

Good luck! ​

 

[TSandM]

As already said, you need what you need . . . but there ARE a few things to be careful of, before you decide to add weight. One is to make sure that you can actually fully vent your BC -- I see a lot of new divers who hold their inflator out in front of them but not up, and push the button on the end like crazy, but don't actually manage to dump much, if any gas. The other is to make sure that your breathing didn't change when you got a bit floaty; it's very easy to get worried about being light, and start holding a lot of air in your lungs, and get more buoyant because of it. In addition, if your problem was not being able to descend again, check your descent technique -- many new divers kick for stability when vertical at the surface, and kicking there drives you upward. In addition, it's common to push the deflate button and exhale at the same time; often, by the time your head gets underwater, you need to inhale again, and you get floaty.

The best way to do a weight check is to do it at the end of the dive, when all the air spaces in your wetsuit and BC have gotten filled with water. I like to do the weight check by lying on the bottom in three or four feet of water, and taking weight off (this, of course, requires that you have arranged your weights so that you CAN remove small amounts at a time) until I can't stay down any more. If you are using integrated weights, you can take a weight belt down with you, with two pound weights on it at regular, spaced intervals. Take out one of your weight pouches, and hold onto the end of the belt. The amount of weight you pull off the bottom is the amount you need to be neutral!

 

[ajduplessis]

The full AL80 did not help your case. Use near empty and make sure your BC is fully deflated.