JamesBon92007
Contributor
- Messages
- 3,209
- Reaction score
- 1,305
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
I'm assuming that "with rainbow reef" is a dive op. In my experience, if someone tells the DM on a dive boat that they are not sure about how much lead they need, the DM will often give them what he thinks they need and possibly carry an extra couple of pounds of lead just in case. You can also figure that with a steel tank you'll need (generally speaking) about 4-5 pounds less lead than with an AL80. I'm a medium-sized guy and with my 5mm super-stretch suit I need about 26 pounds of lead with an AL80 in salt water. So far I've always needed a little more than what they think I should need and a few times they gave me less than I told them I needed and I had a hard time doing the safety stop (3 minutes with empty lungs etc). Given the choice I'd much rather start out a little bit overweighted than underweighted and adjust as needed for the next dive. For comparison, in my 2.5mm full suit I need 17 pounds of lead with an AL80 in salt water. Needless to say, I always add up the weights now before I jump off the boat