Weight question?

[Charlie99]

I have been ending my dives with more air than I would like (1500psi, .........But with that much air in the tank I have not been able to get a good read on the results of an empty tank at the end of a dive.

If you are ending a dive with 1500psi, you can get a feeling of what your buoyancy would be like with 500psi or a near empty tank by passing 2 or 3 pounds of your lead off to your buddy. 80 cubic feet of air weighs about 6 pounds, or about 1 pound per 500psi of pressure in an AL80.

 

[kidspot]

or drain the tank down to 300-500psi at the end of your dive before exiting the water and check your bouyancy again... I do this about every 10th dive in the hopes that I can take some more weight off... so far I can't so I am at 18lbs in a full 3mil suit with hood, gloves and 7mil boots.

Aloha, Tim

P.S. I like gloves because I am prone to picking up things that tend to "poke" but not needed for warmth...

 

[friscuba]

This is actually a problem I am having locally. With no air in my BC and 24lbs integrated, I get about 6 inches below the surface and bob like a cork when I try to do a feet first descent. I have to do a swimming descent to get down some. Once I hit about 8 feet I seem to have no problem.

I wish I has more cold water diving as an experienced diver under my belt so I can speak with absolute authority on this, but I can say I suspect diving and weighting habits change when you use thicker neoprene.

I used to swim down in cold water (6.5 mil farmer john and jacket) a few feet and then sink like a rock once I got to 20' or so. Now think about this... I had a cheap wetsuit that was 13 mil at the surface, and significantly compressed by the time it hit 2ATM. That's a significant change in buoyancy. Now in warm water I'll wear a 3/2 or a 3 mil. The absolute max it can compress by the time I hit 2ATM is a mil to a mil and a half... not much of a change in buoyancy.

If you are diving in a 3 mil or less, an easy feet first descent will insure you won't be light at the end of the dive. If you are light at the start of the dive, it'll only get worse, and fairly shallow depths won't make the difference they do in a thick wetsuit.

later,