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diver 85
Contributor
Take Scuba lessons & learn..............otherwise you might DIE-------& it can be a s-l-o-w & painful death..............
Your question suggests you know your weight for fresh water. If that is the case and you are diving the EXACT same gear then divide your entire dry diver weight (You, suit, all gear, full tank, weights as you will be right before diving in) and divide by 40, and add that much. If you weight in at 240 you need to add 6 pounds as an example.
I your situation is not as I interpreted here is the deal:
Remember to set your weight so that you bob vertically at eye level at the end of your dive with an empty BC, an average breath, your feet still (crossed) and about 500 PSI in your cylinder. A deep breath should get your mask out of the water and a deep exhale should sink your mask. Do all of this while breathing from your regulator. The end of the dive is the defining moment for your weight requirement and you want just enough to let you stay down in the shallows with a light cylinder.
You can make the same test pre-dive with a full cylinder and add 5 pounds to compensate for the buoyancy gain you will experience as you breathe the tank down. Be sure to repeat at the end since you are apt to have some stowaway buoyancy (trapped air) in your gear early in the dive. You are safer being two pounds heavy than 2 pounds light.
Pete
I your situation is not as I interpreted here is the deal:
Remember to set your weight so that you bob vertically at eye level at the end of your dive with an empty BC, an average breath, your feet still (crossed) and about 500 PSI in your cylinder. A deep breath should get your mask out of the water and a deep exhale should sink your mask. Do all of this while breathing from your regulator. The end of the dive is the defining moment for your weight requirement and you want just enough to let you stay down in the shallows with a light cylinder.
You can make the same test pre-dive with a full cylinder and add 5 pounds to compensate for the buoyancy gain you will experience as you breathe the tank down. Be sure to repeat at the end since you are apt to have some stowaway buoyancy (trapped air) in your gear early in the dive. You are safer being two pounds heavy than 2 pounds light.
Pete
ronbeau
Contributor
I'd just add a small explanation to Pete's excellent answer to your posting.
The reason Pete says to divide you total weight (you and all your gear) by 40 and add that amount of weight is because salt water is 2.5% denser that fresh water. Therefore you will be 2.5% more buoyant is salt water than in fresh water.
1/40 = .025 = 2.5%
Out of curiosity didn't your instructor cover this during your Open Water training class? Are you currently taking an Open Water training class or are you already Open Water certified?
Also, what part of Massachusetts do you live in?
Last edited:
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