Weighting on my doubles

[David P]

Ultimately you will need to go into the water with your doubles, and do a buoyancy check with them at 250 psi (almost empty, within the accuracy of your gauge) in the tanks. At this psi level, you will want to be neutrally buoyant, and weighted accordingly. You will be surprised how little weight that requires.

I *sorta* disagree with this. Normally everyone tells you to empty your wing and have minimal air in your drysuit when performing a weight check, however you are in doubles, doubles mean you plan on staying down a long time, possibly deco. In deco you dont move, so you get colder, a little extra blast of air can help you stay a little warmer. So you may want to be just a lb or 2 overweighted for comfort.

 

[danbartus]

I have been diving my doubles and its only when I switched to a heavy undergarmet that i am having issues. I dont need much, with an AL backplate and an 8lb keel weight I am heavy so as a first cut a SS backplate and 4 lbs on my waist will probably work. But I still need to check on an empty tank (good idea). I like the weight pockets in that I have more control, where as the keel weight is more of course weighting.

 

[nereas]

I *sorta* disagree with this. Normally everyone tells you to empty your wing and have minimal air in your drysuit when performing a weight check, however you are in doubles, doubles mean you plan on staying down a long time, possibly deco. In deco you dont move, so you get colder, a little extra blast of air can help you stay a little warmer. So you may want to be just a lb or 2 overweighted for comfort.

I must respectfully disagree with your disagreement.

You have forgotten that normally you will be keeping your tanks 1/3 full (rule of thirds), and this extra weight (200 cu ft x 0.08 lbs/cu-ft x 1/3) equals 5 additional pounds. And you can normally fill your drysuit up more to account for this 5 lbs.

 

[danbartus]

YEAY, I have cool BLACK, JETS. Good heavy manly flippers... Before I get flamed, I know I know, FINS!!!!!

 

[David P]

I must respectfully disagree with your disagreement.

You have forgotten that normally you will be keeping your tanks 1/3 full (rule of thirds), and this extra weight (200 cu ft x 0.08 lbs/cu-ft x 1/3) equals 5 additional pounds. And you can normally fill your drysuit up more to account for this 5 lbs.

TRUE! (well I didn't forget, but the rest is true) but with that way of thinking, we only need to do a weight check with 1/3 full tank, because we "normally" surface with thirds and rarely empty. I thought we did this check with empty tanks in case the doo doo hits the fan and all our planning flys out the window.

 

[PerroneFord]

our planning flys out the window.

Exactly. You do NOT want to be in an overhead and unable to stay off the ceiling when you have a low-on-air emergency. Or trying to stay down on deco when you've had to burn through your gas taking care of some other problem.

I do my weight checks with empty tanks, an empty BC, and a drysuit with the squeeze off me. In fact, it might be best to atually do a weightcheck without your gear on, just the drysuit and see what it takes to sink that bad boy. That way, if you have to ditch gear at depth, you won't become a rocket and get pinned to the ceiling.

 

[nereas]

His tech instructor will need to help him sort through ideal neutral buoyancy.

I do not advocate nor recommend under-weighting yourself by doing your buoyancy check with your tanks 1/3 full.

I recommend 250 psi.

 

[TSandM]

I also found out the hard way that, if you are precisely neutral at the end of a dive, it's impossible to put any downward traction on the line to your SMB to get it to stand up and be visible. I now weight about 2 lbs negative with minimal gas, for that reason.

 

[nereas]

YEAY, I have cool BLACK, JETS. Good heavy manly flippers... Before I get flamed, I know I know, FINS!!!!!

OK, sounds good, very macho, I stand corrected!

 

[Ironman]

This is more a general tech question. I am going to start my tec level 1 class and i have been messing around with weighting. I have been using a keel weight, its a little on the heavy side so I plan on swapping to a SS backplate and use some weight pockets on my waist belt (approx 2lbs each side). Is that a acceptable idea or are is there a better way. Trying to avoid a weight belt.

Clarify the question. On one hand, it sounds like the problem is that you feel you have too much weight. So, people are responding by talking about how to do a proper doubles weight check, suggesting that you stay a little more negative than you might ordinarily do, etc. Reasonable responses. But, your own proposed solution appears to be redistributing the weight, while also reducing it. So, is your problem total weight? Is it your trim with a heavy keel weight? Is it both?

My sense is your question involves distribution of weight, not total weight. If that is the case, you can stick your weight wherever your want to, as long as it works for you. It sounds like the only NO-NO is a weight belt.