I normally dive in a 5mm jumpsuit. With no hood and no gloves, 12 lbs of lead works well for me in fresh water. I'm going to be doing some warmer water diving and may go sans wetsuit (or just a 3mm vest) for the first time. Anyone have thoughts on how much weight I should be able to shed? Since I've never dived like this, I don't have the slightest idea!!!!
Weighting with and without a wetsuit
- Thread starter froggs
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emcbride81
Contributor
Will it be salt water?
emcbride81
Contributor
Oh, your countdown timer says "yes" to that one. I normally use 14 for a 3mm shorty and only needed 10 with no suit, so 6-8ish maybe...try to get in a shore checkout dive to play around with it before getting on the boat if possible. You can try 8 or so on the first dive, see how it feels and then adjust for later dives.
konasdad
Contributor
According to the countdown timer it seems to be Puerto Vallarta on Sept 19th. If you are going on a boat dive I would think that the dive operator and/or the DM would "size you up" and give you some hints.
Last week I was diving in Hawaii and they use the 10% of your weight. I had a 3mm shorty and had 20# (200 lbs) which is also what I used in Maui in March. I probably could have gotten away with 18#. Since I am noob and these were shallow dive <40' this worked out fine.
-Mark-
Last week I was diving in Hawaii and they use the 10% of your weight. I had a 3mm shorty and had 20# (200 lbs) which is also what I used in Maui in March. I probably could have gotten away with 18#. Since I am noob and these were shallow dive <40' this worked out fine.
-Mark-
Charlie99
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You have a few changes going on. You need to sum them all up.
1. Fresh to salt --- add 6 pounds is a pretty good guess.
2. WETSUIT. 5mm to nothing --- grab your 5mm suit, put it in a mesh bag, and find out how much lead it takes to sink it. That, less a couple pound to account for the shallow depth of your test, is how many pounds of lead you subtract going to no wetsuit.
3. TANK. Don't forget that you may also be changing the type of tank. Most resort locations use AL80, which is about 4 pounds positively buoyancy. If you have been using some other tank, then you need to look up the spec for its Empty Buoyancy and compensate. For example, if you have been using a tank with -1 pound empty buoyancy, then going to an AL80 will require the addition of 5 pounds of lead.
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It's always better to be a few pounds heavy on the first dive. Resort areas are used to diving having to adjust weighting on their first dives and can usually accomodate you if you want to do a quick weight check before the first dive.
1. Fresh to salt --- add 6 pounds is a pretty good guess.
2. WETSUIT. 5mm to nothing --- grab your 5mm suit, put it in a mesh bag, and find out how much lead it takes to sink it. That, less a couple pound to account for the shallow depth of your test, is how many pounds of lead you subtract going to no wetsuit.
3. TANK. Don't forget that you may also be changing the type of tank. Most resort locations use AL80, which is about 4 pounds positively buoyancy. If you have been using some other tank, then you need to look up the spec for its Empty Buoyancy and compensate. For example, if you have been using a tank with -1 pound empty buoyancy, then going to an AL80 will require the addition of 5 pounds of lead.
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It's always better to be a few pounds heavy on the first dive. Resort areas are used to diving having to adjust weighting on their first dives and can usually accomodate you if you want to do a quick weight check before the first dive.
froggs:
Don't count on any dive master to size you up and divers and gear were not created to a formula.
First we need to translate what we do know to the ocean so lets say that you are between 240 and 320 pounds standing there before the dive with ALL of your gear. That diver would need to add between 6 and 8 pounds of weight. The heavier diver needs to add 8. This is pure physics since seawater in general is about 1/40 denser than fresh water. Reference the specific gravity of seawater is about 1.026.
So we now know that as you presently dive you will need 18-20 pounds in the ocean.
The next part gets squirrelly and it comes down to your wetsuit. If you can get it wet, stuff it in a mesh bag and get it into a pool, pond or even a big barrel you can see how much lead it takes to make it go neutral. If it floats and then sinks when you add one more 2 pound weight the answer is in between, you judge.
As a ballpark reference my 5mm Bare Velocity represents 10 pounds of weight.
Based on you information and my suit it looks like 8-10 pounds depending on your weight. This all assumes that you are diving an aluminum 80 at home, the dominant resort cylinder or otherwise the same cylinder.
The vest, depending on what it is will probably be in the 2-4 pound range.
Pete
Thanx for all the good info. Although I like the idea of weighing down the wetsuit with lead to get a good estimate, I won't be able to do that before my trip. I had already assumed about 4-6 pounds of added weight going from fresh to salt and from what it sounds, I should be able to easily drop that without my wetsuit. I'll probably try my first dive with 10-12 pounds and go from there!!!! 
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