Weights

[TSandM]

One of my friends refers to my transformation from dry land human to scuba diver as going from "Twiggy to Piggy". When you wear the equivalent of a down sleeping bag into the water, you need a lot of lead to sink. I'm 5'4" and 120 lbs, and I use 31 pounds of ballast with a single, steel tank.

Cold water diving. You gotta want it.

 

[Tristan.ak]

yep thats about right, for me warm tropics or pools I need zero lead, but with drysuit in a pool still zero. When it comes to cold water I have to have at least 24lbs of lead.

 

[RonFrank]

One needs what they need. I use 15# when diving dry fresh. But I am also using a 12# plate/STA. That's about 32# in salt and in fact in CA I was using 20# of weight plus the plate/STA which equals 32#. People wonder why cold water diving is harder. It's partly because the water is cold, but a big part is because your diving with so much more everything. Drysuit, drysuit UW, socks, hood, gloves, and weight, it's a PITA.

 

[gmanstan]

I dive "wet" so 'm in 9mm of neoprene , I know some who do 7mm +3 -5mm more (vest or farmer j). You need rubber to stay warm, weight to stay down. It makes entries and exits a lot more energy taxing, but some like me don't know any other way, and other just do it because once your in it is its own reward.

 

[aquaregia]

Yeah, in shorts with an AL80 I wear 4#. In my drysuit that's closer to 28#. There's a huge difference based on thermal protection.

 

[Lorenzoxs]

Almost all of my early dives were California coast or alpine lakes, using 5-10mm of neoprene, and I learned that I had to be a little heavy at first to avoid being too light at the end. I finally made it to Grand Cayman and dived in just a T-shirt. The dive boat operator asked how much weight I needed, and I figured about 16-18 pounds. "Oh, that's way too heavy!" he said, and handed me 14 pounds. As the dive ended and my tank emptied, I had to swim down to stay down. Eventually, my safety stop at 15 feet became a moot point, as with my BC empty and swimming down my feet broke the surface. No harm done, but it was my job to say "18 pounds, please!"

 

[Culcuhain]

with a 3/2, no hood, no glove, 5mm boots, al80, my back inflate bcd I am negative in fresh water. even with the tank empty. I am 5'6" and 198 right about 30% body fat (and dropping!).

 

[Guyotron]

I'm 6'2", 185# and 22% body fat. Freshwater with a 7mm farmer john and jacket, AL80, back inflate BCD, 5mm boots I need 28 pounds. Went diving in Jamaica last week and the DM looked at me and said '14 pounds', and it worked. First time in saltwater. With a 3mm shortie, same 5mm boots and BCD and an AL80 I needed no air in my BCD at all to maintain bouyancy. Switched to a lycra rashguard and I'd need three tiny shots of air in the BCD before reaching bottom. Held the safety stops without issue whether wearing the shortie or rashguard.

 

[yarik83]

I am 28 years old. 5'8" and weigh 148.8 lbs. 24% body fat. I always dive with a 1mm suit, have a bunch of gear hanging all over me (spare air, underwater camera, 2nd octo, dive knife etc). It takes me 18lbs to sink in salt water. I actually need 16lbs but at 1000psi left in my tank I shoot up like a cork so I overweight myself in advance. To avoid wasting my air constantly inflating and deflating to compensate for buoyancy I have gotten to the point where I sink like a stone and give myself 6 puffs of air into my BC. Every 15 minutes I let 1 puff out.

I theorized on my buoyancy dilemma for a very long time and only thing I can come up with is the fact that I think I have a funky body composition which prevents me from sinking. Even in the pool in my swim trunks I cant sink below 6ft even if my life depended on it.

My policy is this: its better to overweigh and not have to worry about it than to jump in the water, discover that you cant sink and hold everyone up while trying to properly weigh yourself. Or even worse... halfway through your dive you start popping up like a cork.

I have seen some dive masters in Cozumel grab grocery bags with them and loading themselves up towards midpoint of the dive with sea sand and letting everything out during surface interval.

 

[aquaregia]

How do you figure out your percentage of body fat? What's a high amount and what's a low amount?

Edit: I followed Wikipedia's BMI-based fat calculator and got 17%, but it felt like shenanigans.